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BAKER LAKE
Thirty-two of the region's brightest young minds gathered in Baker Lake for the annual Kivalliq Regional Science Camp from Sept. 5 to 10.

Jenni Chicarella, Anita Kopak and Lucy Siusangnark of Repulse Bay and Kaitlyn Niego of Baker Lake, clockwise from left, take part in the bannock Bake-Off during the Kivalliq Regional Science Camp in Baker Lake in September of 2012. - photo courtesy of Jennith Peart

Four students and a teacher from each community in the region outside Baker travelled to the event, with eight students from the host hamlet also taking part.

The theme for this year's camp was rocks and minerals.

Victor Sammurtok School science teacher Glen Brocklebank of Chesterfield Inlet said the camp went extremely well this year.

He said a trip to the Meadowbank gold mine sponsored by Agnico-Eagle Mines was the highlight of the event for most students.

"We focused on the geological cycle, identifying and understanding rocks and minerals and their uses, using a GPS, and administering first aid during the camp," said Brocklebank.

"Hugh Tulurialuk of Baker Lake was camp elder, and he took us on a walk to discuss the Thule site and how Inuit used to survive in the past.

"He also showed us how to build a jumbo inuksuk on Blueberry Hill and everyone really enjoyed that."

Baker followed Rankin Inlet in hosting the camp this time around, and plans are in the works for it to return to Baker in 2013.

Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School's Jennith Peart chaired this year's event, and said she was very happy with how things turned out.

She said even Mother Nature proved herself a science lover this year and provided the gathering with excellent weather.

"We really got lucky with the weather, which is something we haven't done during the past few years," said Peart.

"It was a little windy at times, but, other than that, it was great.

"We had a beautiful day to visit the mine, with just enough wind to keep most of the bugs away, so that beat the frost, rain and snow we had to put up with during the past couple of years."

Peart said there was ample food at the camp, and absolutely no discipline problems to contend with.

She said the students who took part this year were an excellent group of kids.

"We had a great group of seven teachers from across the region, and a representative from Mining Matters (aboriginal education specialist Barbara Green Parker) and Jim Kreuger of Kivalliq School Operations also joined us.

"Our elder did an outstanding job, so everything came together well for us."

Peart said staff members at the Meadowbank gold mine were quite welcoming of the group's visit.

She said the presentations were excellent, especially ones on geology and environmental careers, and well-received by the students.

"The kids, especially, loved the training simulator for the big haul trucks.

"It was a bonus to have our elder's son, Soloman Tulurialuk, do a demonstration.

"A number of the workers and trainees at the mine are, of course, from Baker, so that makes a lot of what the kids see obtainable.

"We received a little tour of the site, and another interesting presentation for the students dealt with emergency response at the mine."

Peart said programs like the regional camp can spark a deeper interest in science within the students.

She said the hands-on experience is often a perfect compliment to classroom learning.

"We've had a lot of students come through our programs and then go back to their communities with a different outlook.

"Kids have come home and told people they weren't really that into school, but, after attending science camp, they began to look at science as a really cool career.

"Some of those kids have seriously started thinking about going to college or university.

"We have different (themed) science camps in different years - last year's in Rankin Inlet was on archeology - but the ones in Baker tend to be geology-based because we have the support of the mine."

Peart said to a certain extent, many kids who attend the regional science camp and/or science fair are among the top students in the region.

She said when it's time to put out the applications each year, it's almost always kids who've attended the events in previous years who are the first to put their hands up to participate again.

"It's really good for the teachers, as well, to see these kids in their own environment on the land.

"I had the chance to attend a science camp in Baker as a teacher participant just three weeks after I arrived.

"The experience really helped me acclimatize, understand the culture I was going to be working in and see the kids in a different light outside of the classroom.

"There's so much emphasis on sports success in our communities - this is one of the few things that gives kids a chance to travel who do well in school, and a pat on the back for all the hard work they put into their studies."

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