Amy Jenne was in a small school in Carcross, Yukon teaching science as she did in many other schools before. But this small school, with classes of only eight children, was something unique.
“They asked how we got into science and how they can go into school and further their education, so that was a really great experience,” says Jenne, a PhD student in environmental chemistry at U of T Scarborough.
Jenne embarked on a four-day trip to the Yukon in Let’s Talk Science at UTSC’s first outreach trip in May. Shortly after returning, she then went to Germany for seven weeks for her research. Her recent trips gave her the best of her two worlds – teaching children and expanding her research skills.
Traveling for research isn’t foreign to Jenne – she has also gone to Kentucky, China, and Iceland to study geology and ecology. This time, her first endeavour to Yukon was Let’s Talk Science at UTSC’s first national rural outreach trip.
“This is the first time we’ve taken everything with us, jumped on a plane and gone elsewhere, which was incredible,” Jenne says.
The free science-outreach program reached more than 400 students in 21 classrooms across five different schools in Whitehorse, Carcross, and Watson Lake. The program gives children the opportunity to take part in science experiments and a curriculum they don’t have access to.
“Their teachers are phenomenal, but they don’t have the funding to do things that we might be able to bring to them,” Jenne says. “It just brings a different type of learning to the classroom.”
The next stop was Germany, where Jenne furthered her skills with imaging technology and brought what she learned back to campus. She says she is grateful for her supervisor’s trust in sending her across the country for a solo trip.
“Having the opportunity to travel is huge for a PhD student, it’s not something that many graduate students get the opportunity to do on their own,” she says. “I’m very thankful for that opportunity.”
She also took some time to explore the world for herself.
Earlier this summer she found herself over a cloud bank while climbing Mount Pilatus, Lucerne Switzerland. She also visited Paris, and before that the Yukon where her and her team left a U of T Scarborough sign in the town of Watson Lake.
“It’s taught me that I can insert myself into any sort of social situation and thrive in a way that I didn’t know how to do before.”
Along with finishing her PhD, she hopes to plan a trip to Nunavut with Let’s Talk Science and expand community outreach in the coming year.
