WHITEHORSE - One instructor from each of Canada’s Territorial Colleges has been named as an Outstanding Adult Educator. The instructors and their work will be highlighted this afternoon at the closing ceremony of the first ever Northern Adult Basic Education Symposium, a professional development conference held at Yukon College this week.

Adult educators perform a vital role in the north, providing adults with an opportunity to improve their literacy, numeracy and essential skills levels as they work toward employment or pursue further educational opportunities.

The award-winning instructors are Patty Moore, instructor/coordinator at Yukon College’s Haines Junction community campus, Bryan O’Hagan, Developmental Studies instructor at Aurora College’s Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith, NWT, and Rex Willie, instructor at Nunavut Arctic College’s Arctic Bay campus.

Cold Climate Innovation (CCI) of the Yukon Research Centre has partnered with the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), to conduct a technological assessment of an essential part of northern homes: the heat recovery ventilation system (HRV).

HRV’s are a vital component to maintaining the health of both a building and its inhabitants. A HRV is a mandatory requirement for new buildings in Whitehorse; it exchanges stale air in a home for fresh outdoor air in a more cost-effective manner when the machine is maintained and operating efficiently. This project aims to determine how HRVs perform in extreme northern climates and how they can be designed and installed to better meet northern needs.

WHITEHORSE-Yukon College and Nunavut Arctic College have been recognised for Northern Adult Basic Education (NABE) programs offered by each institution in 2013.

After reviewing over 100 programs across Canada, the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Essential Skills Inventory Project (FIMESIP) has selected the Heavy Equipment Operator Essential Skills program offered in Pelly Crossing, Yukon, and the NABE Enhancement initiative offered in 18 communities in Nunavut as two of 10 case studies that best embody 12 Markers of Promising Practice.

The 12 Markers include Indigenous control and ownership of the programming, partnerships, a learner-centered approach, employer involvement, and direct workplace experience.

The Northern Climate ExChange (NCE) of the Yukon Research Centre was awarded $122,502 from Natural Resources Canada to lead a cost-benefit analysis of adaptation options for a mine access road in the Northwest Territories.  This project will help the NCE take climate change adaptation planning to a new level for industry.

NCE is working with a multi-disciplinary team from Risk Sciences International, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and Nodelcorp, to study the Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter ice road.  This road provides access to three active mines in the Northwest Territories and is one of the longest and heavily used ice roads in the world.

WHITEHORSE—Minister of Education Elaine Taylor announced approval of a funding project today with Yukon College, committing an additional $2,540,772 for the continued operation of the Northern Institute of Social Justice through to March 31, 2019.

“The Yukon government is pleased to support the work of the Northern Institute of Social Justice because it has far-reaching benefits,” Education Minister Elaine Taylor said. “Front-line workers gain the knowledge and skills they can use to help their clients, First Nation and Yukon government service providers have resources to train their staff, and ultimately, citizens are better served with well-trained service providers.”

The Northern Climate ExChange (NCE) of the Yukon Research Centre has just received $186,499 from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to conduct research on permafrost and infrastructure in Ross River, Yukon.

Permafrost thaw has damaged Ross River infrastructure and this research aims to better understand which buildings are vulnerable to permafrost and how to manage existing buildings and future construction in a changing climate.

Yukon College students have partnered with the Yukon Research Centre (YRC) to analyze the oldest weather data in Yukon history. The results from the MATH 105 (Introduction to Statistics) class suggest that temperatures in some Yukon communities have either increased significantly or have become more extreme in their variation over the last century. 

These statistics students used weather data from the YRC Data Server that had been collected from the White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) log books of 1902 to 1957. The goal of the assignment was to see what kind of overall change in the average monthly temperatures have occurred over the last 100 years in 5 Yukon communities: Dawson City, Mayo, Carmacks, Whitehorse and Carcross.  This historical data is being compared with more recent temperature records kept by Environment Canada.

Whitehorse - Science Adventures at Yukon College and the Association of Professional Engineers of Yukon are pleased to welcome everyone to the 21st Annual Bridge Building Contest Saturday, April 5, at Porter Creek Secondary School in the gym.

During the past three months, over 200 Yukon students, adults, families and corporate teams have been building bridges out of wooden coffee stir sticks, white glue and dental floss.  The challenge is to build the lightest bridge that can hold the most weight. The excitement is seeing what loads these bridges can endure before they break.

“The entries this year show a lot of innovation and dedication,” said Heather Dundas, Coordinator of Science Adventures at the Yukon Research Centre, Yukon College. “Students and families are learning engineering principles, design concepts, building skills, and teamwork, and having fun doing it.”

Yukon Research Centre (YRC) scientists have just received a research grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to study a new method of sequestering heavy metals for mine site restoration.

Soil scientist, Dr. Katherine Stewart, and water chemist, Dr. Amelie Janin have combined disciplines to examine how to prevent the transfer of heavy metals to plants and water by using leonardite, a naturally occurring carbon-rich mineral. The scientists predict that heavy metals in mine tailings will bond to the leonardite, preventing plant absorption and water transportation of the metals. They also hypothesize that the leonardite will assist in revegetation by retaining nutrients and moisture in the soil, conditions beneficial for plant growth.

WHITEHORSE – Dr. Ellen Bielawski believes that if scientists understand Indigenous Knowledge they will produce stronger analyses and interpretations of the North than if they restrict themselves only to western scientific methods.

“Science doesn’t have all the answers. Closing our minds to other forms of knowledge is not a good way to seek solutions to our problems. The world is complicated, and knowledge is like any other resource – the greater diversity in the different ways of knowing, the more we are enriched by it,” said Bielawski.

The Yukon College-based University of Alberta professor teaches in the Northern Environmental and Conservation Sciences (ENCS) degree program with the aim of encouraging future scientists to consider Indigenous Knowledge and the social context of their work.