Tour stimulates scientific minds at CCH
Science will stimulate the mind. That was the idea at Catholic Central High School on Thursday, as the Power of Ideas Tour made a stop at the school’s east campus.
The tour is a collaboration between the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ont., and Actua, a Canadian charitable organization that delivers science, engineering and technology educational programs.
Ashley Turner, a tour member for the Perimeter Institute, said they are touring coast to coast to coast for 2017 in celebration of Canada 150.
“We’re at schools, community centres, science centres. We set up the exhibits just to promote innovation and curiosity. We just want to promote science, and show that it is exciting and interesting,” she said.
“We’ve had a fantastic response. We had a number of communities we wanted to reach, but it is so much larger now. We’ve been able to reach many more kids than we anticipate.”
“We found this to be a great opportunity to take advantage of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship for our students, and expose them to greater opportunities to engage in critical thinking and foster inquiry in their studies and how they approach the world around them,” said CCH associate principal Anthony Vercillo.
One of the highlights for most, Turner said, is the Perimeter Institute’s demonstration counter with hands-on activities.
Floriane Houenagnon, a Grade 12 student at CCH, tried the prism mirror and attempted to catch a towel with distorted vision.
“What happens is those two prisms, you can shake them in different ways,” she said. “I was in mirror world, so looking an opposite direction. I couldn’t catch it because it was opposite. But it was pretty fun.”
Houenagnon plans to study biochemistry at the University of Lethbridge beginning this fall.
“It kind of gives you an idea of what you’re going to do because physics is a big aspect,” she said. “It was a pretty good day. I thought it was pretty interesting how we get to see the world of physics in different aspects. It’s been pretty innovative.”
“I love just watching the hypothetical light bulb in their head go off when they realize what’s going on,” Turner said. “It’s pretty cool.”
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