BU opens up chem labs to potential science students
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/05/2016 (3633 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
High school students from Elkhorn and Grandview donned lab coats and safety goggles Friday for Chemistry Week at Brandon University.
Michael Charette, chemistry department chair, described the program as one of the biggest community outreach efforts on campus. Its goal is to foster interest in the science field — and in BU as a post-secondary option.
This year, faculty worked with approximately 380 students from local and rural school divisions. According to Charette, the department invites two age groups: those entering their junior years, and those who are about to graduate.
“I’m told from other people that when the kids are in about Grade 5 or 6, that’s where they start making unconscious decisions that science is cool and interesting or that science is just not for them,” Charette explained.
“Then for the high school students, it’s a little bit more immediate — kind of showing that as they start getting ready to think about college, we’re a viable option for them.”
Throughout the week, 15 schools visited the chemistry department. The Grade 5/6 groups spent a half-day watching demonstrations, while older students carried out their own experiments.
The week’s activities, like calculating the rate of reaction in a chemical solution and building batteries, took place at the expense of the department. Charette said that as the event has grown more popular, they are looking for potential federal and intra-school funding.
However, he also says the $1,500 to $2,500 expense gives students an experience they might not otherwise get.
“A lot of the Brandon schools will often have someone who just teaches chemistry, but sometimes, in some of the more rural schools, there isn’t that resource available,” Charette said.
This is one of two reasons — the other being a long-time love of science — that Elkhorn student Aidan Heaman participated in Chemistry Week.
“It’s a great way to get into an area where there’s actual, very good lab facilities. (Our school) is a very small school, so we’re very limited in our facilities, but here… we get an experience with a professor (and) being in a controlled lab environment,” said the student.
Heaman will be studying engineering in the fall, so participating in a realistic environment was exciting. “It’s different. It feels more real.”
Charette simply hopes that the program shows youth how welcoming the science field can be.
“There should never be this fear that science is not for them because it’s too hard. Science is really for everyone and people will have different interests in different types of science, but it’s not this exclusive club that is only for the gifted few.”
» aantoneshyn@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @AAntoneshyn