A team from the Aurora Research Institute have just received a national award for their work!
The Aurora Research Institute STEM Outreach team, are co-recipients of the 2022 Actua Experience – Teacher Training Award. The team was presented with the award during the recent Actua Awards Night in Ottawa.
As Canada’s largest STEM outreach organizations, Actua represents a national network of 43 universities and colleges that engage youth aged six to 26 in STEM learning experiences. The Actua Experience Award is given out annually to teams that show their achievement in one of the organization’s national program areas.
This year, the Aurora Research Institute earned their award for their work on a “Train the Teacher, Earn the Gear” program over the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have continued their work ever since. The program trains teachers to deliver experiential STEM programming in communities the ARI team can’t regularly reach or travel to and loans classroom kits to those teachers free of charge.
In addition to working closely with regional school divisions to deliver one-to-one training to teachers, the outreach team works with Aurora College’s Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Diploma program to train ELCC students to deliver age-appropriate STEM activities. The team worked with 125 NWT educators at the Northwest Territories Teachers Association (NWTTA) conference in October 2022.
The ARI Team is comprised of Annika Trimble, ARI Outreach Coordinator, Inuvik; Hilary Turko, South Slave Outreach Coordinator; Chris Black, North Slave Outreach Coordinator; and Kelly Kamo McHugh, STEM Outreach Technician, Inuvik.
