TORONTO, May 5, 2008 -- The 29th annual York University Engineering & Science Olympics will test the skills of Ontario’s brightest high school students in the area of sustainable science and engineering on Tuesday, May 6.
The games are a chance for students in Grades 9 to 12 to compete in six events designed and officiated by professors and university students in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Participants have a chance to win $1,000 to be spent on equipment for their science classroom and to receive a special $2,000 entrance scholarship to York’s Faculty of Science and Engineering.
More than 1,000 students from more than 60 high schools across the province will compete in the games, including a team from Keewaytinook Internet High School, an online school servicing Aboriginal students from northern Ontario. The Keewaytinook team is sponsored by the Imperial Oil Foundation, also a generous event sponsor, and the York Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Overview of events:
Eco-Chef: Students will select the most ecologically-friendly ingredients for a common food dish by calculating the carbon footprint made by transporting the ingredients.
Sustainable Shuttle Launcher: Students will design and build a small shuttle out of paper and a special launcher to launch it using a specified non-hydrocarbon source of energy.
Small Footprint Robocode: Teams will program a Java-based robot to compete in a series of heats with a low carbon footprint.
EnviroGeocaching: Teams will use handheld GPS receivers to find eco-friendly objects hidden at pre-set coordinates.
Changing Tides: To investigate how the density of sea water affects movement in the oceans, students will vary the concentration of sea water from brine to pure water and determine the density of a floating object.
Questions in the Age of Global Warming - Teams will answer a series of Fermi questions, which require approximate answers about things that are difficult to measure. For example, ‘Given the melting rate of the polar ice cap, how long will it be before it disappears?’
The event will take place on York’s Keele campus from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Computer Science and Engineering Building (number 19 on the York U map).
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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Media contact:
Killeen Kelly, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22938 / killeenk@yorku.ca
