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(CALGARY, AB) - A national contest for kids sparked by an
urgent need to attract young people to the Earth sciences has
announced its national and regional winners and given away
thousands of dollars in prize money.
Dozens of school classrooms and hundreds of students
participated in the WHERE Challenge - a contest launched last
October that asked Canadian students aged 10 - 14 years to
discover non-renewable Earth resources found in everyday
objects.
The Challenge attracted entries from across Canada that included
analyses of household items ranging from pencils and light bulbs
to sports equipment and make-up. Three national winners, five
school winners and 33 regional winners were announced on Earth
Day, April 22 and took home more than $16-thousand in prize
money. Contest organizers say they're heartened by the response,
as the goal was to raise awareness among students about Earth
sciences and encourage kids to pursue the science as a career.
"The health of our sector depends upon young people entering the
industry," said John Boyd, Canadian chair of International Year
of Planet Earth. "If we can turn students on to Earth science at
an early age, we hope to create the next generation of
geologists and geo-physicists."
Despite the current economic downturn, experts say a crippling
labour crunch is looming for the Earth sciences sector.
According to several recently released forecasts by
organizations like the Petroleum Human Resources Council and the
Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences (CFES), a wave of expected
retirements and declining student enrolments means a critical
gap could start emerging within the next few years.
"We're talking about being short tens of thousands of Earth
scientists by 2015," said Ian Young, past president of the CFES.
"We're expecting the needs of the environmental sector alone to
grow by more than 30 percent over the next five years."
Oil & gas, mining, environmental & geotechnical, government and
academia are all predicted to face serious challenges in
attracting qualified Earth scientists. Rising commodity demands,
advances in technology and emerging issues such as the need for
new discoveries, sustainable resource development and an
increased focus on environmental geoscience - all have the
country facing an alarming shortfall of talent over the next
five to 10 years.
"Even with the recession, we are still facing serious
shortages," said Young. "It's absolutely essential that we
develop new strategies to recruit and train people from every
possible demographic."
The WHERE Challenge is designed to capture the interest of that
youngest demographic. The Challenge is sponsored by EnCana
Corporation and Teck and in celebration of the International
Year of Planet Earth. All winning entries of this year's WHERE
Challenge can be seen on the contest website at
www.earthsciencescanada.com/where. Details on next year's
Challenge will be released later this spring.
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