Info Synapse - CIHR's Synapse Newsflash - Issue 2
Minister Aglukkaq attends a Synapse Youth Outreach event in Iqaluit
On February 6, 2009, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, attended a CIHR Synapse/Actua youth outreach event that provided scientific mentorship for students in Iqaluit. The Synapse mentor on-hand, Lisa Turchet, who is a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa, taught children the fundamentals of removing DNA from strawberry and banana cells.
"Sharing my excitement for science with the grade 6 students at Aqsarniit Middle School was a real treat," says Ms. Turchet. "I delivered a hands-on demonstration about something I work with everyday: DNA, and even though as a health researcher I consider myself a bit of a DNA expert the questions the students had for me were so creative and intelligent that they kept me on my toes!"
Minister Aglukkaq highlighted how the Government of Canada is helping to create the next generation of health researchers through funding to support these kinds of programs.
"In order for us to create a successful knowledgebased economy in Canada," Minister Aglukkaq says, "it is important for us to ensure that today's youth can find the inspiration to become tomorrow's research leaders. The efforts of CIHR's Synapse – Youth Connection program will ensure that all Canadian students have a chance to take a positive step in that direction."
Through the Synapse program, CIHR partnered with Actua, a non-profit science education outreach organization, to reach Aboriginal youth in northern communities throughout Nunavut, the Yukon and Northwest Territories. In 2008, instructors (including Synapse mentors) delivered health research hands-on workshops to over 4,000 participants in 30 of these communities.
2009 Synapse Mentorship Award Winners
With the 2009 Synapse Mentorship Awards, CIHR, for the third consecutive year, recognizes the outstanding efforts of mentors who have demonstrated the value of passing on science and health research knowledge to Canadian youth.
These awards are divided into three principle categories:
- Master's, Doctoral Student or Postdoctoral Fellow (valued at $5,000);
- Individual Researcher (valued at $5,000); and
- Research Group (valued at $10,000).
This year's recipients are:
a) Mr. Michael Vesia, a PhD candidate in kinesiology from York University, who has organized a 'Brain Day' event that encourages middle and high school students to visit York laboratories for hands-on training in neuroscience, developed career days at various schools to promote health research as a career option. He has inspired Canadian youth as a judge at the Toronto Science Fair and worked as both a high school and undergraduate tutor to help students in the field of science.
b) (tie) Dr. Bruce Elliott, from Queen's University and Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario in Kingston General Hospital, who, for 10 years, offered hands-on scientific experience in laboratories through a cancer conference curriculum for grades 7 and 8 students in the Kingston area, that has since expanded to include a five-day cancer course each May for Eastern Ontario students in grades 9-11 through the Queen's University High School Enrichment Studies Program.
Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden, a cancer researcher from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa, who helped Let's Talk Science/Parlons Science expand into a Canadian non-profit science literacy program, has personally mentored high school and university students in her lab for the past 18 years, launched a bilingual outreach program that delivers science workshops to remote and aboriginal communities in northern Ontario called Science Travels – La Science Voyage, and rewards high school students for their scientific efforts at The Ottawa Evening, an annual Partners in Research event.
c) Dr. Michel G. Bergeron and the Infectious Disease Research Center (IDRC) of Laval University who, since 1998, have offered the 'Researcher for a Day' program so that students can take part in a variety of science activities with professors and graduate students in the IDRC's laboratories. These activities, which include security measures that prevent transmission of dangerous bacteria to analysis of inflammatory cells, help students understand how technology can be used to fight infectious diseases. So far, over 50 scholarly institutions with 2,000 students and 100 teachers have taken part in the program.
Graduate Students: You Too Can Become a CIHR Synapse Mentor!
As you can tell by CIHR's Synapse Mentorship Awards, you don't have to be an established researcher to act as a mentor for someone. Graduate students can also register as Synapse mentors. There are many different ways to be a mentor – and CIHR is here to help you do just that. We can help you act as a judge at science fairs, have them work with you in your laboratory, offer interactive scientific workshops in classrooms, and virtually interact with students for educational support.
To become a Synapse Mentor, please visit the Guidelines on Becoming a Mentor.
Mentors help:
- spark the interest among Canada's young people regarding health research and also help them understand how all of this can be beneficial for a person's wellbeing;
- allow young people of all backgrounds to imagine themselves as health researchers;
- provide young Canadians with a positive and supportive learning environment, helping them set long-term career goals and short-term learning objectives; and
- make health research part of everyday life.
If you have any questions about registration, please contact Synapse@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.
New Pocket Guide: A Guide to Presentations and Demonstrations
When you become a Synapse mentor, it's always helpful to have a few tips about how to hold on to the interest of a young crowd. Our latest guide, regarding the development of good presentations and demonstrations, was created by CIHR in collaboration with Let's Talk Science. In here, you're offered informative tips on how to keep things accessible to a young crowd, by allowing hands-on experience in a science experiment, using visual aids, welcoming questions, making sure that what you're showing is related to what it is they're learning, offering simple language, and demonstrating a genuine interest in what it is that you're talking about.
For a full list of Synapse publications and resources, are available online.
Should you want to get a hardcopy of any of these guides, please contact Synapse@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.
2009 CIHR Synapse Survey
In June 2009, the CIHR Synapse program will send out its second survey to mentors. This survey is intended to assess the impact of CIHR Synapse mentors' outreach efforts with young Canadians so that CIHR can continue to improve the Synapse initiative. This e-newsletter is a concrete example of what came out of your suggestions in the 2008 survey. So, if you're a Synapse mentor, please take some time to tell us what it is that you're doing and how many hours you're devoting to this science outreach cause.
Please take this two-minute survey.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Synapse – CIHR Youth Connection
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
160, Elgin Street, 9th Floor
Address Locator 4809A
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0W9 Canada
Telephone: 613-952-9709
Email: synapse@cihr-irsc.gc.ca