Manitoba students winners at national FNUniv science fair
- Katie Doke Sawatzky | June 13, 2017
Two elementary-school students from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation in Manitoba are winners of a science award given by First Nations University of Canada at the Canada Wide Science Fair.
Deshawn McKay, 14, and Skylin Desjarlais, 13, from Donald Ahmo School, received the FNUniv Award for the project they presented at the fair, which was held May 15-20 at the University of Regina.
“It’s a vermicomposting project, about fertilizers and looking to find more natural ways of helping plants grow,” said Desjarlais about their project.
The project, called “Wiggling it, Just a little Bit,” examined the effects of worm juice dilutions on the growth of canola seeds they planted in vermicomposted soil in their community.
McKay said the idea for the project came from when a major flood in Crane River in 2012 affected the landscaping and soil quality in their area.
“We wanted to try and find a different way of producing soil so it could help the environment,” he said.
The boys’ won at their school’s science fair and then the Manitoba First Nations Science Fair before moving on to the national event. McKay said participating at the CWSF was exciting because he didn’t think he’d make it that far in the competition.
“I thought I would make it to Winnipeg and then that would be good enough but then we went to Canada Wide and it was a good experience. We met new people that we didn’t know. We made friends,” he said.
Fidgi Gendron, FNUniv associate professor of biology, said when her faculty contacted the CWSF to ask about creating the award, they were on board right away. The award is for students who tackle projects that merge Indigenous traditional knowledge with Western science.
“We wanted to get the kids excited about traditional knowledge,” she said. “It’s a part of the culture, it’s important for them to be able to merge that with curricular science … that was kind of the goal for us here, to get them excited about culture and science.”
McKay and Desjarlais each received $250. They’re not sure yet how they’ll spend the money.
“Maybe on school supplies,” said Desjarlais.