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Welcome to the Youth News section of the MISTIC website! Find out what youth are doing around the region, province and nation.
Vanier student bright light in electronics field
Mark Roller, a Grade 12 student at Georges P. Vanier Secondary School, won the gold medal in secondary electronics at the Canadian Skills Competition last week in Waterloo, Ont.
Comox Valley Record
May 27, 2010
Mark Roller has added a national gold medal to his Skills Canada trophy case.
Roller, who is in Grade 12 at Georges P. Vanier Secondary School, became the second straight Comox Valley student to win the national secondary school electronics gold medal last week during the Canadian Skills Competition from May 20 to 23 in Waterloo, Ont.
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“Bright kid” to National Competition
April 27, 2010
Comox Valley Record
Mark Roller is the third straight Comox Valley student to win the Skills Canada BC provincial championship in electronics. Roller, a twelfth-grader at Georges P. Vanier Secondary School, finished first at the provincial competition April 21 in Abbotsford.
He will compete in the Canadian Skills Competition May 20 to 23 in Waterloo, Ont., hoping to follow in the footsteps of Vanier graduate Dane Hansen, who earned a bronze medal in 2008, and Highland grad Robin Farrell, who won the gold medal last year.
Click here to read the complete article.Help Mark Roller reach his goal of competing at the Canadian Skills Competition!
If you or your business are interested in providing a donation to support Mark Roller with getting to the 16th Canadian Skills Competition from May 20-23, 2010 in Waterloo, Ontario, please contact Steve Claassen at Vanier Secondary School, 250-338-9262.
To learn more about Mark and his Electronics career goal, Click Here.
Vanier students score big robotics prize
Comox Valley Echo
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G.P. Vanier students qualify for robotics world championships
February 4, 2010
Comox Valley Record
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Young Innovator Scholarship Fund to Award $225,000 to Innovative Students
PRINCE GEORGE, BC - Grade twelve students from central and northern British Columbia now have access to a $225,000 Young Innovator Scholarship Fund based on their winning ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship.
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Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Contributes $15,000 to FFA to Support Youth Science Education
October 2, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a show of support for expanding innovative science projects for high school students, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has presented the National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America) with a contribution of $15,000. BIO's contribution will go largely to support a new pilot contest within FFA through which students will produce videos creatively explaining the benefits and sustainability of modern agricultural methods.
"BIO recognizes the importance of providing America's high school students with the resources needed to further their science education, specifically a science-based understanding of how to feed today's growing global population," said Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, Executive Vice President, Food and Agriculture at BIO. "Biotechnology is one answer to the challenge of how to feed, fuel and heal the world in the 21st century." She added, "Today's FFA student members will likely be tomorrow's agricultural leaders, so helping them understand today's real-world challenges and cutting edge solutions is a high priority."The FFA "Sustainability through Biotechnology" pilot project will offer students the chance to win new equipment for their chapter by producing winning videos that creatively highlight the benefits of modern agricultural methods such as seed technologies that produce more yields per acre and farming practices that are more environmentally friendly. The prizes will be presented by biotechnology industry leaders on-site at the winning chapters' schools in early 2010. More information on the program can be found at www.FFA.org.
About BIO BIO represents more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world.
About the FFA
The National FFA Organization, formerly known as the Future Farmers of America, is a national youth organization of 506,199 student members - all preparing for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture - as part of 7,429 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The National FFA Organization changed to its present name in 1988, in recognition of the growth and diversity of agriculture and agricultural education. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. Visit www.ffa.org for more information.
BIO Investor Forum October 28-29, 2009 San Francisco, CA
Advanced Business Development Course October 30, 2009 Vienna, Austria BIO Europe International Partnering Conference November 2-4, 2009 Vienna, AustriaPacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy November 8-11, 2009 Honolulu, HI
BC Science Fair Students Continue to Excel
VANCOUVER, BC - Four of the Greater Vancouver students who represented BC at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in May spent the summer realizing further honours and accolades for their science explorations. Forsan Chan, Linda Liu, Mary Zhao and Steven Zhu all used Science Fair projects as a chance to create amazing memories.To view the article, Click Here.
