Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Dawn Pratt has loved science ever since the fourth grade when she became fascinated with a chemistry set her parents gave her.
But Pratt, a chemist from the Muscowpetung First Nation in Saskatchewan, said, “there is a big gap” between Indigenous students and non-Indigenous who go on to have careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Although Indigenous people make up about 5 per cent of the country’s total population, they only make up two per cent of all of those working STEM jobs in Canada, according to the Ottawa think tank Conference Board of Canada.
To turn this trend around, Pratt says Indigenous students need to be better shown how science directly relates to their own lives. So, the veteran science educator has spent the past year “indigenizing” scientific concepts and infusing Indigenous culture lesson plans for students ranging from elementary school to post-secondary.
For example, she uses sealskin mitts to explore the physics of heat and waterproof materials; and turns to traditional hide-tanning techniques to explore certain chemical reactions.
“What it means to ‘indigenize,’ to me, is bringing in our elder’s knowledge and bringing in the language… and finding those intersections of where our Indigenous knowledge and the science curriculum intersect,” Pratt, who has a Master’s in Chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan, told CTVNews.ca in a video interview.
In 2020, she created Askenootow STEM Enterprise Inc. -- a consulting agency that creates everything from whole curriculums to day-long workshops intended to encourage Indigenous youth to learn more about STEM.
The agency’s name takes after her great-great-great-grandfather and the 19th-century Cree word meaning “worker of the Earth.”
The idea was inspired by people reaching out to Pratt over the years, for everything from improving simple lessons to advice on how to indigenize an exhibit at a science centre. So, through Askenootow work and its accompanying lesson blogs, she hopes to expand her reach across the country.
Although Pratt hasn't been able to physically be in classrooms as much as she’d like due to the pandemic, she has been advising parents, Indigenous organizations, educational institutes, and teachers at colleges and universities on how to “indigenize science courses.”
And Pratt is hoping schools or universities might hold outdoor science camps for children this summer, when she hopes to have the chance to hold in-person workshops for young learners.
Pratt vehemently opposes the stereotype that Indigenous people are somehow ill-suited for math and science, and points out that First Nations, Metis and Inuit people have been incorporating scientific ideas in their lives for thousands of years.
“In Saskatchewan, we have such a harsh winter that involves a lot of science to survive,” she said, noting that early settlers learned a great deal from the Indigenous communities, including geography, agriculture, astronomy, which foods to eat and which plants to pick for medicine.
“I think it will empower the youth to see that our grandparents and our ancestors were scientists. They were pharmacists... climatologists, they were anatomists. They had to know how to harvest an animal and use all the parts of the buffalo.”
Pratt loves spending hours listening to elders and knowledge keepers because “when I listen to them talk to me, they sound like scientists.”
She already has a small roster of professionals, including doctors and engineers, who lend their time and expertise for lessons on physics, biology or medicine, but she’s hoping to enlist many more from across the country.
“There's a need for more Indigenous STEM mentors for up-and-coming mentees and prodigies that are going to school and might be considering taking STEM fields,” she said. “If you're more visible, you inspire them.”
“I would really like to bring partners like professionals in -- not just me -- because we want to get to know the whole world of Indigenous STEM professionals.”
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.