A total of 17 students attended the Kivalliq Regional Science Fair at Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet from March 29-31.
Attending the fair were four students from Rankin Inlet, four from Arviat and one from Baker Lake in addition to the eight students from the host Chesterfield Inlet.
Kivalliq Science Educators' Community (KSEC) president Glen Brocklebank said the event went extremely well.
This year marked the largest participation of students at the regional level since before the Covid outbreak, he said.
SA国际影视传媒淭his past year we had two participants from Baker Lake and eight from Chesterfield Inlet,SA国际影视传媒� said Brocklebank. SA国际影视传媒淪o it was good to have more representation from the communities this year.
SA国际影视传媒淓ventually, we want to get back to having 32 participants and all seven communities represented at the fair. Right now we're still rebuilding our capacity.SA国际影视传媒�
The theme of this year's science fair SA国际影视传媒� selected by the host school SA国际影视传媒� was traditional knowledge on the cutting edge of science.
Brocklebank said this year's participants all learned how to make a pana (a snow knife) and a sealskin sheath to protect the cutting devices.
He said the students then made an iglu with the blocks they cut.
SA国际影视传媒淛olene Ippiak was our expert seamstress and she was helping them sew.
SA国际影视传媒淢oving forward with the science fair, I would rather carry on the tradition of having it move around rather than having it held in the same location every year. I'm a big proponent of having it in different communities because, number one, the host community gets to enter eight participants.
SA国际影视传媒淪o, each school would be able to enter more participants from their community, and I think it's a benefit for the host community to see what other schools are producing for their science fair projects.SA国际影视传媒�
Brocklebank said Covid may have wiped out a little bit of student enthusiasm for the science fair as a result of not holding one from 2020 until 2023.
The science fair is still massive in Chesterfield Inlet, however, so Victor Sammurtok students have maintained a high standard for their science projects, according to Brocklebank.
SA国际影视传媒淭here have been a lot of great projects come out of our region SA国际影视传媒� projects that have won bronze medals and honorable mentions at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. I would say, this year, Chester participants sort of set the standard of what were really high-level projects.
SA国际影视传媒淭he past two years, all the participants for the Canada-wide fair have come from Chester, but, this year, we have two students from Chester and one from Baker Lake representing us.SA国际影视传媒�
Brocklebank said there have been a lot of new science teachers come into the Kivalliq region recently who KSEC just hasn't been able to connect with.
He said there have been a lot of great educators involved with KSEC in the past because they were able to get together often at the science camp and meeting through the science fair. But, he added, because there's been gaps in communities participating in those events recently, they haven't been able to recruit and build up the capacity like they've had in the past.
SA国际影视传媒淚t's an area that the (five member) KSEC board has identified as an area where they have to reach out to people and mentor them.
SA国际影视传媒淲e've got some teachers who have been here for a long time and are very involved in, sort of, mentoring new teachers who are coming into different positions.
SA国际影视传媒淥ften, when you're coming in as a new teacher, you can feel overwhelmed by just your classroom and your assignment alone, so then trying to pitch in and push science fairs, as well, can be a lot.
SA国际影视传媒淏ut, I'm sure we'll be able to rebuild our capacity in fairly short order.SA国际影视传媒�
