News

WHITEHORSE— Sex sells, so we are told, and Yukon College’s Northern Climate ExChange (NCE) is hoping this holds true for science as much as advertising. 

Starting today, NCE is accepting submissions for a contest to find the best slogan to promote awareness of both climate change and safe sex.

Can’t see the connection? Maybe you’re not thinking hard enough. Just look to winners from the previous contest in 2011, including “Stop dangerous emissions” and “Forget your car. Let’s burn some real rubber.”

The winning slogans will be printed on condom wrappers and distributed throughout Yukon this fall.

“Addressing climate change and addressing unsafe sex – both involve adjusting our habits and behaviour to improve our personal health and the health of our communities,” said Holly Bull, Climate Change Research Assistant at NCE. “We hope this campaign and contest gets people talking and leads to positive change.”

WHITEHORSE— Elise McCormick and Joanne Sherrard from Dawson City have won the 2017 Yukon Innovation Prize. McCormick and Sherrard were awarded the $60,000 grand prize today by Stephen Rose, Assistant Deputy Minister, Yukon Economic Development, and Stephen Mooney, Director, Cold Climate Innovation at Yukon College, in a ceremony at Ayamdigut campus.

McCormick and Sherrard’s winning project proposed Aurum Birch Sap Skincare – a line of facial care products made with natural compounds found in raw birch sap. They will now use the $60,000 to further bring their idea to commercialization.

“We are really excited. This support from the Yukon Innovation Prize gives us the opportunity to bring our product to market much sooner than we would have been able to,” said Joanne Sherrard.

PELLY CROSSING – A new program at Yukon College’s Pelly Crossing campus starts with a unique assignment – students will build a raft and use it to travel from Fort Selkirk to Minto Landing.

It’s part of the programming at the Huchá Hudän Field School. The month-long pilot Essential Skills project is a collaboration between the College and Selkirk First Nation.

The land-based program blends traditional and cultural skills with critical discourse, workplace readiness certificates, and additional training.

Students will spend their days working with Elders and instructors to learn Northern Tutchone, make and use fish traps, prepare camps, and discuss topics including decolonization, Indigenous governance, and self-determination. Modules include a moose hunt, wilderness first aid and GPS and traditional navigation.

WHITEHORSE—There are still a handful of spots available in the Yukon College summer Kid’s Camp program, but the one-week camps are filling up fast according to Camps manager Veronica Huggard.

Camps explore science, technology and trades for kids and youth aged 5-13. Programs include natural and environmental science, astronomy, mechanics, Minecraft, space exploration, robotics, carpentry, metalwork, coding, chemistry, biology and physics.

Camps begin at Ayamdigut campus June 26, with the first community campus camp taking place in Haines Junction the week of June 12. The communities of Dawson City, Mayo, Carmacks and Ross River will also host week-long camps throughout the summer.

WHITEHORSE – What impact do you have on your own drinking water? James Storey, local ninth-grader, is going to help find out at the Canada-Wide Science Fair being held in Regina this week.
Storey is one of three Yukon youth taking part in a national citizen project that samples water isotopes from communities across Canada. The opportunity to participate in the study came as part of his win at the 30th Annual Yukon/Stikine Regional Science Fair at Yukon College back in February.

For Storey, it’s the second regional win in as many years.

In 2016, his project, Camping Stove Efficiency For Summertime Alpine Hiking, placed, and he traveled to the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Montreal. This year, his project, A Lasting Bond, tested various types of glue for their torsional, tensile and shear strengths. Storey, who goes to F.H. Collins, designed and built two apparatuses to gauge this.

WHITEHORSE—Yukon-born environmental scientist Nadia Joe will address the class of 2017 graduating students at Yukon College convocation this Friday. Through her work in water management and wastewater treatment Joe helps bridge cultural divides over water governance.

Joe is an inaugural Jane Glassco Fellow (2010-12) who is currently working with Champagne and Aishihik First Nations to design a culturally appropriate traditional knowledge study to assess impacts from the Aishihik Hydro project.

Joe is Nlaka'pamux on her mother's side and southern Tutchone/Tlingit—belonging to the Crow Clan of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations—on her father's side. While Joe lives in Vancouver now, she still considers Klukshu home, and visits often with her elders there.

WHITEHORSE— At 38 years old, Richard McLeod is finally enrolled in the program he was looking for when he was 18.

“I was a backyard mechanic with my dad, so I’ve always wanted to be a heavy equipment technician,” said McLeod, a student in Yukon College’s Heavy Equipment Technician (HET) Pre-Apprenticeship Program. “It was definitely something

I searched for when I finished high school. I’m happy to have the chance now, and I think it’s a great opportunity for younger people too.”

The program is currently being offered at the College’s Dawson City campus, in a mobile trailer that travels between community campuses to facilitate opportunities like this – an 18-week pre-apprenticeship that will give McLeod a head start in the trade.

$3 million investment will create jobs, expand research and foster innovation

WHITEHORSE – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Canadians will be better equipped for the well-paying middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow as a result of a $3.06 million investment in Yukon College.

This joint federal-territorial investment was announced today by Larry Bagnell, Member of Parliament for Yukon, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, by Dr. Judith Arnold, Deputy Minister of Education, on behalf of the Honourable Tracy-Anne McPhee, Yukon Minister of Education, and by Dr. Karen Barnes, President and Vice Chancellor of Yukon College.

Whitehorse—Yukon College will deliver a brand new course that addresses national changes to the standards for using permanent wood foundations in building construction.

The two-day course, running April 27 and 28, focusses on changes to the guidelines set out by the Canadian Standards Association for wood foundation structures. These include technical rules as well as new allowances for three-storey construction, and longer building spans.

“These changes create more opportunity because you can have larger rooms and bigger houses,” said Henry Walthert, Executive Director of Wood Preservation Canada (WPC), which is co-hosting the course with the College and the Canadian Wood Council.

The class won’t be a regular offering at the College, but will serve as a model, to be refined for various audiences and offered across Canada.

Whitehorse – A few new bridges are going up in Whitehorse this weekend – 132 of them, to be exact. That’s the number of entries in the 24th Annual Bridge Building competition taking place at Porter Creek Secondary School this Saturday, April 8.

The event, organized by Science Adventures at Yukon College and Engineers Yukon, attracted 211 students from 13 schools in the territory.

Tantalus Community School in Carmacks has the most entries, with 20 bridges. Ghùch Tlâ Community School in Carcross, and Jack Hulland Elementary in Whitehorse follow closely, with 19 bridges each.

The contest challenges teams of up to four students to build the lightest bridge capable of holding the most weight. To achieve this, contestants use wooden coffee stir sticks, white glue and dental floss.

WHITEHORSE—Four ideas from five Yukon innovators have been shortlisted for the 2017 Yukon Innovation Prize. The finalists will each receive $10,000 to further develop their idea and compete for the grand prize of $60,000.

WHITEHORSE—Two members of the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB) will be at Yukon College next week to give a public talk on research ethics and provide training to the College’s Research Ethics Board (REB).

Dr. Sharon Freitag directs the research ethics office at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and Dr. Rachel Zand directs the research ethics office at the University of Toronto.

“Training in research ethics sets the standards for responsible conduct in human research. It focusses researchers on the need to be accountable to the public and contribute to the good of society as a whole,” said Freitag. “While one might think that these principles are intuitive, history has shown us that continuous education and training is needed.”

Clint Sawicki, Interim Vice President Research at the College said research ethics has grown to encompass more than just clinical medical trials.