RANKIN INLET
Earl is the Actua Science Camp mascot.

Brady Tucktoo, at the Actua Science Camp in Rankin Inlet last week, works with food chemistry, testing out which food dehydration and preservative methods work best by experimenting with different desiccants - substances that cause or maintain a state of dryness - on apple slices. - photo courtesy of Actua -

He is an Erlenmeyer flask, a glass container used in labs, and for Actua's purposes he is a bright orange cartoon character who represents the spirit of science.

Earl was in Rankin Inlet and Arviat last week, and is visiting Chesterfield Inlet and Whale Cove this week.

A favourite activity in Rankin was the "Spot Earl" walk.

"The kids go out for a walk around the community. We take these little Earl cards with us and we ask them to make observations about where science is occurring in their community," said instructor Gaurav Sharma, a neuroscience undergrad pursuing a medical degree.

"For example, we go to the lake and talk about the properties of water, the biology that's in the water, what are the physics of water."

To encourage the children, they are led through an observation activity.

"We talk to the kids about how scientific observation works. Observation is more than just looking at something. It's looking and thinking about something, and experiencing it through multiple senses to comprehend it," said Sharma.

Instructor Kristen Ungungai-Kownak, entering her second year at Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa adds observing is also about asking questions.

"Why? Why is the sky blue?" she asked.

Instructor Amanda Peltier, an energy systems engineering student at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Ont., said they let the children know that everything is science.

"Sometime they say this isn't science, that isn't science. Then we explain further as to how there might be a chemical reaction happening. Like even rust on a machine, science is involved in that, too."

Sharma said all the information is connected back to the community with a giant community map on the wall of the community centre.

"It's a map designed by the students of their community. They get to tag on a bunch of stuff related to science, how different places in their community get to participate in science.

"So we're not just talking about science like it's something outside of here. We're really integrating it with their own local knowledge and, specifically, elder knowledge," he said.

On Thursday, the children were engaged in the Sounds of the Sea activity.

The children drew local sea mammals and added them to the community map.

On another section of the wall are the skill snapshots - personal biographies of scientific skills.

"We ask them to identify some science skills they already have. Then throughout the week we've been getting them to think about it and mentioning how we're building our teamwork skills right now," said Sharma.

Observation is encouraged in this exercise, as well, since the children are prompted to observe what skills others' are demonstrating.

Another activity is called Little Bits. Small individual electronic pieces, powered by a battery, are joined up in various ways to create circuits.

After learning about circuits, the children then designed circuits that could benefit their community and pitched their ideas.

One child came up with a scorekeeper for hockey and, another, a town bell to wake the town in the mornings.

Ungungai-Kownak and Peltier remember going to science camp as youngsters.

"What we're doing this year is connecting our education to where we are now, by mentioning that we have been through high school. It's a lot easier to get to university if you take the right courses," said Peltier.

"We're not convincing them to just be scientists or engineers or mathematicians. We're letting them know that this type of thinking is useful in everyday life no matter what kind of job you do. It's useful to understand how things work."

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