Root and STEM

More students in remote, rural, and Indigenous communities in Canada will have opportunities to become proficient in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), thanks to the Drax Foundation.

As a young Gitxsan and Cree-Métis girl growing up in Gitanmaax First Nation in northern British Columbia, Janna Wale loved school—Now a policy advisor at the Canadian Climate Institute, Wale talks to Karen Pinchin about her earliest memories and the educators who helped her integrate her scientific career with her Indigeneity.

Clean water is a right for all; the human race, animals, and the water itself. Just as clean water is a right, so is the ability to identify if water is clean.

Art is a great way to get creative, fire up different parts of the brain, and see something in a new way. To make colourful, sustainable inks that don’t come with excess packaging or contain microplastics that end up in nature, just reach for plants from the kitchen, forest, or garden.

Born in Little Buffalo, a remote Alberta community ringed by oil extraction efforts, Melina Laboucan-Massimo knows the feeling of being helpless in the face of a warming planet. Every time her family drove across their traditional Lubicon Cree First Nation homelands, the landscape felt drier, its vegetation less vibrant.

The Tla-o-qui-aht Nation’s territory extends from one of the few remaining ancient temperate rainforests down to the Pacific Ocean. It is a place of thousand-year-old cedars up to 12 metres tall. Elk run through the misty woods, and black bears catch salmon as they migrate upstream, pulled back to rivers and streams by an unstoppable urge to spawn the next generation where they themselves hatched.

Now, Willard is an artist, curator, and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Okanagan. A mixed Secwépemc and settler, Willard’s research is focused in part on providing a view of the art world in small towns, rural centres, and on reserve. As an artist, curator, and educator, Holly Schmidt is trying to put a frame around something that is often taken for granted: the natural world around us.

Animals adapt, physically and behaviourally, as a means of survival, so they can reach their main food sources, fend off predators, and survive seasonal changes in the weather. Whether we realize it or not, we see the results of animal adaptation all the time, like when carnivorous animals rip flesh with their sharp canine teeth or when prey travel in herds because there is strength in numbers. Survival isn’t the only outcome, however; when animals develop new adaptations, they also develop new relationships with their environments. The monarch butterfly is a great example. Its larvae feed on milkweed leaves, which have a strong, distasteful odour and are poisonous. The monarch adapted so that it is able to digest this poisonous plant and because of its smell, predators keep away from the butterfly and its eggs.

In Ontario’s City of Kawartha Lakes and Peterborough, shoppers can find loads of creators to help stock their cupboards, wardrobes, and minds, all the while decreasing their environmental footprint.

For many students, bullying is and always has been a part of school life. The rise of social media has only made matters worse. According to the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, that year, 71 per cent of kids aged 12 to 17 experienced at least one form of bullying, while 25 per cent reported being cyberbullied. 

Voice Technology for high school students. In teams of two, 12 students competed at the Lindsay Makerspace over two-and-a-half days of intense learning, hacking, and presentation. For this hackathon, the goal was to come up with an idea for a new Alexa skill and code it using the beginner-friendly MIT App Inventor platform. Every participant left with an Alexa to continue their coding initiatives post-hackathon.

Julia Young created an online safety podcast for teens called Harnessing the Benefits: The Digital World and was surprised to learn just how advanced artificial intelligence (AI) is nowadays, and the ways in which online education and digital safety are constantly growing.

When Aidan Pine was in the first year of his linguistics degree at the University of British Columbia, he wanted to get experience working with language revitalization outside his coursework. He joined a research project, working with speakers to create a dictionary for the Gitksan language, spoken by the Gitksan Nation of British Columbia, which the researchers hoped ultimately to make into an app.

At the time of this writing, artificial intelligence (AI) is basking in the glow of an enormous spotlight. Initially seen as a concept of science fiction, AI—the simulation of human intelligence by machines—has come to mesmerize people all over the world. Millions of people are using AI software programs to help problem-solve, create content, or just have a conversation.

Back in 1991, the World Wide Web was new, exciting, and fairly limited in use compared to today. But more than 30 years later, the Web has evolved, guided by the age of the internet and artificial intelligence (AI). Nowadays, there is much more we can do with a wi-fi connection than ever before, but there are also more dangers to watch out for, especially for younger users. Learning to be safe online is just as important as it is offline.

In the last year, there have been countless cyberattacks, ranging from service disruptions to critical data breaches, and the risks continue to escalate. As students spend more time online, it is crucial that they are aware of present dangers and how to protect themselves.  

As an Indigenous educator—a technology teacher in Ontario—I have watched how literacy affects which concepts students are able to comprehend and discuss. Words hold power.

Jeela Palluq-Cloutier had been teaching and sharing Inuktitut for years when the Pirurvik Centre, a learning facility based in Iqaluit, asked for her help with a unique project. 

Born and raised in Iqaluit, I grew up speaking both Inuktitut and English at home. I was always reminded to speak Inuktitut as much as possible as a child.

Science, math, and art are all around us! From animals to technology, there’s a lot for students to get excited about. STEAM education has been shown to have many benefits, from enhancing problem-solving skills to encouraging teamwork.

Colonial constructions—which include programming languages, like Javascript, Python, and HTML—continue to prioritize the interests of Western cultures while disregarding the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous Peoples.

AR has the potential to bring many things to life in new and exciting ways. It allows us to explore new universes, interact with characters, and explain learning concepts more effectively.

For years, there’s been a push to prepare high school students better for the STEAM-focused job market with more hands-on classes, access to technology, and the removal of financial barriers.

Pinnguaq’s own Sherisse Richards, a senior digital skills educator, spoke with Root & STEM about community efforts to bring Scratch to classrooms all over the world.