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“StFX and X-Oceans Outreach recognizes the support of the Province of Nova Scotia. We are pleased to work in partnership with the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage to develop and promote our cultural resources for all Nova Scotians.”
We were interviewed by The Xaverian Weekly! Click HERE for the full article.
STFX STUDENT INSPIRES LOVE OF SCIENCE IN YOUTH IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Sept. 2, 2022
Helping grade school children in her home community of Hay River, Northwest Territories fall in love with science was how StFX student Victoria Tweedie-Pitre spent part of her summer.
Ms. Tweedie-Pitre, a third-year honours biology and chemistry student, designed and presented a science outreach program in three schools in the small northern community where she grew up—at the local Francophone school École Boréale (her former high school, where she facilitated activities in French), the English school, Princess Alexandra, and Chief Sunrise, the Indigenous school, meeting with mostly junior high school aged students.
“My goal was for them to fall in love with the science and to want to do more,” says Ms. Tweedie-Pitre, who was awarded a Special Award for Independent Outreach Honorarium funded equally by X-Oceans Outreach and an EDI Capacity grant from the StFX Biology Department.
She planned everything before she left StFX in spring, organized the outreach activities, and shipped the equipment north.
The outreach was particularly important to her, she says, as her experience in the Territories has been that there’s not a lot of drive to pursue much after high school. “Kids don’t realize what else is out there.”
She wanted to help inspire the youth, to show them opportunities that are available.
“Seeing them enjoy it so much, and to find it fascinating, that was kind of my goal, for them to see that science is cool,” she says. “It was great to see them be open and interactive and super into it, and being passionate about it the way I am.”
During each two-hour presentation, she conducted several hands-on, interactive experiments with the students, talking about such subjects as density, proportions of water, and fish and diversity. The students looked under microscopes and even extracted DNA from strawberries.
“I think they loved it,” says Ms. Tweedie-Pitre who spent about a week in the lab with StFX biology senior lab instructor and X-Oceans director Regina Cozzi going over the experiments before she left.
“Victoria did a phenomenal job providing ocean-related STEM activities to youth in her hometown,” Ms. Cozzi says. “From the beginning, she showed strong initiative in designing and planning the program workshops. She contacted the school educators, planned and prepared the activities at StFX, and then delivered the workshops to the communities. We are very proud of everything she accomplished this summer!”
X-Oceans Outreach featured on NSERC PromoScience Impact Stories!
Read the article here: X-Oceans Outreach: promoting diversity both above and below sea level
(Aug. 23, 2022)
June 21, 2022
PHOTO (LEFT TO RIGHT): KATHLEEN GLASGOW, REGINA COZZI, HAJIR AL-OGAIDI, JOCELYNE LEBLANC, JESSICA SWINKELS, D'VAUGHN POWELL, ALLANIQUE HUNTER, LEAH ROGERS, TYLER YIN, JENNIFER VAN DEN HEUVEL, ERIN STEVENS. MISSING: MARYANN BURBIDGE, RANDY LAUFF, CHRIS MARCHAND, KATELYN MACNEIL, RUSSELL WYETH, GRACE WALLS, MEGAN P. FASS, NAOMI ROBINSON, GARETH SANFORD-MACPHEE, JOSHUA BROWN, GABRIEL COZZI, GAVIN HILTZ, VICTORIA TWEEDIE-PITRE.
X-Oceans, an ocean literacy program developed in the StFX Biology Department, is recipient of a three-year award from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, through the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. As part of this funding, X-Oceans was able to purchase a portable marine touch-tank to reach more youth in rural schools. Here, X-Oceans director and senior biology lab instructor Regina Cozzi (second left) and student assistants are pictured by the touch-tank.
A StFX program that promotes ocean literacy to youth in northeastern Nova Scotia has received over $201,000 in funding that will help see the program expand, including purchasing a mobile touch-tank to reach more youth in rural schools.
X-Oceans, an ocean literacy program developed in the StFX Biology Department, is recipient of a three-year award from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, through the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, for a project titled: “X-Oceans: Enhancing Ocean Literacy in Youth in Rural Northeastern Nova Scotia.” This project addresses Ocean Decade Outcome #7: An Inspiring and Engaging Ocean, helping youth to understand and value the ocean in relation to human wellbeing and sustainable development.
