Hall Beach students, teachers talk science with visiting education group

Hall Beach's Arnaqjuaq School was turned into a science lab last week with teachers and students working with the group Let's Talk Science to learn about scientific questioning, problem solving and experimentation.

Now the two are partnering to build a greenhouse to teach students about botany and nutrition.

Let's Talk Science, a national charitable organization, worked with a dozen teachers and students from grades 1 to 12. The group wants students to discover the magic of science in everyday life by using tools such as traditional Inuit storytelling and sports.

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To motivate students in grades 4-6, the Let's Talk Science team recounted a story about an Inuit girl collecting mussels under the sea ice and asked the students to brainstorm a solution to a problem posed in the story.

"Students were able to deal with technological problem solving and they builtlevers, they built pulleys, they were fantastic," said Bonnie Schmidt,president of Let's Talk Science.

"I couldn't believe how much weight they could figure out how to move using just a few simple, simple materials."

Schmidt said the goal is to connect science, technology, engineering and mathematics to the things that matter to students.

"What's important is that you have relevance and context especially as kids go through the ages, because you see them disengaging right across the country," said Schmidt.

"At the same time as we take a look at where the jobs are going, where the economies are heading, it does not matter where you are in the country, there's a greater need for science and technology."

Putting the science into hockey

To get the older students in grades 7-9engaged in science, Schmidt got them to work on a hockey-related experiment. The students were asked to measure the reaction time of goalies and come up with ideas on how to speed up reaction times to stop the other team from scoring a goal.

"Kids love, love, love hockey out here.That's basically their life up here, so everybody was very engaged and excited to be part of the science class," said Emily Bradford, who teaches in Arnaqjuaq School.

Bradford said her students were having so much fun that they almost forgot they were learning.

"Most of them were surprised that they were actually doing science.They were all excited to just do the activities and then afterwards they realized, ahh, I'm actually learning."

The hockey experiment even got one Grade 8studentwho usually lacked interest in school to participate in class.

"At the end of the class he was one of the ones that volunteeredand said 'This is how I became the fastest,' and he told us all about different variables that he tried in order to get the fastest time," said Bradford.

"To see that he could learn in that engaged environment, that was amazing."

A greenhouse in Hall Beach

In addition to working with students, Let's Talk Science also hosted workshops for half of the teachers at Arnaqjuaq School. The teachers expressed a desire to incorporate scientific learning that teaches students about food and nutrition.

"We learned a lot about community issues and the desire to help kids learn about making nutritious choices and what they might do to grow herbs, grow vegetables," said Schmidt.

The school is now working with Let's Talk Science on a greenhouse project to teach students about botany and nutrition.

"It's really going well. It's a train that's picking up speed pretty fast so I think it's going to be a great project," said Bradford.