For the past decade, the University of Saskatchewan has been offering a science outreach program based in USasks College of Art and Science.
Launching in 2009 as a single-classroom project, Nutrien Kamskénow has grown rapidly and has reached over 1000 students this year, totalling 8,400 students in the last ten years.
An objective of the initiative is to encourage Indigenous students to consider a career in the scientific field. This group is largely underrepresented in the sciences, and the program is offered to Saskatoon community schools with a high proportion of Indigenous students.
“We know that kids are responding positively,” says Lana Elias, the director of science outreach for the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan. “About 87 per cent of participants responded that since taking part in the program they like science more. We also have 63 per cent who are interested in a career in science or math as a result of the program.”
For 90 minutes each week, USask students spend time with youth offering instruction on fun, engaging activities such as building balloon rockets, programming robots, simulating earthquakes and growing crystals. Unlike many science outreach programs that only visit schools once a year, Nutrien Kamskénow runs for 13-weeks, which is followed by a field trip to the campus labs.
“Being able to bring kids on campus to make them feel like this is a place where they belong can have a great impact, especially for students who might be the first in their family to attend university,” says Elias, who has been involved in the program for eight years.
In the past year, the program was delivered to students in 47 classrooms, but the demand for Nutrien Kamskénow has been nearly double that what the program can accommodate. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada PromoScience program announced new funding for the program and organizers hope to extend the program to over 65 classrooms in the next three years.
“Every time we have the opportunity to host campus visits, it is a real privilege to see our university through kids’ eyes,” explains Elias.
A group of students at St. Mary’s Community School enjoyed their time in the Nutrien Kamskénow program so much, that they begged their teacher, Andrea Johansen to continue on with a weekly hands-on approach to learning science.
She agreed, and now every Thursday, they conduct a program they cleverly coined, Johanskenow.
Schools in both the Saskatoon Public Schools and Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools are partners in the program.
Kamskénow is a Cree term meaning to learn or to find together.
(PHOTO: St. Mary’s Community School teacher Andrea Johansen pictured with some of her students. Photo courtesy of the Nutrien Kamskénow, Facebook.)