2014 WHERE Challenge Starts Now
Mining Matters aims to attract budding Earth scientists
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sep 26, 2013) -
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After receiving rave reviews from hundreds of participating Canadian teachers and students, the WHERE Challenge is back for its sixth year! The national contest is endorsed by the Canadian Earth sciences community and presented by Mining Matters. The 2014 WHERE Challenge, sponsored by Kinross Gold Corporation, is designed to attract young people to the field of Earth sciences. Both the Mining Industry Human Resources Council and Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada are predicting a shortage of talent in the coming years. It is forecasted that tens of thousands of workers will be needed to fill jobs in specialties including those domains in which Earth scientists work: Water, Hazards, Energy, Resources and Environment.
Given this scenario, WHERE Challenge organizers believe the Challenge is more important than ever and thanks go out to the dozens of school classrooms and more than a thousand students that have participated in the Challenge so far. Organizers are asking for your help again this year, appealing to industry partners, educators and individuals alike to promote the contest through their network of contacts. All these efforts go towards attracting the next generation of Earth scientists.
The WHERE Challenge asks students aged 9 to 14 years to discover the answers to these questions: What on Earth is in your stuff and WHERE on Earth does it come from? The Challenge was launched September 4 and runs until March 7, 2014, with $10,000 in prize money up for grabs. Students are encouraged to use their imagination and create an educational story about non-renewable Earth resources found in an everyday item. Winners will be announced May 2, 2014.
The 2013 winner of the National Best Overall prize, Julie Krug-MacLeod shared with Mining Matters what she learned by participating in the Challenge: "I have learned how important non-renewable resources are to everyone on Earth, and how easy it is to lose them. I also learned that almost every thing that matters to me (entertainment, clothes, sports and even some food items) contains non-renewable resources. Because I am Canadian, I am excited to learn about how we provide important minerals to other people in the world. It is also good to know that Canadian inventions like the Canadarm use materials mined in our country."
Mining Matters is a charitable organization dedicated to bringing knowledge and awareness about Canada's geology and mineral resources to students, educators and the general public. The organization provides current information about rocks, minerals, metals, mining and the diverse career opportunities available in the minerals industry.
For more details, please visit www.earthsciencescanada.com/where.
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