Youth Council STEAM Exhibition
STEAM education is an approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics. STEAM takes STEM to the next level: it allows students to connect their learning with art practices, elements, design principles, and standards to provide the whole pallet of learning at their disposal.
The WISEST Youth Council created a STEAM art exhibition to showcase amazing STEAM projects designed by high school students across ֱ. In the 2024 exhibition, we had 8 hardworking participants that created projects ranging from a watercolour collage that demonstrated bacteriophages’ ability to kill bacteria to landscaping a spring renewal scenery to advocate for climate change.
The STEAM Exhibition continued for a second year, featuring 12 incredible high school students from across Canada. The highlight of the 2025 STEAM Exhibition is how many different mediums were used. There was a song, sculptures, portraits that included the digits of pi, and more.
The students showcased their projects in a virtual exhibition held in late April and the judges selected a first-place winner, second-place winner, and two third-place winners whose projects are displayed below. Congratulations to everyone who participated!
2025 1st Place Winner
“A Peek Inside”
Elizabeth MacMullin
Town: Coaldale, AB
High School: Prairie Winds Secondary
Project Description:
"My work is about the struggles of anorexia nervosa portrayed by a brain with hands holding what those who have the struggle fear most: food. My artwork reveals what the inside of the brain is thinking when an individual has anorexia through pH strips that have written thoughts on them."
2025 2nd Place Winner
“Pi-oneering Mind: Katherine Johnson”
Julia Kim
Town: Edmonton, AB
High School: Harry Ainlay High School
Project Description:
“This portrait of Katherine Johnson is created entirely from the digits of pi, honouring her extraordinary contributions to mathematics and space exploration through her precise calculations of orbital mechanics. By combining art with the mathematical constant, this piece celebrates Johnson’s resilience and perseverance as a Black woman mathematician, and depicts the infinite potential of women in
STEM fields.”
2025 3rd Place Winners
“Missing Pieces”
Kendalea Franklin
Town: Beaumont, AB
High School: École Secondaire Beaumont Composite
Project Description:
“My project is an 18” by 24” mixed media piece that represents the way they use DNA, blood typing, finger prints, forensic sketches, and bones to identify not only victims but suspects as well.”
"The Long Lasting Effects of Social Trauma: how social anxiety can affect you mentally and physically"
Anita Liang
Town: Calgary, AB
High School: Dr. EP Scarlett High School
Project Description:
“My project is about how social anxiety can feel like and how this can affect you mentally and physically. It connects to science because within the project I've added references to parts of the body and brain that are affected by social anxiety and causes like trauma that contributes to it.”
2024 Winner
"Growth Amidst the Darkness: Renewal and Recovery from Depression"
Sara Kam
Town: St. Paul, ֱ
High School: St. Paul Regional High School
Project Description: Depression, despite being one of the most common mental illnesses in the world, is often greatly misunderstood. Because of this, I decided to represent depression’s effect on the brain artistically as a way to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health. This brain is a direct rendition of what a depressed mind looks like on a PET scan: increased blues, followed by decreased whites and warm-toned colors, represent lowered brain activity. The contrasting colors of the flowers appear on the scan of a healthy brain, representing the resilience within the mind of someone with depression, just like how flowers thrive in adverse conditions. In conclusion, understanding and accepting mental illness as a legitimate health concern can dismantle the embarrassment around it, prompt earlier intervention, and ultimately save lives.
2024 Runner-Up
“The Small Things, and the Big Picture”
Tanya Wang
City: Calgary, ֱ
High School: Dr. E. P. Scarlett
Project Description: For my project, I really wanted to embody the things I love about biology, so I made microbe art paintings out of bacteria I grew at home. At school, I never really take much personal interest in the things we learn, but in biology class, I always find myself genuinely engaged and interested in the topics that we cover. I especially really liked learning about the body systems and all of the millions of tiny things our bodies do every day just to go through our daily lives. So, for my project, I wanted to show how the small things can make up a beautiful bigger picture, hence the name, "The Small Things, and the Big Picture".
2024 Runner-Up
“Strokes of Biochemical Brilliance: A Portrait of Dorothy Hodgkin”
Helena Atkinson
City: Beaumont, ֱ
High School: Ecole Secondaire Beaumont Composite High School
Project Description: My project is a portrait of Dorothy Hodgkin, world renowned chemist and first British woman to win a Nobel Prize. Using cabbage juice as a biochemical pH indicator mixed with an array of substances as my media in a “watercolour” style, I believe I captured my vast interests within chemistry, biology, and art; along with showcasing Dorothy and the advances she has made in the science community. Like Cyril Norman Hinshelwood said, “Chemistry: that most excellent child of intellect and art,” this quote represents to me the beauty and magic of chemistry that Dorothy, myself, and many others find so fascinating. I hope to spread the message that all women in STEM have the potential and deserve to be celebrated, especially if they are under credited or not as well known like Dorothy Hodgkin.