News

Whitehorse - Science Adventures at Yukon College and the Association of Professional Engineers of Yukon are pleased to welcome everyone to the 21st Annual Bridge Building Contest Saturday, April 5, at Porter Creek Secondary School in the gym.

During the past three months, over 200 Yukon students, adults, families and corporate teams have been building bridges out of wooden coffee stir sticks, white glue and dental floss.  The challenge is to build the lightest bridge that can hold the most weight. The excitement is seeing what loads these bridges can endure before they break.

“The entries this year show a lot of innovation and dedication,” said Heather Dundas, Coordinator of Science Adventures at the Yukon Research Centre, Yukon College. “Students and families are learning engineering principles, design concepts, building skills, and teamwork, and having fun doing it.”

Yukon Research Centre (YRC) scientists have just received a research grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to study a new method of sequestering heavy metals for mine site restoration.

Soil scientist, Dr. Katherine Stewart, and water chemist, Dr. Amelie Janin have combined disciplines to examine how to prevent the transfer of heavy metals to plants and water by using leonardite, a naturally occurring carbon-rich mineral. The scientists predict that heavy metals in mine tailings will bond to the leonardite, preventing plant absorption and water transportation of the metals. They also hypothesize that the leonardite will assist in revegetation by retaining nutrients and moisture in the soil, conditions beneficial for plant growth.

WHITEHORSE – Dr. Ellen Bielawski believes that if scientists understand Indigenous Knowledge they will produce stronger analyses and interpretations of the North than if they restrict themselves only to western scientific methods.

“Science doesn’t have all the answers. Closing our minds to other forms of knowledge is not a good way to seek solutions to our problems. The world is complicated, and knowledge is like any other resource – the greater diversity in the different ways of knowing, the more we are enriched by it,” said Bielawski.

The Yukon College-based University of Alberta professor teaches in the Northern Environmental and Conservation Sciences (ENCS) degree program with the aim of encouraging future scientists to consider Indigenous Knowledge and the social context of their work.

WHITEHORSE – The Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining (CNIM) at Yukon College celebrated seven Yukon students graduating yesterday from its new Introduction to Underground Mining Operations program. The ceremony was attended by Education Minister Elaine Taylor, Alaska Labour and Workforce Development Commissioner Dianne Blumer, Yukon College President Dr. Karen Barnes, University of Alaska President Pat Gamble, and representatives from the Yukon mining industry.

“I am proud to offer my congratulations to these Yukon graduates for successfully completing the Underground Mining Operations program offered through the Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining,” said Education Minister Elaine Taylor. “This is one of many training opportunities supported by the Yukon government’s five-year, $11.4 million investment in CNIM to help provide jobs for Yukoners and ensure the labour market has the skilled workers it needs.”

WHITEHORSE - When asked what he thinks of Yukon College, Culinary Arts student George Rivard says, “I love it. I have a hands-on program that challenges me every day and leaves lots of room for creativity and teamwork. My instructors’ doors are always open so I feel supported and inspired here.”

Rivard is not alone. Many Yukon College students share his feelings. The College recently surveyed 272 of the students in credit programs during the fall 2013 term and found that 97 per cent would agree with the phrase “Yukon College is a good learning environment.”

Field Notes and Friends, an exhibit by Yukon artist Nicole Bauberger of 30 oil paintings and 44 encaustic panels from her 100 Dresses projects opens on Thursday March 6 at the Hilltop Bistro at Yukon College. The opening is from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. with Bauberger in attendance.

The opening is part of a triple bill of exhibit openings, entitled Art Crawl on the Hill, happening that night. Next door at the Yukon Arts Centre, beginning at 5:30 p.m., The Rose Parade by Rosemary Scanlon (Yukon), Salutation by Helen O’Connor (Yukon), and Foundling by Michèle Karch-Ackerman (Ontario) will be opening in the Public Art Gallery. Opening in the Community Gallery is Encounters with the Sublime: Kluane National Park through the lenses of Bradford Washburn and Sebastian Salgado, presented in partnership by Parks Canada, the Yukon Arts Centre, and the Village of Haines Junction.

