By Oli Herrera

NEW STEM PROGRAM

STEM program debuting at UNBC this fall for Indigenous high school students

Jun 10, 2021 | 3:04 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–This fall, six high school Indigenous students will have the opportunity to gain experience inside a research lab that will prepare them for university and the real world.

The program aims at expanding STEM knowledge of the students, but they can also expect a lot of fun.

Robotics, physics, math, and chemistry are just some of the areas of focus. But the program isn’t just about getting more kids into the STEM field, it’s about teaching those principles so they can apply it elsewhere.

“It might be someone who’s interested in cooking, who will learn about how heat transfers from different mediums that will apply that to his cooking or her cooking and will end up being the next master chef.” said Dr. Malgorzata Kaminska, Assistant Professor at UNBC.

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The program is called “A Science Escape at UNBC.”

Thanks to a $93,000 grant, six indigenous students will able to take part in the six-week online course. Kaminska helped create this program. She says that students will able to learn the principles of STEM right from the comfort of their homes.

“The experiments that students will be able to do from home, will be in the box that will be sent to them will be related to the sessions that are being taught and they will have the chance to show and try right there in their home the practical aspects of what the professor or the grad student has been chatting with them about.” said Kaminska.

The course runs for about an hour after school every day. The university is also planning to bring students to the campus to get them inside of a lab.

“The reason why we really wanted to have an on-campus component is because science is very hands on, right. So if you learn something online but you’re not able to apply them and use your hands and actually do experiments then it’s sort of not very fulfilling and satisfying” said Ann Duong, Master of Science student at UNBC.

Duong is a Master’s student at UNBC who helped with the program. She says that one of the driving factors for starting this was the lack of resources available to Indigenous students.

“They didn’t know what a lab looked like, and what a microscope was, and what a lab actually looked like and what its function was and I guess that was the impetus for us to actually make this program for Indigenious students because STEM isn’t as accessible to them.” said Duong.

Kaminska says that they’re keeping the number of students to six to help them develop better relationships throughout the program. Which would better prepare them for university.

“Science doesn’t just occur in the lab or when you’re studying, it occurs in the discussion and the ideas that we’re exchanging. So we want a small group of students so that that flow of ideas can occur quickly and so that they can also develop relationships with the university professors and grad students.” said Kaminska.

She says that the students will be selected based of recommendations from three school districts in our region. In the future, more students might be selected for the program.