Hack and Seek challenges students to think virtually

By Lethbridge Herald on May 3, 2025.

Herald Photo by Alexandra Noad Anamaria Turk, applied research operations officer for Spatial Technology and Applied Research and Training (START), poses with a virtuall reality headset prior to this years Hack and Seek event held at Lethbridge Polytecnic.

Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

For the second year, Lethbridge Polytechnic will be hosting Hack-and-Seek, a beat-the-clock virtual reality (VR) event for high school students.

Hack-and-seek participants will be working in teams of three to create a VR experience from scratch in three days. About 68 students will be participating in this challenge at three locations-Lethbridge Polytechnic, SAIT and NAIT, with the polytechnic hosting 20 of the participants.

This will be Cooper Horne’s second crack at this event, after placing second last year. He says he was a little nervous coming into this, but came out with new friendships formed.

“Last year I was a little bit nervous because I didn’t know how good I was going to be compared to everyone else, but it was a lot less about comparison and more talking to everyone and seeing what was out there and what everyone came up with.”

Horne is one of six returning participants, something Anamaria Turk, applied research operations officer for Spatial Technology and Applied Research and Training (START), says is very exciting to see.

“It’s really nice to see that they’ve really got something out of the event and they really want to come back and go back at it again.”

Turk says while this experience will give them hands-on experience and a project to show for it afterwards, it’s also teaching them skills such as teamwork, which are equally important.

She adds that the kids won’t know their teammates until the event and they work as a team throughout the event.

The final results of Hack-and-Seek will be filmed on Sunday and posted to the Lethbridge Polytechnic’s YouTube channel.