Future of industry depends on more young women entering technology profession
August 4, 2009
While many young women will soon head back to school to pursue a post-secondary education, not enough of them will consider a career in the lucrative and in-demand profession of applied science and engineering technology.
Yet changing this trend is crucial to industries reliant on technology workers and currently facing labour shortages which will worsen as baby boomers retire over the next 10 to 15 years. Women represent a vital but underutilized labour force.
According to the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET), only 10.5 per cent of its membership is female. The Applied Science Technologists & Technicians of British Columbia (ASTTBC) recently conducted a survey on women in technology and assessed a similarly low proportion of female members at only nine per cent.
In the 2009 Engineering and Technology Labour Market Study, Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists identified imbalances in the engineering and technology labour market, and recommended ensuring labour supply by specifically addressing the gender imbalance.
To view the full story, Click Here.
Buzz Aldrin and Snoop Dogg reach for the stars with Rocket Experience
June 25, 2009
Jacqui Goddard, The Times - It was probably one small step for Snoop Dogg but it was one giant leap for Buzz Aldrin when he teamed up with the hip-hop artist to record a rap single.
The white-haired astronaut, 79, has accomplished what he claims is his second great mission — becoming a rap star — with a track commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing next month. The single, Rocket Experience, and accompanying video feature the second man on the Moon nodding his head and gyrating in time to the beat as he leans into a microphone to deliver lines such as: “I’m the spaceman, I’m the rocket man, it’s time to venture far, let’s take a trip to Mars, our destiny is to the stars.”
Snoop Dogg, who helped to make the track with the producer Quincy Jones and fellow rap stars Talib Kweli and Soulja Boy, is shown in the video commending Aldrin — who adopted the rap pseudonym Doc Rendezvous — on his vocal skills. “That’s hot right there, man. That’s gangsta,” he says.The video switches between shots of Aldrin rapping — wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Buzz Aldrin, Rocket Hero” — and archive film of the Apollo 11 launch, his and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon and recordings of crackly radio exchanges between the astronauts and mission control.
Rocket Experience was instigated by Aldrin as part of his mission to reignite public interest in the“Young people have lost any interest in space that isn’t in a video game or a movie house. Many don’t really know that Man has stood on the Moon,” he said. “But these incredible rappers speak to the new generations and know how to reach them. The Americans who will take Man to Mars are already born and they don’t even know that space is Man’s fate.”
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Moon music
— For the soundtrack to the Apollo 11 Moon mission, Neil Armstrong chose Music Out of the Moon, a 1940s avant-garde album by Samuel Hoffman that features the theremin, an electronic instrument
— The video for the 1979 track by the Police, Walking on the Moon, was recorded in the Kennedy Space Centre in
— The single Man on the Moon by the band R. E. M. is thought to be a reference to the conspiracy theory that the Moon landings were faked
— On February 4 last year Nasa broadcast Across the Universe by the Beatles into spaceHighland student wins National Contest ~ Individual award by Robin Farrell a first for school district
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 
Highland Secondary student Robin Farrell is brandishing a glitzy gold medal after coming home from the Skills Canada contest as national electronics champion - a first ever individual win for the school district.
The 15th annual competition was held in P.E.I. last week where Farrell, 18, was up against five other elite electronics buffs from across Canada.
"The first thing I thought was, 'Oh crap,'" Farrell said about finally meeting his match after climbing the ranks of regional and provincial competitions.
While competing on the East Coast, Farrell was tasked with a range of challenges, including a written exam and a hands-on reverse engineering test - a process that involves taking a device apart to duplicate or enhance it.
"We looked at a circuit board and drew a circuit diagram which was very difficult," Farrell said.
"It has to be neat. It has to be correct. (The device) has to work because somebody else has to make it."
The painstaking competition, Farrell added, lasted 12 grueling hours over two days.
To view the full article, Click HereAt the Science Fair, Girls Dominate the Class
May 15, 2009
Globe and MailTo qualify for this week's Canada-Wide Science Fair in
"So many girls are just determined," said Larissa, 15, speaking from the