Students from across Alberta will be making their way to Ponoka Secondary High School today, to attend a conference led by students for students.

For the third year, Wolf Creek Public Schools are supporting Youth Tech Nation, which sees students from grade 4 to 12 present to other students on different topics related to technology.  

Last year’s topics included wevideo, green screen effects, time management using apps and online safety.  

Grade 10 student at Lacombe Composite High School, Noah Berreth said the conference gives students a different learning experience.

“We spend so much time being taught by teachers and it’s the same thing, we have 12 years of it,” Berreth said.

“I think any student can relate that sometimes being lectured by an adult gets kind of boing, whereas if you have someone engaging and different, you’ll remember it differently.”  

Berreth will also be one of the presenters this year and will be teaching students how to make simple circuits using playdough.

Vincent Stephenson who is also a grade 10 student at LCHS, said he will be giving a presentation on 3D animation.

“I hope that students get more interested in creative writing because with animation you have to have scripts and models, all of which has to be done by hand,” Stephenson said.

“I hope that they learn to get more creative with their thinking.”

Emcee Alexa Freitag who is also a grade 10 student at LCHS, said this year’s hot topic is video editing.

“I think it’s great for students to have that career option, to be able to edit these videos and learn how to use green screen effects and different animations in order to help present their ideas in a different way,” Freitag said.  

“It creates a whole new option for how students want to do their school projects as well.”

The conference will take place from 9am-3pm and will be the first year that the keynote speaker is also a student.