WHITEHORSE—Deputy Premier Elaine Taylor and Yukon College Board of Governors Chair Paul Flaherty officially launched a new $1.8 million mobile trades training lab and supply trailer at Yukon College’s Ayamdigut campus today.

The two trailers, which join together to create a mobile workshop and classroom, will be operated through the Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining (CNIM) at the College and will  provide professional trades training in communities and at work sites across the territory.

“The mobile trades training lab is an important part of the Government of Yukon’s ongoing work to build a successful economy,” Taylor said. “Yukon is proud to support this innovative tool that will provide Yukoners with essential training to fill industry jobs.”

WHITEHORSE – The Yukon College cafeteria was full of young scientists this weekend as 76 students vied for cash prizes, scholarships and other special awards at the 2013 Yukon/ Stikine Regional Science Fair.

Throughout November, over 300 students presented science projects at schools throughout the Yukon. The winners from each school were showcased in Whitehorse on Saturday.

A group of 44 volunteer scientific and engineering judges, led by Chief Judges JP Pinard and Tim Topper, evaluated the projects and interviewed students to select the Yukon’s top projects.

Whitehorse - The Yukon/Stikine Regional Science Fair competition takes place at Yukon College on Saturday, December 7, 2013.

Interest is very high this year according to co-Chairs Ryan Sikkes and Jody Woodland. Over 300 science projects (Grades 4-12) were prepared for school fairs this past month. Seventy of those are advancing to the Regional Fair on Saturday.

Eight schools are participating in the science fair competition this year: Holy Family, Jack Hulland, Whitehorse Elementary, Kluane Lake (Destruction Bay), Golden Horn, Vanier Catholic Secondary, St. Elias (Haines Junction) and Teslin Community School. The Yukon Home Educators are also participating.

WHITEHORSE – Cold Climate Innovation (CCI) of the Yukon Research Centre has partnered with Icefield Tools Corporation, to revolutionize borehole drilling technology. This partnership will develop technology and software that will advance the mining, oil and gas industries.

This project will answer a need within the petroleum industry for greater drilling accuracy while significantly reducing overall survey time and associated costs. Icefield Tools Corporation, a Yukon-based company, is developing the technology and software that will make this process more efficient and cost effective.

“The development of this technology means more professional jobs in the Yukon, and exportation of locally designed technology products across the globe,” said Stephen Mooney, Director, Cold Climate Innovation.

WHITEHORSE-Yukon College is planning a big celebration event to close out its 50th anniversary year. On Friday, November 29, the main upstairs corridor at Ayamdigut campus will be transformed into a living timeline. Current and former students and staff, as well as the general public, will enjoy music and food by the decade, retrospective displays, alumni stories, and prizes – plenty of door prizes.

In addition to the grand prize draw of flights for two to Las Vegas for alumni who submitted their story about attending Yukon College, there will be many door prizes, and a small take home gift for the first 300 arrivals.

Yukon College has exciting news to announce at this year’s Geoscience Forum. The College owns the first metal analyzer to be dedicated to research and training in the Yukon.

The Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) was purchased by the Yukon Research Centre (YRC) and the Mineral Resource Technologist program, for a total of $90,000, including installation.

The AAS will increase research capacity at Yukon College within the Yukon Research Centre laboratory. The instrument can be used to analyze metal concentrations in water, soil, rock, plant, and tissue samples, and will be used by Yukon College researchers, students, and visiting scientists.

“The AAS increases our laboratory capacity and allows us to provide training opportunities for our students, while advancing northern research,” said Karen Barnes, President of Yukon College.

WHITEHORSE – Dr. Fiona Schmiegelow is tired of the same old conversations. She wants to change the way people approach conservation, development, and land use planning and believes the answer lies in a more integrated, science-based approach and a process called adaptive management. 

Adaptive management provides a more holistic way of approaching land use planning that is solutions-based and can help reconcile the historic conflicts between those who support conservation and those who support development. 

WHITEHORSE – Yukon College elder-in-residence Randall Tetlichi will be a presenting panelist at the 15th Annual Symposium in Indigenous Research at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, this weekend.

Tetlichi will share his thoughts on how First Nations people and non-First Nations people can work together to create a better world with the 150 people expected to attend the event. The former Vuntut Gwitchin chief would like to see traditional knowledge from First Nations communities be given the same recognition as scientific knowledge when it comes to addressing the challenges of climate change in Canada.

“We have no choice but to work together, think together, and act together, for our own survival,” said Tetlichi.

Tetlichi is a highly respected traditional healer and teacher who has worked for years for the protection of the Porcupine Caribou herd, which migrates through traditional Gwitchin territory.

WHITEHORSE – Yukon College’s research efforts have been recognized. The Yukon Research Centre (YRC) is ranked 4th in Canada’s Top 50 Research Colleges in the category of research income, preceded only by SAIT Polytechnic, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and College of the North Atlantic.

The Yukon Research Centre’s 2012 research income increased by 5.4%, totaling $5,385,000, according to Research Infosource Inc.

As the research arm of Yukon College, the Yukon Research Centre focuses on collaborative research with students, communities, first nations, industry and local government. The YRC has tripled its staff over the last four years and research has grown in the areas of mine site restoration and bioremediation, cold climate and technology innovation, climate change and the social science of resource development in the Arctic.

WHITEHORSE – Yukon Research Centre (YRC) is releasing some of the oldest weather data in Yukon history on Monday, November 4th, at the Partnering in Research event. The event will showcase this historically relevant weather data from the White Pass and Yukon Route (WPYR) log books of 1902 to 1957, while promoting a new data server on which the data will be stored.

The Yukon Research Centre Data Server is dedicated to hosting environmental and social science data that can be accessed from anywhere, allowing users the option to publish the data or keep it private. The environmental and social science research community is encouraged to consider this data server as a service provided to them to potentially make scientific information more accessible and easier to store.