CLS launches nation-wide educational science project
The Canadian Light Source (CLS) has launched a unique initiative that creates opportunities for school students across the country to be directly involved in a national research project.
The Trans-Canadian Research and Environmental Education (TREE) program provides children across the country the opportunity to participate in a free, nation-wide science project to learn the secrets trees can tell about their communities.
The TREE program connects with Grade 6-12 curriculums across Canada in a number of subject areas including science, math, social studies, languages and Indigenous perspectives. The students will use equipment provided by the researchers to collect the tree and soil samples, and will build a timeline of climatic and environmental activities in their region.
The program involves the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and the Mistik Askiwin Dendrochronology Laboratory (MAD Lab), both located at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), in a study of how the environment affects trembling aspen trees. By combining CLS techniques for chemical analysis and MAD Lab expertise in the science of tree rings, TREE aims to paint a detailed picture of how trembling aspen are doing in communities throughout Canada.
From a scientific perspective, the samples and data collected by students will give CLS scientists and the MAD Lab team the geographic diversity needed to answer a number of questions about trembling aspen. The researchers hope to learn what toxicants are present in soil where the trees grow, how much contamination the trees can tolerate, whether location influences the accumulation of toxicants, and if these factors relate to climatic or human events in the timespan of the tree.
“A partnership like this, where citizen science involves students, offers a huge benefit to my research in both the geographic expansion of where I can collect samples and in the time that it saves my team by being in many places at once,” said Dr. Colin Laroque (PhD). He is Director of the MAD Lab team and a faculty member with the USask College of Agriculture and Bioresources, College of Arts and Science and School of Environment and Sustainability.
Read more on the CLS website.