Did you know there are eight times as many atoms in a teaspoon of water as there are teaspoons of water in the Atlantic Ocean? And there is enough DNA in an average person’s body to stretch from the sun to Pluto and back — 17 times. These are just a couple of cool science facts, among endless amazing others, that UWinnipeg is celebrating this week as part of Science Literacy Week. As part of the celebration UWinnipeg is opening the 11th Annual Randy Kobes Undergraduate Poster Contest to the general public on Wednesday, September 21, from 1:30 – 4:00 pm at the Richardson College for the Environment Atrium, 599 Portage Avenue.
This contest displays top quality research in a wide range of subjects by undergraduate students at The University of Winnipeg. The competition is a valuable opportunity for students to obtain experience in presentations of scientific research especially if a student plans to continue with graduate work, and everyone learns something new in science!
During the competition, students will be judged for presenting a five-minute oral presentation of their research, followed by questions from 9:00 am – 1:30 pm. To celebrate Science Literacy Week, in addition to poster contest there will be cool and interesting interactive science activities by science departments and UWinnipeg’s Let’s Talk Science team after 1:30 pm.
Science Literacy Week highlights Canada’s outstanding scientists and science communicators from coast-to-coast. The goals are to showcase the excellence and diversity of Canadian science and to show how exciting science is. Be it as simple as a science-themed book display encouraging people to read something a little different to multi-day events, the week offers something for everyone. For one week in September, libraries, universities, museums, and other partners put on a spectacular nationwide festival of science.
Dr. Randy Kobes, © Cory Aronec
The Late Randy Kobes
The late Randy Kobes, Associate Dean of Science, was an outstanding academic, physicist and educator of young people. He was fully dedicated to public engagement in science. His contributions to community learning at The University of Winnipeg are immeasurable. One of his many contributions is founding the Manitoba chapter of Let’s Talk Science, which promotes scientific literacy by having UWinnipeg volunteer scientists visit classrooms, present interactive experiments and raise awareness of science. Randy Kobes passed away on Saturday, September 18, 2010.
UWinnipeg’s Faculty of Science, Research Office and and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) sponsored this competition.
