Nunavik students take top honours at provincial, national science fairs

Jenny Okituk and Elaijah Isaac show off their bronze medals at a May 20 ceremony following the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Montreal. (PHOTO BY HUGO JOURDAIN)

Salluit students Elaijah Isaac and Jenny Okituk stand by their project Qullik 2.0 during the Nunavik Regional Science Fair in April. The project, which just won a bronze medal at a national science fair, which looks at which types of fuel burn longest in the traditional Inuit lamp. (PHOTO COURTESY OF KSB)

There’s been a buzz around science at Salluit’s Ikusik school in recent years, and that buzz just got a little louder.

Two Secondary 2 students just came home wearing bronze medals in the Aboriginal category of the Canada-Wide Science Fair, hosted May 16 to May 20 in Montreal.

Elaijah Isaac and Jenny Okituk had already impressed judges in Nunavik and Quebec with their project, Qullik 2.0, when they competed at local and regional science fairs earlier this spring.

Qullik 2.0 looks at the different types of fuel you can burn in a traditional Inuit lamp, and which fuels burn better than others.

The idea was Okituk’s, inspired by her own experience burning a qulliq at home.

“We started talking about it, and we began experimenting with all the different kinds of oil that we can buy at the store,” said Isaac, 15. “We chose that project because it’s our culture.”

The pair tried out cooking oils, like corn and sunflower oil, Crisco (a favourite among local elders, the students said) and then traditional animal fat from seal beluga.

The winner? Following their experiments, the students discovered that sunflower oil burns the longest.

“It was really exciting when they announced our names,” Isaac said of the bronze medal win.

“It was awesome,” added Okituk, 14, who said the pair has enjoyed a lot of attention since they returned home to Salluit.

Ikusik school also produced another award-winning scientist at this year’s Quebec Aboriginal Science Fair, hosted last April.

Secondary 5 student Lucassie Ammamatuaq came home with a first place prize for his project, which looks at how music can be used to treat psychological trauma.

“In my research, I found that all kinds of music can be therapeutic,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter what kind of music, as long as they’re using it right.”

Amaamatuaq said therapists and doctors suggest listing to calming music, undistracted, for a period of 10-20 minutes to help soothe anxieties.

Hugo Jourdain, the secondary-level science teacher at Ikusik for the last five years, said his students are responsible for choosing their own project ideas, which he then helps them build on.

Ikusik students have developed more of an interest in science since a fellow student, Jeannie Puxley, returned home from the 2014 Canada-Wide Science fair with a first-place award for her homemade light therapy system.

“It takes awhile to implant this idea to win a science fair,” Jourdain said. “But it’s starting to be more popular.”