APRIL 2007 ISSUE
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SECRETS FROM THE CHAMBER |
Future Meets Present
In NEGW Events
BY ALTHEA ADAMS
Public Relations Coordinator
APEGGA members took time from the present to do some Building the Future, in celebration of National Engineering & Geoscience Week. Students, teachers and the public joined APEGGA in taking math and science out of the classroom and into the world of hands-on applications, Feb. 22 to March 3.
Building the Future, this year’s theme, highlighted the significant contributions engineers, geologists and geophysicists have made – and continue to make – by building Alberta’s future through industry and innovations.
For the 12th straight year, APEGGA teamed up with the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald to produce a 24-page colour supplement, highlighting the province’s vibrant engineering and geoscience communities. It hit the streets Feb. 22 with an activity page for children, stories about 12 innovative engineers and geoscientists and their work, and much more.
The week officially kicked off Feb. 22 in Calgary with an event hosted by Bantrel at the Devonian Gardens, and in Edmonton at ATCO Electric. Corporate teams built towers out of straws and pipe cleaners as part of a corporate challenge. Ten teams from various organizations competed in Calgary and another 11 in Edmonton.
This year’s winners were Quorum Business Solutions in Calgary and the City of Edmonton’s transportation team. When asked how a group of software engineers built a better tower than structural engineers, an unidentified member of the Quorum team said: “We drink a lot of pop using straws when we are designing software. We are familiar with straws.”
Over 300 students took part in the APEGGA Science Olympics in Calgary, on Feb. 24 at the Stampede Grounds. This year, the Hon. Ron Liepert, Alberta Minister of Education, attended the event and presented certificates and medals to the Grade 1 to Grade 6 winners. The APEGGA-sponsored Edmonton Science Olympics attracted 375 students to the Shaw Conference Centre on March 3.
Science olympics were also held in Red Deer and the Peace Country, thanks in part to funding from the APEGGA Education Foundation. Among the many events were testing the voltage of fruit, building Rube Goldberg devices and making sound proof boxes.
One elementary school student said: “I think the science olympics are awesome. I am really happy that I was able to be part of my school’s team.”
APEGGA also held Family Science Nights for elementary schools in Calgary and Edmonton. In Calgary, the four Science Nights attracted more than 1,200 family members, while Edmonton saw over 2,000 people at seven nights.
These nights were deemed a huge success by the students, parents and school staff who participated in hands-on science activities and watched APEGGA volunteers conduct science demonstrations.
Engineering students at the University of Alberta joined the NEGW
celebrations by hosting a variety of events, including a pancake breakfast, a food sculpture challenge, and engineering banquet and a mixer put on by undergraduate geophysics students.
Both the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta hosted speech contests. Topics ranged from whether there’s equal opportunity for women in engineering and geology, to global warming.
In Calgary, news of NEGW activities appeared on Citytv, Global TV and Shaw TV, and an article appeared in the Calgary Herald. Edmonton received great coverage on Citytv and Global TV, and in the Edmonton Examiner, the Edmonton Journal, the Edmonton Sun and Edmonton 24 Hours.