Kitikmeot regional science fair thrives
Student projects explore mental health, food security, extreme survival on the land
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, April 10, 2017
KITIKMEOT
Anxiety, apple pie and one emergency use for urine were three topics explored by winners of the recent Kitikmeot regional science fair in Gjoa Haven, March 24 to 26.
The first place prize went to Maggie Aqqaq of Taloyoak for her survey and research project on anxiety.
"A lot of people in the North have anxiety and they don't like to admit it," said the Grade 9 student.
The second place project, by Gjoa Haven's Jordan Takkiruq, showed how urine could be converted to drinkable potable water in an emergency scenario while stranded on the land.
Takkiruq won second place in a national science fair in 2014 for his project on how liquids impact teeth, which he did by observing the levels of decay that happened to caribou teeth soaked in drinks such as pop, juice and water.
Third place went to Hayley Totalik, also of Taloyoak, for her project title No Apple Apple Pie. The project focused on food security and the difficulty of getting fresh produce in the North. She baked an apple pie with apples and one without apples and did a blind taste test to see if tasters could tell the difference. Her taste test results showed 55 per cent voted for the apple pie, 45 per cent for the apple-less pie.
The youth will join three other winners from the Kivalliq region for a trip to the Canada Wide Science Fair in Regina this May.
Aqqaq said she is looking forward to the competition.
She chose to explore the issue of anxiety because of her own personal experience.
"It's a big thing nobody really talks about," she said.
She researched the definition, symptoms, causes, treatments and options for managing anxiety in daily life. "There is a way to lessen or control symptoms."
Part of her research included a survey asking people questions about their own experiences, such as if they were afraid of heights and if they feel unnecessarily scared in certain situations.
It was the third year for the regional fair.
Taloyoak teacher Lauren McFadden, president of the Science for Kitikmeot Youth and Educators program, said the quality of projects have been increasing each year and scores are getting higher and closer together.
"The difference between first and third place was only four per cent," she said.
Each of the 14 projects in the fair was judged five times by a panel from Gjoa Haven.
Of those five scores, the top and bottom scores were dropped and the middle three scores averaged to determine the winners.
The fair is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, or NSERC, which has provided funding to maintain the regional fair for the next three years. This year the program also received funding from the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.
McFadden said students in the region often choose topics that relate to the experience of Northerners and that the Nunavut projects are very popular at the national fair as they provide a different perspective.
