Students combine science and tradition at Nunavik science fair

Lekenhnhonha:wi Montour from the Karonhianonhnha School in Kahnawake shows how healthy kidneys filter out impurities properly as compared to diseased ones in her project, “Are you kidney [kidding] me?.” To show this, she put lightly coloured water through a healthy kidney (on the right) and yellow water in the diseased kidney (on the left) to show what happens when kidneys don’t filter properly. (PHOTO BY ISABELLE DUBOIS)

Anne Sequaluk of Kuujjuaq stands beside her prize-winning project “Bactéries chien vs. humain” in which she studied whether the mouth of dogs was cleaner than humans. (PHOTO BY ISABELLE DUBOIS)

It was the students’ turn to teach this week at Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq, where more than 100 aboriginal elementary and high school students from around Quebec presented science projects covering everything from health, food and nutrition to engineering, manufacturing and northern living.

The school gymnasium was packed with displays during the Quebec Aboriginal Science Fair, held for the first time in Nunavik, from March 18 to 20.

And after judges from the Quebec Aboriginal Science and Engineering Association awarded prizes for the best science projects, top winners could look towards moving up to the next level — taking their projects to the Canada-wide science fair in Lethbridge, Alberta, May 11 to May 18.

Yet the fair gave everyone who participated a chance to shine.

“You’re all winners,” Annie Popert, director general of the Kativik School Board, told students at the closing ceremonies on March 20, when the awards were handed out. “It takes a lot of courage and dedication to do what you’ve done.”

Projects were just as creative as they were scientific, offering visitors to the fair some quick lessons on health hazards, wintertime living in the North and the science behind the traditional life on the land, as well as engineering, physics and chemistry.

A project about a solar furnace by Kuujjuaq students Nathan Okpik and Alexandre Gagné showed how heat from the light can create warm wind, tapping into the sun as a solar furnace, while “The Current” by Levina Alaku and Tommy Qisiiq from Kangiqsujuaq featured a generator.

Zanaïb Souit of Chisasibi vividly showed the effects of smoking with the help of pig’s lungs for her project.

Using an air pump, Souit demonstrated how easily healthy lungs inflate compared to diseased lungs. Visitors got to pump air into the pig lungs and feel the organs with gloved hands to see for themselves what these felt like — and they discovered the lungs mimicking those the smokers were much harder.

Another project by Lekenhnhonha:wi Montour from the Karonhianonhnha School in Kahnawake showed how healthy kidneys filtered properly, compared to diseased ones. Montour suffers from kidney disease herself, making her project that much more interesting to do — and explain.

Many exhibits described engineering problems with models, such as one by students at Iguarsivik School in Puvirnituq, which described energy collected from volcanoes, and another by Kuujjuaq students showing how shifting cargo in ship’s holds affects water levels.

Other students created projects that described the science of traditional aboriginal life and practices, such as living on the land in winter, pottery, and soap-making from animal and plant elements in the Arctic.

Salluit students Judith Naluiyuk and Johnny Yuliusie made soap with a base of misiraq (seal or whale oil), with which Inuit used to use to clean themselves in the past, although, for their project they added essential oils such as cranberry, mint and lavender.

At the fair’s closing ceremonies, Nally Weetaluktuk of Nunavik applauded all the students for their efforts, and encouraged them to take their interest in science further. His own keen interest in “learning something that the world didn’t already know” led him to take Master’s studies in physics at McGill University, he said.

All student presenters, ranging from Grade 5 to Secondary 5 (the equivalent of Grade 11 in Nunavut), received participation medals.

And the judges rewarded the top three projects from each grade with commemorative plaques bearing an inuksuk on to remind them of their visit to Nunavik and Inuit.

First-prize winners received trophies and a cash prize of $500, while second and third prize-winners got prizes of $350 and $200.

Lukasi Tukkiapik and Jeremy Davies of Kuujjuaq won in the Secondary 4 and 5 category for their project on the level of mercury in brook trout, “Le taux de mercure dans l’omble de fontaine.” Their project looked at the level of mercury in brook trout and compared it to other species like Arctic char, Atlantic salmon and even seal and beluga, using equipment at the Nunavik Research Centre in Kuujjuaq. An Immersion Prize was also awarded to Tukkiapik and Davies who won a one-day special visit at a research centre in southern Quebec.

Souit of Chisasibi won in the Secondary 1 category for her gripping pig lung display.

Anne Sequaluk of Kuujjuaq won in the Secondary 2-3 category with her project “Bactéries chien vs. humain” in which she studied whether the mouth of dogs was cleaner than humans. (And as it turns out, a dog’s mouth is even cleaner than a human’s mouth even if they brushed their teeth.)

“My mother is proud. Mothers are always proud of their daughters — and my father is proud too,” said Sequaluk who wants to be a baker. “If I can do nutritional science, that could be useful to me.”

An iPod touch was also given out as part of a special challenge, in which students had to guess how many cans of pop were in a display and how many grams of sugar they represented. The winner: Henry Luuku from Ivujivik.

Innalik School in Inukjuak also picked up a prize for science development, for student Sarah Khan’s project “Qu’est-ce que tu touches pour vrai?”, which won the school $1,500 for the purchase of science materials as well as a visit to the school by a researcher.

Grade 6 students from Ts8taïe school of Wendake won a special communication prize.

During the closing ceremony, when they came to present their community of Wendake, which will host the next aboriginal science fair, Tommy Couture-Sioui said “the science fair is a unique experience for us.”

“It’s a chance for the students to create relationships, to develop our scientific mind, working hard to communicate our project with the public,” he said.

Students Coralie Ducheneau-Turgeon and Alison Hervieux-Picard from the Ts8taïe school of Wendake won the cultural heritage prize, presented by Isabelle Parizeau, director general of the Kativik Regional Government, who said reflected that “many cultures were represented this week.”

“Culture is who we are,” she said.

As he presented prizes to Grade 5 students, Johnny Adams of the Nunavik construction firm Laval Fortin Adams said how “it was very interesting to see projects incorporating our traditional (aboriginal) knowledge in science.”

Closing ceremonies also featured a performance by singer and songwriter Etua Snowball of Kuujjuaq, who also had a message for the participants.

Snowball sang a song from his most recent album “Culture Shock,” called “Ajugaittuq,” which talks about how certain things from other cultures can be strange.

“A lot of things you guys did here were strange to me, but it was good,” Snowball, also a high school teacher, told the crowd.

Organizers of next year’s science fair, which will take place in Wendake, ended the evening with a brief speech inviting everyone to their community near Quebec City for 2014.

(with files from Isabelle Dubois and Annie Cloutier)

Students from the Ts8taïe school of Wendake, Coralie Ducheneau-Turgeon and Alison Hervieux-Picard, stand next to their science project about traditional Huron pottery. And on the left, Ts8taïe school students Amy-Ève Lapointe and Tommy Couture-Sioui by their exhibit about the snow snake game (Le jeu du serpent des neiges), one in which they studied the various effects (friction, weight, length, etc.) of the snow snake to determine its effect on speed. (PHOTO BY ISABELLE DUBOIS)