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Charting the Wild

High school girls spend part of their summer in K-country as part of a U of C program to offer females hands-on research experience.

BY GRADY SEMMENS

“There’s every kind of bug out here,” Kim Janzen says as she slaps yet another mosquito on the back of her neck and wipes the sweat from her brow. “I think you just start getting used to them after a while.”

Tromping through a marsh in Kananaskis Country may not seem like an enticing way to spend summer holidays for many high school girls, but it’s exactly what Kristen Klassen and Kirsten Johnston signed up to do for a week in July.

Spending three days in the field with Janzen—a University of Saskatchewan MSc candidate who is studying the ecological impact of beaver dams on watersheds in the foothills west of Calgary—was part of the Environmental Youth Research Experience (EYRE) program, which gives Alberta students involved in Girl Guides a chance to learn more about science by working alongside researchers in the field.

“I’m not sure which I like more, working the lab or in the field, but it’s fun to be able to do both,” said 15-year-old Klassen.

Collecting water samples, measuring stream flows, and analyzing water chemistry were jobs Johnston and Klassen performed in the three days they spent with Janzen. They then spent three days catching butterflies and recording data with University of Cincinnati biologist Stephen Matter, who is examining the movement of Apollo butterfly populations through the Rockies.

The EYRE program is offered each summer by the U of C’s Kananaskis Field Stations with funding from the G8 Legacy Chair in Wildlife Ecology, the fund established to support research in commemoration of the 2002 G8 Summit held in Kananaskis Country. Applications are accepted from Girl Guides who have already completed the field stations’ five-day Summer Program in Careers & Environment (SPICE) camp and are interested in pursuing careers in science.

“It’s a chance for some girls to get some real hands-on experience doing research,” said U of C research associate and EYRE coordinator Karen Yee.

Girl Guide leader Janet Moroz- Clarke said the program is invaluable for girls who are interested in the natural sciences because they can be mentored by working scientists.

“This is just a fabulous opportunity. I wish there was something like this when I was young,” Moroz-Clarke said. “It’s also helps show people that Girl Guides is about more than just selling cookies.”

For researchers like Janzen and Matter, EYRE students provide help and camaraderie during long days spent doing field work in the wilderness.

“Normally, I’m just out here by myself, so it’s nice to have some company for a while,” Janzen said.