U of W engineering youth camp a winner

The University of Waterloo’s Engineering Science Quest (ESQ) outreach program has been awarded the 2013 Actua & GE Canada Award for Leadership and Innovation in science and technology education.

The award recognizes ESQ’s dedication to high impact quality programs, ongoing leadership and supportive engagement of Canada’s most underserved youth. Offered by Waterloo’s Faculties of Science and Engineering, ESQ is one of Canada’s largest science and engineering summer camps for students between grades 1 to 9. ESQ attracted more than 2,000 students in 2013.

“It’s an honour to receive this award and a joy to be part of a program that encourages future generations to envision, create and fulfill career aspirations in science and engineering,” said professor Mary Wells, associate dean of Outreach for the Faculty of Engineering. “ESQ’s approach is simple: put science and technology in the hands of students. This ignites their natural curiosity to explore the science behind their world and cultivates a commitment to lifelong learning, discovery and entrepreneurship.”

The camp’s hands-on activities focus on innovation and explore topics such as physics, chemistry, biology and health science as well as civil, mechanical, electrical and computer engineering.

In past camps, students have engineered their own jitterbugs, performed medical lab analyses, synthesized their favourite smells, built tornado tubes and programmed Lego robots.

ESQ also offers satellite programs throughout Southwestern Ontario so students in rural locations, such as Chatham, Stratford, Orangeville and Owen Sound, as well as aboriginal communities such as Six Nations, Walpole Island and Aamjiwnaang may also attend the summer camps.

Year-round programming reaches even more students by providing exciting, hands-on science in regional Ontario classrooms. In 2013, ESQ offered 335 workshops reaching nearly 7,500 students in more than 50 schools. To date, ESQ has reached more than 100,000 students in 3,500 classrooms.

ESQ offers a bursary to assist children from financially disadvantaged backgrounds to attend camp. An inclusion program has allowed more than 300 children with physical and behavioural challenges to participate in ESQ’s camps too.

“ESQ draws upon Waterloo’s strengths in science and engineering to give all students the opportunity to explore, discover and challenge themselves through hands-on activities of real-world scientific issues,” said professor Terry McMahon, dean of Science. “ESQ is a prime example of Waterloo’s dedication to innovation and developing the next generation of scientists, engineers and technologists.”