Over th e Edge * March 27th 2013 News X 1 “N UNBC TEAM WINS GOLD AT NATIONAL ENGINEERING CONTEST HANNA PETERSEN NEWS EDITOR Four Environmental Engineering students from the University of Northern British Columbia beat teams from universities across Canada to take home the top prize in the Canadian Engineering Competition at Carleton University in Ottawa. The group’s submission at the event, in the Junior Design category, defeated entries from the eight regional teams in the country The Junior Design category entrants, which is exclusive to first and second year engineering students, were asked to remove a set of tin foil clots from a cardboard artery. Each team had four hours to come up with a solution for the problem, after which they gave a formal presentation and demonstrated their working prototype to the judges. “Our entry was a scissor mechanism being closed with elastics and held open by a balloon with a slow leak in it,” explains second year student Kayden Peters, who is from the Lower Mainland. “We attached extensions onto the arms of the scissors and, as the balloon deflated and the scissors closed, the extensions extended in all directions and depressed the clots. The judges said they had never though of that solution and found it very innovative.” “UNBC gave us the general engineering background and confidence to compete at a very high level in these events,” says Peters, who, along with his teammates Kathleen Horita of Vanderhoof, Stephanie Doherty of Prince Geroge, and Kris Nickerson of Vancouver, qualified for the nationals after placing second at the regional competition at the University of Victoria in January. “Our profs at UNBC really helped us and got us ready to compete.” Last year, UNBC placed in the top ten on a list of schools offering undergraduate- level engineering programs in Canada by the magazine Corporate Knights, a national supplement of the Globe and Mail Newspaper Ethnic outreach” project ran out of B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education. ETHNIC OUTREACH PROJECT RAN OUT OF B.C. MINISTRY OF ADVANCED EDUCATION LAURA RODGERS CUP B.C. BUREAU CHIEF VANCOUVER (CUP)—AB.C. Liberal project using taxpayer-funded resources to mount an election campaign targeting minority voters ran out of the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education with the knowledge of former minister John Yap, according to a report issued by Liberal deputy minister John Dyble. The report, at the centre of an ongoing B.C. Liberal scandal, found a “serious misuse” of government time and resources to conduct party business: crafting a strategy to promote the party among B.C. voters who are members of ethnic minority groups. The report said the once-secret outreach project began in 2011 within the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation when Harry Bloy, also the Minister of State for Multiculturalism, held that post. Bloy resigned from Cabinet in the spring of 2012, and John Yap took over as Minister of State for Multiculturalism. Then in a summer 2012 cabinet shuffle, Yap was appointed as Minister of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology — and the ethnic outreach project followed him. Yap had already resigned from Cabinet by the time the report’s results were made public. Two govemment staffers have resigned from their posts entirely in the wake of the scandal, and the Liberals have pledged to pay back the $70,000 of taxpayer funds they spent on partisan activities. The report notes that Yap was aware that former ministry staffer Brian Bonney frequently used his personal email address, rather than his goverment address, for communication about the project in order to circumvent freedom-of- information laws. Yap and Premier Christy Clark have both apologized and expressed remorse over what occurred in the ethnic outreach project. However, they have both also said they had some degree of ignorance regarding the project’s activities. The NDP, so far, say they aren’t fully satisfied with the outcome of the report, and they are calling for a broader investigation from an independent body. PROJECT GO: CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS CAROLYN KNAPPER SUSTAINABILITY INTERN Get involved, learn something new, help make change... Ready? Set? Go! Project “Green Outreach” (GO) is a student driven initiative to spread awareness and stimulate action on environmental issues and topics. Currently dubbed “Project GO,” the present agenda is educational outreach to high school students about climate change. The name is intended to motivate students to stop trying to unscramble whether climate change is happening or not (because it is), and to do something about it. Why is this important for us to do? Climate change has been a heated debate for a long time now. Science has, however, proven that although the earth’s global temperature has fluctuated greatly over earth’s history, we have seen a huge anthropogenic impact on warming in the past 100 years. This correlates with the massive increases in greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide. The effects can be seen all around the world and there is need for radical change. Project GO sprouted from research on a similar program in BC; Vancouver Island University’s Student Initiative, ACER (Awareness of Climate Change through Education and Research). Quoting directly from their website, the founders of ACER state that “this initiative is rooted firmly in the belief that the ability to make informed decisions on an inherently complex topic will require an appreciation of the science, critical thinking and creative problem solving”. The program was designed to teach high school students about climate change using interactive power point presentations and a series of demonstration experiments. Since it was designed in 2008, the team has toured the province, visiting schools as far north as Prince George and the surrounding areas. This got the wheels turning here in PG. After investigating what kind of information local high school students are exposed to, it became apparent that more climate change education was needed. We could not, however, sit and wait for more people to make their way up from Vancouver to teach the children in our community. It was decided that we need to take things into our own hands, and do some outreach of our own. After all, how sustainable is it to wait for people driving all the way across the province to do something we can do ourselves? The solution starts here. The initiative was started by UNBC’s Sustainability Manager, Alvaro Palazuelos. Inthe fall, funding was received from the Presidents’ Executive Committee to hire a student intern to help coordinate the project. With the help of a few members of past and present faculty and staff, and a group of student volunteers, ideas for presentations were cumulated. Helping to direct the project is John Vogt, a high school science teacher with 35 years experience. His knowledge and experience have provided vital linkages to the local high schools and have been fundamental to the development of the project’s curriculum. Undoubtedly, a major component to understanding climate change is scientific literacy. Presentations are therefore aimed at building this foundation of understanding. The intention is to initially visit four or five Grade 10 science classrooms in Prince George to give one- hour presentations. The presentations aim to bust myths about climate change in our society, to stir up discussion and ultimately to get kids involved in making a change. This preliminary test run will take place during April 2013. Firstly, students will learn about the difference between climate and weather and what trends over time look like using graphs and photographs. Students will then be taught how to identify the major causes of the current rapid increase in temperature such as greenhouse gases. They will be able to identify carbon dioxide as the most important greenhouse gas and will learn about factors that contribute to atmospheric carbon dioxide. Presentations will teach about the impacts on both earth systems and people, using local and worldwide examples. A few demonstrational and hands on experiments have been adapted from VIU’s ACER program to demonstrate these topics. Ultimately, students will walk away with an understanding of the science behind the warming global climate, and will be able to think critically about the problems and potential solutions. Although Project GO currently has a specific agenda to teach high school students about climate change, there is potential for the project to bloom into even more. Perhaps Green Outreach might eventually include annual forums, projects on composting or recycling, and may include more local and provincial allies. The group is currently working on setting up a website which will eventually be available through the Green University website at http:// www.unbc.ca/green. If you have questions or are interested in helping out with the project, either by presenting or helping to develop presentations and experiments, feel free to email knapperc@gmail.com. More information on the ACER project is also available at http://web.viu. ca/acer/.