WHERE Challenge encourages Earth Science Awareness
Launched in celebration of International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) and National Science and Technology Week, the first annual WHERE Challenge is asking Canadian youth aged 10 to 14 to discover: What on Earth is in your stuff and where on Earth does it come from?
By encouraging youth to consider the many ways the Earth’s resources support everyday life, the Challenge aims to get students to consider earth sciences as potential educational and career opportunity.
The WHERE Challenge is inviting students and schools to compete for thousands of dollars in regional and national cash prizes by creating a story around any object in their home or school, identifying one or more non-renewable Earth resources found in that object and where on Earth those resources come from. The deadline for contest entries is February 28, 2009. Details are available at www.earthsciencescanada.com.
According to the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences (CFES), Canada is facing a looming and wide-ranging shortage of qualified earth scientists. Oil and gas, mining, environmental and geotechnical, government and academia are all predicted to face serious challenges in attracting new talent. “We’re experiencing growing shortages across our entire profession,” said CFES President Ian Young. “The time to attract students to the Earth sciences is now, because the gap between the talent we have and the talent we need is reaching a point where it will begin to affect the Canadian economy.”