Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 19/05) - Yellowknife youth experienced the joys of discovering during last week's Discover E science camp.

For Stephen Giovanetto, it meant creating and catapulting a rocket into the heavens.

Elin Forsyth proudly holds a sturdy popsicle stick house she made at Discover E camp.

"It was fun seeing how high I could make it go," Giovanetto said.

"I think it went up seven or eight storeys," he said from outside Aurora College, where the camp was held.

Six students from the University of Alberta travel annually to Yellowknife to host the camp, which is designed to introduce children to science in a fun and interesting way, said U of A student Leslie Prety.

This is at least the fifth year for the camp.

There were 45 children aged six to 17 attending camp for the week, she said.

"They are making air-powered rockets and cars, polymer slime, crystal gardens and draw bridges," Prety said.

"We try and get all aspects of science in," she added.

For Thys Hoeve, the most exciting part of the week was building an airplane and a bridge.

"This is my third year. I enjoy the projects," Hoeve said.

Another youth, Elin Forsyth, said she enjoyed creating boats and cars.

"Me and my friend have a car we built and we are going to put her hamster in it. I have a little helmet that might fit it," she said laughing.

"We're just going to take it slowly the first time and it's going to be lots of fun."

Prety said the variety of projects keeps the students interested throughout the week.

"We hope throughout the week they have a lot of fun and gain a new interest in science," Prety said.

A feature of the week was to have an 'invite for a day', Prety said.

Participants from various organizations such as the Tree of Peace, the Centre for Northern Families, the Yellowknife Foster Family Association, the City of Yellowknife and the Military Family Resource centre each spent a day at camp working on a science project, she said.