fall 2015 newsletter - science travels€¦ · newsletter fall 2015 . page | 2 fall 2015 science...

Page | 1 Fall 2015 Science Travels

exceeded our outreach goal this semester by reaching over 3000 students! During our travels, we visited past favourites including Eastmain, Moosonee, and even made a return to one of our very first destinations back in 2006, Iroquois Falls. Yet, this semester also marks our first visit to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, where our volunteers were overwhelmed by the welcome they received from the educators and community members upon arrival. As we continue to expand our outreach efforts this coming Spring, we hope we can continue sharing our love of science to new and old faces once again.

s another year comes to a close, we are proud to announce that we have TABLE OF CONTENTS

Fall 2015, By the Numbers 2

Activity Summary 3

Moosonee & Moose Factory 4

Eastmain & Waskaganish 5

Rankin Inlet 6

Cochrane District 7

Photos from Across the Map 8

Who Are We? 9

A

Newsletter Fall 2015


Moosonee, ON

Moose Factory, ON

Phoebe Ampaw Julia Kirby

Peter Feige Kaitlin Town

Bishop Belleau School Moosonee Public School

Northern Lights Secondary School Delores D. Echum Composite School

Ministik School

Eastmain, QC

Waskaganish, QC

Veronika Cencen Colleen Cornett

Fatou Sarr Justin Whitaker

Wabannutao Eeyou School Wiinibekuu School

Annie Whiskeychan Memorial School

Rankin, NU Eliza Ali

Renée Nelson

Leo Ussak Elementary School Maani Ulujuk Illinniarvik School

Simon Alaittuq School

Kapuskasing, ON

Cochrane, ON

Iroquois Falls, ON

William Chen Sebastian

Hadjiantoniou Linda Mouhamou

Marina Torreblanca

St. Patrick School Kapuskasing District High School

Kapuskasing Frienship Centre Aileen Wright English Catholic School

Cochrane Public School Iroquois Falls Secondary School

École Secondaire L’Alliance

Fall 2015, By the Numbers

14 outreach volunteers

175 workshops delivered at 18 educational centres, including elementary

schools, high schools, and native friendship centres.

8 communities visited in Ontario, Nunavut and

Quebec.


T o start the Fall semester off right, we

delivered educational workshops to a total of 3178 students, in 169 classrooms.

Activity Summary

A ll of our volunteers worked

tremendously hard to prepare for and deliver a wide range of science activities this semester. Thank you to all of them for their hard work, and thank you to the teachers and students for inviting us into their schools to present!

175 Workshops

34 Unique science activities, including topics in chemistry, programming and molecular biology


Peter Feige

“The volunteers were knowledgeable and enthusiastic. They brought out much excitement in

my students.” – Teacher in Moosonee

Moosonee & Moose Factory, Ontario

year old students yelled in unison, blocking the hall between classes.

“Hey guys, do you remember what’s in your blood that makes it red?” “That’s easy,” said a few. “Rust!” yelled some.

The pride they took in their knowledge was endearing. The bell rings and we leave to our next class.

“Mr. Blood! Mr. Blood!” sixteen nine year old students yell running down the hall. “Hey guys, do you remember the clear liquid in…” “Plasma!” a few children yelled excitedly.

This game continued between classes for the rest of the day where the students remembered everything from how antibodies smell out the bad guys to how white blood cells help gobble them up. Whatever doubts I had about our teaching were long gone.

“M r. Blood! Mr. Blood!” sixteen nine


were fortunate enough to go on the adventure of a lifetime; a week of presenting science and engineering-related activities to indigenous school children and youth in the tiny Cree towns of Eastmain and Waskaganish.

Although our flight to Eastmain was very pleasant and we experienced what were the most ideal flying conditions, an unexpected overload on the plane meant that we had to wait a few days for the luggage carrying some of our activities to arrive; this also meant spending most of our evening planning how we could adapt the activities using our limited supplies. This snag in our plans wasn’t all that bad though, as it kept us indoors on quite a cold night. Using the Chemistry Magic Show kit as our go-to backup turned out to be very enjoyable for all grade levels, and for us too!

When we were not in the classrooms, we were excited to take some time to experience the Eastmain community, including exploring the youth and recreation centre, a large and modern fitness and sports complex, and the ever-famous Northern store. It didn’t take long into our trip before we experienced the beauty of mother nature; on the second evening, we witnessed the Aurora Borealis right at the beach next to our hotel, and a sideshow of a full sky of twinkling stars on a clear night, untainted by light pollution.

It was difficult to leave a place that after just two days, offered us the pleasures of nature and excitement of students, but we were also curious about and willing to accept the new challenges that awaited us at the next location – the (slightly) larger town of Waskaganish.

To maximize the amount of time we could

spend on the activities in Waskaganish, we decided to hold the activities in a few central locations: the lobby and the gym at the elementary school, and the science labs at the high school. We were also fortunate to be provided accommodations at the then-vacant local doctors’ home, which just happened to be across the field from the schools!

In Waskaganish, our free time was spent with the locals, either being shown around town, dining at the community tee-pee, or listening to special guest speaker lectures. By the end of our stay, we were almost sorry that we ended up catching the plane home!

