(Charliebois Community School/Facebook)

By Ian Gustafson

Water Health

Cumberland House learn hands on about water quality with U of S ambassadors

May 19, 2022 | 4:38 PM

Last week Grade 9 and 10 students at Charlebois Community School in Cumberland House collected data on water quality with science ambassadors from the University of Saskatchewan for their Indigenous science fair project.

Renee Carriere, educator at the school said this was part of a University of Saskatchewan’s extension program, Science Ambassador Program. This year Carriere said they were blessed with two ambassadors, Ahmad Ghobeishavi, master’s student at the U of S studying biology, and Paras Kumar, alongside him as co-ambassador.

“They’ve been taking a broad age range of our children out into the land and showing them some other ways to see and experience science on the land. So, that’s kind of there area of expertise and it’s been a really wonderful process,” Carriere explained.

She added it’s an exceptional program and is a badge of honour for the University of Saskatchewan and the science ambassador program because it brings some world views into some rural communities. It’s also beneficial to see other ways of science.

(Charliebois Community school/ Facebook)

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Ghobeishavi explained they went to the Big Stone River and the North Saskatchewan River to take water samples to analyze the water quality. They also collected macro invertebrates as a bioindicator to see how healthy the water system is.

“We collected the samples in one day and we got back to the school and then we started doing the chemical analysis in one session and then we did the macro invertebrates in the other sessions. We correlated the measurements that we did to the health and to the stability of the water,” Ghobeishavi said.

They also explained to the children how chemical indicators going up or down affects the water, and the animal and the creatures who live in the water, Ghobeishavi said, as well as what the macro invertebrates have to do with the health of the water and how they can show us if the water is safe for the public to drink.

He explained it was important to pass the knowledge onto the kids so they have a better image of how to use the water and how to keep it safe for us to drink, as well as for plants and animals.

Carriere added it’s also important because all drinking water in rural and northern communities is their concern.

Kumar explained the students were enthusiastic about the project because they were taking them out on land.

“Whenever we are going out of the usual classroom routine, they’re always excited,” Kumar said adding the mayor of Cumberland House spoke to the students and gave his view on what’s happening with the water. “The kids were really engaged during the whole process and even when we came back kids were really excited to do some chemical testing on the water.”

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Ian.Gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @IanGustafson12