April 22, 2010

Contest hopes to encourage kids to seek careers in Earth Sciences

(Calgary, Alberta) – A national contest for kids sparked by an urgent need to attract young people to the Earth sciences announced its winners today. After receiving entries from hundreds of students from across the country, the 2nd annual WHERE Challenge has awarded more than $13-thousand in six national, 33 regional and three school prizes.

The WHERE Challenge is a national contest endorsed by the Canadian Earth sciences community and sponsored by Encana Corporation that asks students aged 10 – 14 years to discover what on Earth is in their stuff and WHERE on Earth it comes from.

The national grand prize winners are as follows:

10 – 12 years:

Best Overall ($1,000): “Green Fireworks”, Leif Blake & Michael Kishchuck, Whitehorse, YK

Best Creative ($750): “A Walk down the Lego Brick Road”, Amanda Tetrault’s Ecole River Heights Middle School Grade 7 “Lego”, Saskatoon, SK

Best Research ($750): “Memoires d’un casier”, Ksenia Bilaniuk, Georgetown, ON

(Honourable Mention: “What are glasses made of”, Grace Knowles, Cam Knowles & Mr. Logan, Calgary, AB)

13 – 14 years:

Best Overall ($1,000): “Quartz Clock”, Wayne Fang, Georgetown District High School, Georgetown, ON

(Honourable Mention: “What is a Refrigerator made of?”, Anna Ananchenko, Thornhill, ON)

Best Creative ($750): “The Aluminum Journey”, Blake Nicol, Nelson, BC

Best Research ($750): “What’s Inside Earphones”, Ashley Ho, Saskatoon, SK

The three school winners of $1,000 each are: Vincent Massey Junior High, Calgary AB; Montgomery Elementary, Saskatoon, SK; and Georgetown District High School, Georgetown, ON.

For a list of all 33 regional winners, please visit www.earthsciencescanada.com/where.

"At Encana, we rely on the best and the brightest people, including Earth scientists, to help us in the development of North America's natural gas resources - so supporting science education makes sense to us,” said Patricia Etris, Team Lead, Community Investment, Encana Corporation. “The WHERE Challenge fuels interest in science and the environment for young learners with its fun and creative approach to exploring our interaction with the Earth.”

Dozens of school classrooms and hundreds of students participated in this year’s Challenge. Contest organizers hope it raises awareness about the importance of non-renewable Earth resources and encourages young people to consider a career in Earth sciences.

“A lot of people think of geologists when they think of careers in Earth sciences,” said John Boyd, WHERE Challenge organizer and judge. “But there are dozens of other areas like oceanography, paleontology, environmental education, meteorology and seismology, to name just a few; they all offer tremendous opportunities to work, learn and travel the world.”

Both regional and national judging committees made up of dozens of Earth science professionals from across Canada deliberated on WHERE Challenge entries received from as far away as Whitehorse, Yukon and Amherst, Nova Scotia. Among the submissions were essays, posters, videos and multimedia presentations. Judges say they were impressed with the quality of many of this year’s entries, particularly some submitted by younger participants.

“We were pretty amazed that grade five students came up with some of the concepts that they did,” said Amanda McCallum, Outreach Geologist with the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Natural Resources and WHERE Challenge judge. “We were really surprised by the knowledge level in this age group.”

Despite the recent economic downturn, experts say a crippling labour crunch is looming for the Earth sciences sector. According to several forecasts by organizations such as the Petroleum Human Resources Council and the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences, a wave of expected retirements and declining student enrollments means a critical gap could start emerging within the next few years.

All WHERE Challenge national, regional and school winning entries can be seen on the contest website at www.earthsciencescanada.com/where.

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For more details, please visit www.earthsciencescanada.com/where or contact:

Jennifer Lyall / Phone 403.818.8984 / Email lyalljennifer@shaw.ca