Actua camp brings science to life for Iqaluit children

At the Actua science camp held July 27 to July 31 in Iqaluit, children peered through microscopes at tiny creature they gathered from a local creek. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

Kisuna? An Iqaluit child looks at a sample kept at the Nunavut Research Institute. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

Science is fun! Iqaluit children gather samples from a local creek during the Actua science camp held July 27 to July 31 in Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

What happens if you send a group of Iqaluit kids, seven to 12 years old and wearing over-sized lab coats, into a science lab with a tray full of “icky” and “cool” water bugs?

Well, for starters, they’ll name some of those critters, “Mr. Johnny.”

The Ottawa-based educational not-for-profit organization, Actua, hosted a science camp in Iqaluit July 27 to 31, which attracted over 20 participants.

The free week-long camp, which aims to bring the fun and learning of science to underprivileged youth across Canada, involved collecting water samples from a local creek and then testing those samples at the Nunavut Research Institute laboratory for bacteria like E.coli.

The kids also waded with camp counsellors through the shallow creek beside the Qikiqtani General Hospital to scoop up whatever animal life they could find.

Their efforts on July 30, when Nunatsiaq News accompanied the camp to the creek and then back to the lab, resulted in two trays full of all sorts of tiny writhing critters.

One of the kids named a tiny bright red mite “Mr. Johnny,” and the name caught on so fast we never found out who started it.

Soon, all the kids were chanting, “Mr. Johnny!”

Sadly, Mr. Johnny didn’t live long after being named.

A councillor squished Mr. Johnny to death by sandwiching him between two glass microscope slides.

“Ewwww,” and “awwww,” the kids said in chorus when Mr. Johnny’s corpse appeared on the projector screen hooked up to the microscope, his little legs still moving.

One of the boys immediately found another red mite in the water tray and called him or her — you guessed it — “Mr. Johnny” too.

In fact, the kids passed effortlessly between many of the emotions associated with the studying and dying of animal life as they searched the water trays, peered into microscopes and studied preserved specimens spread out around the NRI lab.

The kids expressed fascination and excitement and the gravity of death, in turn.

A girl gently cradled a large jar that held the dead and preserved body of a baby harp seal, stroking its nose and whiskers through the glass.

One group, made up mostly of boys, affectionately pet a tabby cat, which had been flattened, dissected and preserved, its organs pinned and colour-coded in its splayed rib cage.

The kids’ squeals and shrieks that regularly rang out in the NRI lab on July 26 belied their enthusiasm and fun.

But, when asked how he liked the camp, a boy said, “I feel sad because the bugs die. They can’t go back to their home.”

That didn’t stop this boy from fishing out a large fly larva from the water tray to squish between two microscope slides.

And the shrieks that ensued when the projector screen showed the larva’s guts suddenly squirt out were mixed with horror and glee.

Overall, though, Actua seemed to meet its goal of exposing kids who are under-represented in careers of science, technology, engineering and math to science.

“In our modern world, it’s becoming more and more important to be scientifically aware,” Trevor Moffat, a camp counsellor said July 30.

“It comes up all over in our lives.”

With the Iqaluit camp ending July 31, Actua has travelled to five Nunavut communities this summer so far, and the organization plans on bringing the camp to three more communities by the end of August.

Next up is Qikiqtarjuaq.

The beginnings of Actua can be traced back to a group of undergraduate students at Queen’s University, who ran a science camp for kids on their campus in 1988, according to the organization’s website.

In 1993 Actua was formally formed, and today the science camp travels to every Canadian province and territory, engaging some 225,000 youth, its website says.