Shy-Anne Piche took the gold in the electronics skills competition in Kelowna and she’ll be going to the provincials in Abbotsford. Here she shows a circuit board she had to put together that flashes green and red LED lights. (Richard McGuire photo)
Shy-Anne Piche, a Grade 11 student at Osoyoos Secondary School, isn’t surprised that girls did better than boys at a recent regional electronics competition.
Piche captured a gold medal recently in the competition at Okanagan University College (OUC) in Kelowna, and her teammate Flor Rivas took silver.
Both girls will be going to the Provincial Skills Canada B.C. Competition in Abbotsford on April 5.
Jagger Estby, also from OSS, took the bronze in the electronics competition.
Normally only the gold winner in the regional competition goes on to the provincials, but Rivas is allowed to go because the Kootenay district didn’t have a representative going and they offered OSS their spot.
Antonio Mora took silver in cabinetmaking, but won’t go to the provincials.
“His work was almost identical to the gold medalist,” said Tech Instructor Ivor Langley. “He’s a Grade 11 student, so I’m expecting that he’ll go back and have another shot at winning it next year. He has the skills to do well at the provincials. He’s a very good woodworker.”
OSS is also sending three robotics students to the provincials as well.
Kai Czabany, Cole Kress and Kody Kriese will represent their teams in a sumo robot competition. Their teammates Raistlyn Palmateer and Seth Viera also participated in Kelowna, but only one player per team goes to the provincials.
The students built small robots that do battle and try to knock each other out of the ring.
Other OSS competitors in Kelowna were Alex Brunner, who competed in the junior woodworking skills competition and Cole Rezka, who competed in cabinetmaking.
Piche, the student who took gold in electronics, had to build circuit boards in her competition, as well as reverse engineer a diagram of a circuit board and draw a schematic.
One of the circuit boards, which used jumpers to make different frequencies show on a scope, required soldering.
“It was based on neatness for the circuit board,” she said. “It was how your wires were cut and if they were straight and you could see everything perfectly.”
Langley says it’s not unusual for girls to do better in the electronics competition.
“Electronics is a different skill set than the rest of our courses,” said Langley. “It’s very precise and girls seem to have a good aptitude for that. The guys, they just don’t seem to have that level of preciseness. The girls are very careful and very meticulous.”
Asked if she agrees with her instructor that girls do better than boys at electronics, Piche responds: “I would hope so. We pay attention more and we can multitask.”
When it comes to multitasking, Piche is a girl with many talents.
She had a role as a feather duster in the OSS drama club’s play Beauty and the Beast.
She dances, sings and enjoys art classes where she draws and paints.
“I’m usually the only girl in our wood shops,” he says. “I’ve done it since Grade 8.”
Piche hasn’t narrowed down what she wants to do after high school.
“Something that involves arts, with drawing or I could go into carpentry, because I am good at what I do,” she said.
She hasn’t ruled out electronics.
“I’m trying to open as many doors as I can right now,” she said.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
A number of Osoyoos Secondary School students competed in a recent skills competition in Kelowna and some are going to the provincials in Abbotsford. From left are: Shy-Anne Piche, Kai Czabany, Alex Brunner, Antonio Mora, Ivor Langley (teacher), Raistlyn Palmatter, Cole Rezka, Seth Viera and Cole Kress. (Richard McGuire photo)
