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KIRKLAND LAKE — When Dan Kurz began teaching at Kirkland Lake District Composite School (KLDCS) in 2006, he didn’t imagine a robotics lab taking over the school library.
But 20 years into his teaching career, that vision has not only taken shape, it’s led his students to a national gold medal.
Grade 12 student Liam McBean and his teammate Iurii Kovalev recently took first place in the robotics category at the Skills Canada National Competition in Regina, Sask., marking a milestone for both the school and Northern Ontario.
The win is the result of years of innovation, experimentation, and persistence, much of it taking place in a space known as the Greenhouse, Kurz said.
“It’s still a library,” he said. “Just the content we’re curating isn’t books, it’s tools.”
The Greenhouse, established in 2018, grew out of the former school library and has since transformed into a fully outfitted maker space. It features everything from embroidery and vinyl cutting machines to 3D printers, laser cutters, and a robotics lab. There’s even a small recording studio.
“It has kind of morphed into a library filled with technology for kids to experiment with and innovate,” Kurz said.
“It serves my classes, but students from all over the school come in here and do stuff.”
More than a workspace, the Greenhouse promotes hands-on, self-directed learning, a shift Kurz believes mirrors the historical role libraries played in offering students access to information beyond the classroom.
McBean first got involved in robotics in Grade 9 during a pandemic-disrupted school year.
“I was in one of Mr. Kurz’s computer science classes, and we had these weird quad-mesters,” said the 17-year-old.
“There was lots of time to develop projects. That’s really where it started.”
Over the next four years, McBean competed at the provincial level (Skills Ontario) with near misses — finishing third in Grade 11 — before finally striking gold nationally this year alongside his teammate, Kovalev, who immigrated from Russia last year.
“We call him our Russian engineer,” McBean said with a laugh. “We put a crazy idea on the board and he makes it work.”
Engineering a win
For the national competition, McBean and Kovalev built a pair of robots designed to compete in a snowball-themed mobile robotics game, where teams scoredhad to score points by launching snowballs, building snow forts, and protecting virtual snowmen.
“Most of the teams stick with the basic components from the robotics kits,” said Kurz.
“But these guys manufactured most of their robots from scratch — 3D printed parts, custom frames, even using relay boards to expand functionality beyond what the standard hardware allows.”
Their victory, said Kurz, wasn’t luck, it was the result of countless hours of trial, error, and testing.
“They worked really, really hard,” he said. “They learned from their mistakes every year, kept coming back, and earned it.”
For McBean, the win is about more than just hardware or medals.
“I think it’s awesome. Many people say we don’t really have the opportunity up here to participate in such events,” he said.
“So I’m really happy to put a small northern town on the map.”
The pair represented Ontario against nearly every province and territory except Quebec and Nunavut, with their efforts standing out for both technical complexity and engineering creativity.
Kurz said the Greenhouse is also inspiring educators across the region. Schools like Timiskaming District Secondary School and Timmins High and Vocational School are developing similar maker spaces.
“But unless you have someone with a vision to run with it, it doesn’t always catch on,” Kurz said. “We’ve been lucky.”
What’s next?
McBean is heading to Queen’s University in the fall to study engineering, having earned the $48,000 Chancellor’s Scholarship. He leaves behind a growing robotics program that he helped shape as a co-op student and team leader.
Kurz hopes to continue expanding the Greenhouse with technologies like virtual and game development, while also bringing more adults into the fold to support student-led projects.
As for the robotics team, only McBean is graduating, Kurz said.
“The rest of the team will be around. I think it’s going to keep growing,” he said.
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