Veronika Cencen

“I like science! This was so cool and interesting, come back again!” – Student in Waskaganish

D uring the week of November 14th to 20th, we (Colleen, Fatima, Justin and Veronika)

Eastmain & Waskaganish, Quebec


Rankin Inlet! We were both so excited for our new adventure as Science Travels volunteers. Rankin Inlet is a bustling town and once we arrived we got down to business teaching at the three schools.

Our first stop was the high school, Manni Ulujuk Illinniarvik where we both helped a keen group of students jump start their science projects about bacterial growth in different parts of their school. We engaged the students and taught them about trial and error as we worked together to create luria agar plates to grow their samples. Afterwards, with the grade 9 class, I gave them an introductory lesson about parallel

F rom November 21st to 28th, Renee and I headed our way up north…way north to

Eliza Ali

“Observing my students’ engagement and willingness to participate – they loved the hands

on approach. Thank you for your time!” – Teacher in Rankin Inlet

Rankin Inlet, Nunavut

and series circuits and the students teamed up to draw out the different circuits and build them. The most memorable moment was doing the Germs Kit with the grade 8 class and seeing their reactions during the pandemic activity when many of them were ‘infected’ with a mysterious virus.

At the primary school, Leo Ussak School and at the secondary school, Simon Alaittuq School, every single student had a blast with the Chemistry Magic Demonstration. They loved making slime out of borax and glue and watching in anticipation for one of the baking soda and vinegar rockets to blast off. All the students were amazed how the carbon dioxide in their breath turned the pink basic solution clear. Let’s just say the students of Rankin Inlet were very inspired after watching and doing cool science activities.

Exploring Rankin Inlet was such a treat and there were many surprises. First and foremost, the Tim Horton’s was a sweet spot for us to grab ourselves some coffee, donuts and hot chocolate which was conveniently located at the Northern Store (which by far was the biggest we’ve seen!). In the middle of the town we had the chance to take a picture with the giant inuksuk which was on top of a hill. Since we were so far up north, Renee and I experienced shorter days and longer nights as well as chilly temperatures ranging from -45°C to -56°C every single day. What was a nice surprise was eating Thai food at the Wild Wolf Restaurant. We also were ecstatic when we spotted the Northern Lights dancing right above us and we both checked this off of our bucket list! The community members and teachers that we met throughout the week were so warm and welcoming and hoped that Science Travels could come back in 2016.


“This was so cool to experience, especially because it’s the first time I got to see a robot in

action. I love science and now I love it even more.” – Student in Kapuskasing

T he excitement of our journey to the Kapuskasing, Cochrane, and Iroquois Falls

area began before we even departed. Because this was my first Science Travels trip, it was a little nerve-racking not knowing what to expect. But, with the support of my team (Marina, Sebastian and William), two who were Science Travels veterans, my mind was eased to the idea. Not only would I get to experience communities to which I had never been before, but I would get to share in the enthusiasm of students as they learn new scientific concepts in a fun and interactive way. On our first night, our team bonded quickly as we spent hours preparing the robotics activity for the next day. Our efforts paid off when, the next morning we were greeted with excited students ready to learn. Every kid, no matter their age or sex, loved the idea of battling Legos sumo-style for the chance at the ultimate bragging rights and champion title!

It was fantastic to see how excited the students were to learn just about any topic, including natural selection, germs and healthy hearts. In one classroom all of the students had just done an entire unit on the heart and seemed to know just as much as us! Sebastian and I had to alter the presentation to keep up with these clever kids. We even gave them a chance to use their iPads to check their pulse with a downloadable application and had them test out just how hard the heart works.

My absolute favourite group to teach was a small group of special needs high school students. Marina and I had the chance to really bond with each student and make a connection. One of the workshops we presented to this group was Germs, which had almost all of them scared of what was to come. At first when we pulled out the UV light, “ooh”s and “aww”s resonated through the room. When we used a

special powder to illustrate germ contact, they all realized just how easily germs could spread. It took quite a while for us to reassure them that the powders weren’t actual germs, but it certainly gave them a good lesson on the importance of washing hands!

Come the last night of the trip, we were all ready to go back home to a snowless city to get some rest after an exhausting week. But, of course, it was still a bittersweet moment having to say goodbye to each other and to such an amazing experience. As we ended the week, it was reading the student and teacher surveys that reminded us of our impact during the week and just how much our presence was appreciated!

Cochrane District, Ontario

Linda Mouhamou


Photos From Across the Map


Contact Us!

Christina Thomsen

Program Manager

Room 304 Tabaret Hall University of Ottawa 550 Cumberland Street Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Tel: 613-562-5800 x 2909 Fax: 613-562-5285

[email protected]

Science Travels is funded by an NSERC PromoScience grant, and support from AirCreebec & CalmAir and the

following uOttawa programs: Student Academic Success Services, Aboriginal Resource

Centre, Administration Committee, and the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Medicine and the Center for Global and

Community Engagement.

Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden

Barb is the founder and director of Science Travels. She provides guidance to the program through a veritable wealth of experience in science outreach.

Ana Gargaun

Ana is the Kits Coordinator. Ana ensures that all volunteers are trained on their activities and that they leave with all the supplies needed for a successful voyage.

Christina Thomsen

Christina is the Science Travels Program Manager. She takes care of travel arrangements, communications, staffing the trips, and day-to-day operations.

Who Are We?

fall 2015 newsletter - science travels€¦ · newsletter fall 2015 . page | 2 fall 2015 science...

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