The 150th anniversary of Canada is a time to reflect on the country’s history, but it’s also a time to look forward into the next 150 years. The Innovation 150 Power of Ideas tour, which stopped by the Yorkton Regional High School for three days, is a collaboration between the Perimeter Institute and Actua that is touring across Canada.
Lucija Prelovec, presenter of the Power of Ideas tour, says that idea of the tour is to inspire the next generation of innovation in the country, and show students that they can be the ones behind innovations in the country’s future.
“No matter who you are, if you’re into science, you’re into art, you’re into music, you’re into anything, you are an innovator. No matter what you do, your new ideas are all your ideas. They’re all original, they’re all something you have contributed, they are all adding to the growing knowledge. We want kids to feel inspired and ask questions. If they leave this exhibit with more questions that’s what we want, there are a lot of questions in physics that we don’t know the answer to yet.”
The exhibit itself is focused on theoretical physics, which is the focus of the Perimeter Institute. Along with getting kids to ask questions about physics and why things happen, Prelovec explains that they also want them to know there is potential for a career in physics within the country. There are many interested kids out there, and they don’t have the opportunity to talk with a quantum physicist, for example, or know that there are resources to help them grow their interest and work at a career in physics after school.
“We’re trying to show people where Canada is on the theoretical physics scale, because we have a lot of great physicists out there.”
At schools on the tour, Prelovec says that there are kids that are saying it’s the best day of their school year, because it’s a day when their interests are being celebrated and encouraged, which might not happen every day.
“We are trying to give them the courage to be able to love science and share it with everyone.”
In Yorkton, the Power of Ideas tour was joined by other presentations. There were demonstrations and exhibits by the Saskatchewan Science Center. Students also had a chance to take part in a “Maker Workshop,” hosted by Actua, where students were given the opportunity to design something that could help solve a problem faced in the world, such as water pollution. A collision reconstructionist also came in to give a presentation about the physics of car crashes, engineers talking about designing farm equipment, and students from the high school itself doing a presentation on robotics. Wayne Clark, science teacher at Yorkton Regional High School, says that since students can’t always make field trips to Regina to visit the Science Center, the goal was to have three science-focused days to show students what is possible.
“Exposure to this high end, high interest stuff has really benefitted them in terms of learning what they are capable of and what they can do.
The Yorkton event saw schools from both the Good Spirit School Division and the Christ the Teacher Catholic School Division attend the exhibit. Since only one school could host, Clark says they wanted to have a “science party” for all the students in the region. He’s also proud of how the students at YRHS have gotten involved, volunteering to help put the event on and help visiting students find their way around the high school. He says that showing kids what’s going on at the leading edge gets them excited, but also allows them to be part of that changing future.
“Technology is going to keep changing and keep moving forward. When I was this age, I would have never thought it was possible to have talk to text, or self-driving cars… What does that mean in terms of occupations, what does that mean in terms of where you’re going to be? We need to keep kids interested in things that are relevant to them, how their smartphone works, what’s happening to their car during a car crash… It really flips the switches and they can see it’s relevant to them, it’s not just talking about old dead people and their discoveries.”
Prelovec says that Yorkton has been one of the friendliest stops on the tour, and the organization of the event meant that they could reach far more schools than they might have been able to otherwise, which was the goal of the tour.
“It has been really great to reach so many kids in just a three day period.”
