The student becomes the teacher
Science fair veteran turns ambassador to help others
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Monday, June 5, 2017
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAYSUBHEAD:
Mary-Lou Angidlik has been infatuated with science since she was a young girl.
In her latest experiment, she mixed in a beaker full of sociology with her science background.
Angidlik, 23, was a successful applicant to be an ambassador at this year's Canada-Wide ScienceFair, held May 15 to 20 in Regina. That meant she was the first Inuk toservein that role in the history of the event.
The fair's location was new to her, but she's a veteran of two of the competitions, having participated at the national level in Grade 7, when she submitted a project on Arctic plant medicine, and again in Grade 10 when she tackled the issue of diabetes. The first project earned her the Agriculture and Agri-Food Award.
Having faced the judges twice before, Angidlik had some tips for this year's crop of youngcontestants during the final practice beforetrying to impress the adjudicators.
"You always have to back up what you say," she advises. "Never say you don't know because (the judges will) take marks off for that ... you can make ahypothesis."
Angidlik's guidance appeared to make a difference. The next day, after the judging was over, a few ofthe students she assisted vied for her attention.
"When they were coming up tothe stage to get their award ... they were looking at me with their thumbs up, really happy that I helped them with the practice judging," she gleefully recalls.
While a student at Maani UlujukIlinniarvik, in her hometown of Rankin Inlet, Angidlik said she fell in love with science fairs. Even in years that she didn't take a science course,she would ask if she could be a part of the sciencefair, she says.
"With science, you learn something different every day," she says.
However, it is social work that has steered her toward a different career path. She is finishing up her first year of a two-year diploma program at Nunavut Arctic College in Cambridge Bay.
Angidlik found a way to tie in her sociology knowledge with her science ambassador role.
Not only did she mentor the young scientists, but she reassured a particular student who was feeling homesick during the event.
"It was her first time in the south. I worked closely with her to make sure she attended all the events that were going on," she says.
"I used what I learned in my social services course with students who were homesick and who had problems with the judges."