X-Oceans director and senior biology lab instructor Regina Cozzi says they’re ecstatic to hear this news.
“We are super happy to be able to expand our outreach and provide ocean literacy to youth in rural communities,” she says. “Because of this funding, we’re now able to visit schools a little further out of our immediate zone, we’re able to get more equipment and supplies and do more activities, and we’re able to increase the manpower to do that.”
Ms. Cozzi says the first thing X-Oceans has purchased is a portable marine touch-tank.
“We can take this touch-tank, load it into a van and go to schools and communities to do outreach,” she says.
“The impact is huge. If you look at rural communities and smaller schools, it’s not always easy for youth to be able to jump in a car and attend a camp at StFX. This approach breaks down that barrier. We can go to them. We reach more youth in that way.”
The tank, she says, will hold a variety of species including different types of local and tropical sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, crabs, lobster and other marine animals.
Bringing this experience to youth will only assist in their mission to help more young people fully understand ocean concepts and how oceans are related to our everyday lives, our health, our climate and much more, she says. X-Oceans is a program that offers hands-on activities and workshops to promote ocean sciences, preservation and marine biodiversity to schools, summer camps both on and off campus, and youth organizations.
X-Oceans also receives funding from NSERC PromoScience and the Canada Summer Jobs program.
It’s existed at StFX for about 13 years but was only more formally organized in 2018. Along with students, many Biology Department members are involved with the program.
Ms. Cozzi says not only is the expanded outreach educating youth in our communities, it’s also helping StFX students (X-Oceans was able to hire about 14 students for its spring-summer period and typically has over 20 students involved in the program year-round) who are gaining experience in leadership, communicating with the public, sharing their knowledge and expertise, and acting as mentors for young learners in promoting ocean-related STEM careers and encouraging the development of youth from local citizens to global citizens.
Ms. Cozzi says this year she’s made it a point to actively recruit more youth from diversified backgrounds, knowing how important it is for younger children to see someone of a similar background as a role model.
This project, she says, has even been endorsed by UNESCO. “Congratulations! After a thorough review process, the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) has endorsed your Decade Project as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (the Ocean Decade),” reads a note from the organization. This provides the project with greater visibility and access to international networks.
“Making information about Canada’s oceans accessible to Canadians, regardless of where they live or how young they are, is foundational to protecting ocean resources now and for future generations. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is pleased to partner with StFX and the X-Oceans program with this innovative educational curriculum that will inspire wonder and curiosity in Nova Scotia youth,” says the Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
X-Oceans student leaders getting ready to do outreach in local rural schools during the 2022 Science Odyssey weeks. From left to right: Sarah Rokosh (Biology), Grace Walls (Biology), Roman Fisher (Physics), Scout McKee (Physics), Tyler Yin (Human Kinetics), Victoria Tweedie-Pitre (Biology) and Allanique Hunter (Biology). Missing from photo: Jocelyn Leblanc (Biology), D'Vaughn Powell (Education) and Hajir Al-Ogaidi (Health Science).
Click on the X-Oceans Camps to see what we are doing for the Science Odyssey weeks!
StFX’s X-Oceans receives TD Friends of the Environment Foundation grant!
Read about it here.
Some of the members of the X-Oceans team including undergraduate and graduate students Emily Lavergne, Ella Maltby, Matt Freeman, Lauren Sobot, Sarah Silver Slayter, Tiffany Bondoc, Sheldon Holmes, Ryan Small, Megan P. Fass, Gavin Hiltz, Madison Pendleton and Martina Gallant. Missing from photo are Lia Blakett, Mackenzie Arndt, Trinity McIntyre, Nicole Cameron and Emilie Knighton.
Check out our latest video: The Wonders of Biodiversity: Science Literacy 2020
Interested in biodiversity in Nova Scotia? See our latest collaboration with Arts Health Antigonish (AHA!).
Visit Spellbound by Nature: A Spell-kit of Nova Scotia’s Nature Words.
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