{"id":98610,"date":"2022-06-03T13:55:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T17:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=98610"},"modified":"2022-06-03T13:55:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T17:55:48","slug":"regional-project-aims-to-spark-interest-in-the-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/regional-project-aims-to-spark-interest-in-the-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional project aims to spark interest in the sciences\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Schools across the Eastern Townships will have the opportunity to take part in science workshops for the 2022-2023 school year thanks to the Inspecteur G\u00e9n\u00e9tico project. The project was initiative by Dr. Estelle Chamoux of the Biology Department at Bishop\u2019s University (B.U.) back in 2019. Following the pandemic, Chamoux wanted to expand the project and get more schools involved. The Inspecteur G\u00e9n\u00e9tico project received $58, 240 in funding from the Ministry of Economy and Innovation with the aim to spark interest in scientific careers.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt was a part of a project from the National Institute for Engineering and Science (originally). They wanted us to create initiatives in schools. So, I created two little workshops and gave them in elementary and high schools in the region. The workshops were very well received. (\u2026) I wanted to go on and improve the experience, then the pandemic hit,\u201d explained Chamoux.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Now that Quebec has lightened up its restrictions, the project is back in full swing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI\u2019m very happy to give a rebirth to the whole project. We will now give five different workshops adapted to the levels of students,\u201d said Chamoux.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">These five workshops will be available to elementary schools and high schools across the Eastern Townships region, including Brome-Missisquoi. The workshops will ask students to serve as investigators that have to solve a scientific problem.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe idea is to introduce science in a fun and engaging way. For instance, for elementary school students I have little models of 3D cells and the game is that each cell is not working properly. So, every good group of students will have to play the \u201cdoctor\u201d for the cells and they will have to find what is not working and they will have to fix the cell,\u201d mentioned Chamoux.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There are \u201cscience animators\u2019 who will be overseeing the workshops who are studying in Biology at B.U. and former B.U. students who have gone on to pursue their Masters degree at the Universit\u00e9 de Sherbrooke in the Faculty of Medicine.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThey are perfectly bilingual and they can give the workshops in both French and English. We also have some more complex workshops for the high school students. We have workshops where they have to map a gene in a chromosome. (\u2026) They do the exact same type of techniques that we use in a real lab,\u201d noted Chamoux.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Chamoux hopes that students will recognize the fun in science and that it has a significant propose.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cSometimes you study science, but you don\u2019t really know what it will give you in the end, you don\u2019t really know what it\u2019s going to be useful for. Here with that, we start with real problems, a real concrete example, and then we use the science to solve it,\u201d she said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When the Ministry of Economy and Innovation launched the call for projects, it was meant to spark an interest in scientific careers.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cSpecifically, in the Eastern Townships, we have a lot of innovation centres, a lot of research centres, and very few students know that there are opportunity here and very few students know that they can be a part of it. (\u2026) The idea behind the project is not just to educate science and to spark interest for science, it\u2019s also to say \u2018yeah you can also become a scientist and you can also have a great career opportunity in science as a researcher, a research technician, as a research professional,\u201d emphasized Chamoux.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Following the workshops, students that are interested can do a follow-up with those involved in the Inspecteur G\u00e9n\u00e9tico project for support in pursuing their interests in the sciences.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt can be a visit to a lab, researcher experience, it can be a science fair project they want to develop, and we will accompany them. We won\u2019t just give the workshop and leave,\u201d noted Chamoux.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Teachers and schools within the Eastern Townships interested in signing up for the workshops will be able to register directly on the Inspecteur G\u00e9n\u00e9tico project <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genetico.org\/\"><span class=\"s1\">website<\/span><\/a>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to the full interview below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Schools across the Eastern Townships will have the opportunity to take part in science workshops for the 2022-2023 school year thanks to the Inspecteur G\u00e9n\u00e9tico project. The project was initiative by Dr. Estelle Chamoux of the Biology Department at Bishop\u2019s University (B.U.) back in 2019. Following the pandemic, Chamoux wanted to expand the project and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":98656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,221],"tags":[6203,15160,438,15161,1989,436,15162,15159,813,4348],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98616,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98610\/revisions\/98616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98610"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=98610"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=98610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}