CHILLING AT SCIENCE CAMP
Event gives campus chance to showcase department before national audience
Vincent Ziffle pours liquid nitrogen into a bowl on Tuesday during a session on the chemistry of ice cream at National First Nation and Inuit Youth Science Camp held at First Nations University of Canada. The science camp runs until Saturday.
Empowering youth and building confidence is key at this year’s National First Nation and Inuit Youth Science Camp.
Forty-three youth, ages 12 to 15, from all across Canada have gathered at the First Nations University of Canada to take part in five days of science and technology activities.
Jody Bellegarde, a chemistry lab instructor at FNUniv, conducted lab experiments with the youth Tuesday morning. He said exposing youth to these kinds of opportunities builds confidence.
“Letting them know that they belong in this environment. From my own experiences as a youth, often times opportunities like this didn’t seem to be available,” said Bellegarde.
Funded by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, this is the first time the camp has been hosted in Saskatchewan. For the first couple days, the youth participated in lab activities including Lego robotics, dissecting owl pellets, the “chemistry of cooking ” and more.
Next, the youth will visit science and technology sites around Saskatchewan including the Saskatchewan Science Centre and the All Nations Healing Centre in Fort Qu’Appelle.
“It’s a good experience,” said Riel Kaiswatum, a youth from Piapot First Nation. “(You) meet new friends and it’s cool because you’re from different provinces and it’s just a fun experience.”
Kaiswatum said while he hasn’t thought much about what he will do after high school, he can imagine himself coming back to study at FNUniv.
And that’s one of the reasons the FNUniv is excited to host the camp according to Raquel Pasap, project co-ordinator for the university.
“It gives us an opportunity to introduce students from a national audience (to) our science department — what type of programs that we can offer here,” said Pasap.
She said the camp can help youth discover where their interests lay and how the university can foster them.
Bellegarde was excited to have youth in the lab. He said watching his own kids go through the education system here in Regina, he feels the sciences are getting left behind. He thinks youth are often discouraged from considering challenging careers in science and technology because of their young age.
For him, the week is simply about making sure youth know they deserve the opportunity to pursue science if they want to.
“It’s really trying to get all of the students to feel like they deserve to be in this environment and with our First Nation youth, sometimes they don’t feel like they deserve to be here,” said Bellegarde.
But he’s seen sparks in the eyes of the youth this week and he knows the camp has made a difference already.
“I know these kind of experiences are really sparking the want to obtain some kind of a college or university education,” said Bellegarde.
The camp runs until Saturday.