Budding scientists set to visit campus
Dylan McLaughlin is looking forward to summer camp this year — unusual for a doctoral student. Yet when children from the Westmount Science Camp visit Concordia in July and August, he will be showing them why science is so cool.
“I love teaching kids,” says McLaughlin, who’s pursuing a PhD in chemistry. “When they ask me a question, I put it back to them — that makes them think about what’s happening, and when they figure it out, it’s great to see their faces light up.”
Seeing kids light up about science drives Nigel Penney as well. Penney is director of the Westmount Science Camp, which is open to kids aged 6 to 13. He founded the camp last year to fill a void he feels exists in science education at elementary schools: “That’s what the world needs — real science for real kids,” he says.
Clearly Penney struck a chord. Now in its second summer, registration has doubled, and he expects the camp to have more than 100 children when it opens in July in Westmount.
The formula is simple: have scientists show children what science is — and what scientists do — with hands-on, interactive experiments and demonstrations.
Penney approached Concordia earlier this year and suggested that, as well as sending volunteer scientists to the camp, the university could host a few days of the camp in its own top-notch facilities. Now, campers will take field trips to the Loyola Campus on July 17 and August 14, and to the Sir George Williams Campus on July 31. The Faculties of arts and science, engineering and computer science, and fine arts, as well as the PERFORM Centre will be involved.
About 50 volunteer students, faculty and staff will serve up a sampling of science goodies including chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, engineering and technoculture. Potential experiments range from extracting DNA from oranges to making ice cream with liquid nitrogen.
In one PERFORM Centre activity, campers will learn about research protocol. One camper will act as a study participant and wear a monitor while riding a bike as another camper, the observer, notes the participant’s heart rate and exertion on a data sheet.
Campers will also learn about electric vehicles and clean, renewable energy from Sheldon Williamson, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The children will learn to appreciate cross-disciplinary engineering skills, in order to save the planet,” he says.
Miriam Posner, technical supervisor for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is the main organizer of Concordia’s participation in the camp. “No one really talks about science around the supper table,” she says. “When we make science interesting and interactive, when kids see how everything around them all goes back to science — how a figure skater spins, how butterflies communicate. That’s when they get engaged.”
Related links:
• Westmount Science Camp
• Faculty of Arts and Science
• Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
• Faculty of Fine Arts
• PERFORM Centre