Yu-Ru Lee with junior students at Bayside Academy, Port Hope Simpson, NL.
From 2002 until 2014, Geoff Rayner-Canham, FCIC, together with environmental chemistry students from the Grenfell Campus of the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Corner Brook, visited schools in Labrador, Newfoundland, Quebec and Nunavut with their Chemistry Outreach program. Thanks in part to a grant from the CIC Chemical Education Fund, Rayner-Canham and two new chemistry students resumed the outreach program this past October. By road and ferry they visited schools from Cartwright in Labrador to Quebec, visiting eight schools, presenting 12 sessions and driving 2,066 kilometres. (Grenfell Campus provided the van and covered fuel costs.)
Rayner-Canham says that it was the two students, Robin Taylor from Nova Scotia and Yu-Ru Lee from Taiwan who made the outreach successful. Particularly gratifying was the number of girls who stayed after the sessions to discuss chemistry and chemistry-related careers, Rayner-Canham adds. To make the outreach possible, funding was also obtained from Esteem Women in Newfoundland and the Quick Start program at Memorial University.