Grade 9 students engage in a chemistry experiment at Medicine Hat High School on Jan. 30 as part of Project Minerva.--ALBERTA NEWSPAPER GROUP PHOTO ANNA SMITH
Grade 9 girls from across southeastern Alberta gathered to explore potential futures in STEM alongside Praxis Science Outreach’s Project Minerva.
Science outreach co-ordinator Patty Rooks oversaw roughly 35 students from the city and beyond in a series of scientific workstations at Medicine Hat High School on Tuesday, from monitoring air quality to basic chemistry experiments; the goal, said Rooks, is to help young women find a passion for science.
“I just have a passion for showing the girls the careers that are in our area,” said Rooks. “I appreciate the urban community, but especially the rural community and the girls there. It’s my hope that they go away to school, get your PhD, get your Masters or your bachelors or your trade, or whatever they want to do, and come back here, because these careers really do exist in our community.”
This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the project, which Rooks stressed would not be possible without the generosity of the volunteers and donors, including more than 30 women in Medicine Hat and the surrounding area which volunteered their mornings to mentor future scientists in their fields, from veterinarians to chemical engineers.
“I don’t think people know all these careers are right here,” said Rooks. “We have a hospital, and they think all we have is nurses there. No, we have occupational therapists, we have speech therapists, physiotherapy, ultrasound, and that’s just off the top of my head, in one building.”
The program is designed to come at a critical time for students, as Grade 9 students are about to choose their courses for high school and begin to consider their futures and what may be required in order to achieve them, as well as potentially expose them to fields they may not have realized were career options.
“Today has been just amazing,” said Rooks, “And we couldn’t do it if it wasn’t for our donors. We had the community come together and donate our lunch for us. And the Alberta Women’s Science Network was generous and gave us funds to purchase busing to get the girls to all their mentor sites this morning, and supplies for our afternoon workshops.”
Praxis has been unable to do some of its programs in recent years due to lack of funding, explained Rooks, which makes the help of the greater community all the more vital to helping Project Minerva take off year after year.
“Our board really felt this is one of our signature programs to continue, as it’s so important for the girls,” said Rooks. “We’re just incredibly grateful.”
