ANTIGONISH, NS. - September 24, 2008 - A $200,000 investment from the Imperial Oil Foundation will allow StFX University to enhance and expand its science outreach program on campus and in schools throughout northeastern Nova Scotia.

Imperial Oil announced at a news conference held Sept. 24 on the StFX campus that it will fund $50,000 a year for the next four years through the Imperial Oil Science Outreach Program. The program will help bring the fun and fascination of science to children in schools throughout the region.

"The implications are clear. If we are to compete in today's technological world, we need to produce more of our own math, science and engineering graduates. And we need to reach out to students at an early age to develop their interest in these subjects," says Monica Samper, President, Imperial Oil Foundation.

Building on an existing multidisciplinary outreach program, the Imperial Oil Science Outreach Program will be expanded and enhanced to serve the science education needs of an increased number of teachers in the region, Grade Primary-12 students, and students in StFX's Faculty of Science and School of Education.

The program will operate both in schools and on the StFX campus.

"We in the chemistry department are delighted with this announcement," says department chair Dr. James Cormier. "Outreach has been an important part of the department for many years, due mainly to the work of Dr. Truis Smith-Palmer. It contributes to the education of the participating StFX students and allows us to expose students of all grades to science in ways that would otherwise be unavailable in this area. This donation provides invaluable resources to continue and expand this work."

Imperial's investment will enable teachers to provide hands-on learning opportunities with confidence, and foster new real-world experiences for participating undergraduates at StFX who will themselves go on to become scientists and science educators.

In-school outreach will include the use of science education kits for distribution to Nova Scotia elementary schools, as well as in-school presentations of science fundamentals by StFX faculty and senior students.

On-campus outreach will consist of continuing and expanding StFX's existing X-Chem Outreach program of summer science camps for children, and the offering of upgrading and training for science teachers.

StFX faculty and students have been engaged in science-based outreach for some time, via the X-Chem Program and the School of Education’s kit-based Science Outreach Program.

X-Chem, which promotes science, particularly chemistry, has been developed over the past 20 years, but has become particularly active in the last six years. The in-school and on-campus presentations bring fun, hands-on science learning experiences to thousands of children a year. X-Chem Outreach also offers seven summer camps each year "“ three chemistry camps, three general science camps, and a girls’ science camp.

The School of Education provides outreach to four school boards in northeastern Nova Scotia: the Strait Regional School Board, the Cape Breton Regional School Board, the Mi'kmaq School Board, and the Chignecto Central School Board. The distribution of self-contained science kits has proven to be an effective method of reaching teachers and students over a large and mostly rural region. Teachers have reported many successes with the current kits, which cover all aspects of the Nova Scotia science curriculum and include equipment, resources and lesson plans.

The funding will help buy additional resource materials for the kits, hire StFX students to help in the development and maintenance of the kits, and increase the number and quality of kits brought into schools. The School of Education will also be able to purchase video cameras and audio resources and computer hardware/software to help in the research data collection and analysis of classroom teaching, as well as to build a website to share resources with teachers.

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