Yellowknife Inn

NNSL photo/graphic



 Features

 Front Page
 News Desk
 News Briefs
 News Summaries
 Columnists
 Sports
 Editorial
 Arctic arts
 Readers comment
 Find a job
 Tenders
 Classifieds
 Subscriptions
 Market reports
 Handy Links
 Best of Bush
 Visitors guides
 Obituaries
 Feature Issues
 Advertising
 Contacts
 Today's weather
 Leave a message


SSISearch NNSL
 www.SSIMIcro.com

NNSL on CD

. NNSL Logo
SSIMicro
Home page text size buttonsbigger textsmall textText size Email this articleE-mail this page

'Polarphant' wins kids' contest
Iqaluit student imagined a cross between an elephant and a polar bear

Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Friday, January 29, 2010

IQALUIT - Elephants and polar bears live in very different worlds, but in Malaya Papatsie's imagination, they could very well be a single animal.

NNSL photo/graphic

Grades 4 and 5 teacher Jasmine Gobelle, left, of Nakasuk School in Iqaluit, sits beside Malaya Papatsie, who holds illustrations of an elephant and a polar bear. Papatsie won a contest for designing an animal she dubbed a "polarphant," that combines elements of elephants and polar bears. - Jeanne Gagnon/NNSL photo

The Iqaluit Grade 4 student won the Wild Math and Science Animal Discovery Contest, a Scholastic Canada national competition where students had to design an animal and explain its habitat and characteristics. For her "polarphant" creation, she received a Canon digital camera valued at $500 and her class got a $100 Scholastic Canada gift certificate.

Papatsie, 10, said her animal was grey and had a trunk, but had a body like a polar bear. She has never seen either elephants or polar bears but both are her favourite animals so she thought the two might go well together, she added. She was excited to win.

"I was really happy," she said.

Her teacher, Jasmine Gobelle, said Papatsie kept smiling all day after learning she'd won. The Grades 4 and 5 teacher at Nakasuk School assigned the contest as a class exercise to her 20 students.

"At the time with science, we were doing animal habitat and it went well with our curriculum. It incorporated language arts, science and art," she said.

She described Papatsie's drawing as creative since she combined a southern animal with one living in the North.

"I am very proud of her," she said. "It was very creative and she worked hard on it. She's a hard worker in class. They were quite enthusiastic about the project. They all did a good job," she said. "The whole class was pretty excited with her receiving the camera and the prize because it's a contest across Canada and there are only 10 winners." Gobelle said she had found the contest online.

"If it's offered again, I will certainly have my students enter it again," she said.

We welcome your opinions on this story. Click to e-mail a letter to the editor.