Yukon College and Alexco Resource Corp. have secured a PhD student to study the removal of heavy metals from water. This partnership will enhance the traditional PhD model by combining high level science with business skill development; with great benefit to the student, industry, and the Yukon Territory.

PhD student, Guillaume Nielsen, of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique will be co-supervised by Yukon College’s NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Mine Life Cycle, Dr. Amelie Janin. Nielsen will support the Chair’s goal of building Yukon’s capacity for environmental remediation in partnership with industry and Yukon College’s Centre for Northern Innovation and Mining (CNIM).

Bird biologist, Dave Mossop has put another feather in his cap. His research on Arctic birds over the past 40 years has become a valuable asset to a newly established circumpolar monitoring network, the Tundra Conservation Network.

The Network was created in response to research that suggests a perceived decline in Arctic bird populations in the circumpolar North. Mossop represents Canada in a network that includes all eight nations in the Arctic region.

Mossop has collected data on the Gyrfalcon (jer-fol-ken) and ptarmigan (tar-mi-gen) for nearly four decades. In the late 1990’s he began to see stresses in their populations and upon reaching out to the circumpolar research community he discovered there were similar results around the globe.

WHITEHORSE – Justin O’Hearn studies pornography. This is not altogether surprising, porn is a multi-billion dollar industry and a growing number of writers, commentators and researchers are studying both the business and its effect on society.

What is surprising is that, in an age where ubiquitous internet access provides a gateway to massive amounts of adult content, O’Hearn has chosen to study some of the rarest, hardest to access, non-digital pornography in the western world.

“A class at Simon Fraser University introduced me to the subject of censorship and the ‘Paris edition’, which was late nineteenth and early twentieth century code for an uncensored, illicit book,” said O’Hearn, a University of British Columbia doctoral student and English instructor at Yukon College.

WHITEHORSE - Business Administration diploma students Jessica Dyck, Siearra Fries, and Erin Woods are heading to Montreal to compete in the Vanier College BDC Case Challenge February 7-9. They will be the first team from Yukon College to compete in what has become the most prestigious, national, collegiate level marketing case competition in the country, with 33 teams hailing from British Columbia to Newfoundland.

“We want to move the program beyond lecture-based classes and develop more experiential learning opportunities for our students. A competition such as this allows the students to put a combination of their management, economic, marketing and presentation skills and understanding to the test on real-world business cases,” said Christina Thomas, Chair of the School of Management, Tourism and Hospitality. “It is also an opportunity for the three to see how they stack up against other students from across the country.”

STRING THEORY

String Theory is a show of new work by students at the Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA) in Dawson City. The students were asked to develop projects that work with the concept of creative limitations.

Creative limitation is the practice of purposely restricting a process in some way (through limitations of time, materials, concept, etc) in order to find new and stronger solutions. In other words, what can you create when you are restricted to a set of specific parameters?

Students collectively chose a limited pallet of materials to work with: string, wax, ink, fur & watercolour, along with a single sheet of Stonehenge paper. Although each student was limited to using these—and only these materials—they were completely free to explore and experiment within that framework, and were unrestricted by theory, subject or form.

WHITEHORSE – Whitehorse City Council has been challenged. The senior management team at Yukon College has thrown the gauntlet down to the capital’s elected officials as preparations for the 2014 Community Challenge get underway.

“I think we have a strong team that brings experience from last year’s competition,” said Brian Bonia, team coach and Yukon College Director of Human Resources. “Mayor and Council may be able to out-talk us, but they certainly won’t out-wit or out-play us.”

However, Bonia’s bravado may be for nought, as Challenge veterans and reigning champions, Shay-Per Esthetics’ Beaver Cleavers, plan on a robust defence of their crown.

“We have a slight change in our team line-up, but I don’t think that will stop us from taking the win,” said Chantelle Morcombe, the Beaver Cleavers team captain. Morcombe believes it is their team’s advanced smoosh-boarding skills that have given them the edge two years in a row.