ONTARIO
Official Record of Debate
(Hansard)
SCIENCE FAIR
May 28, 2001
Mr Ted Arnott (Waterloo-Wellington): To the Minister of Energy, Science and Technology. Minister, we are all aware how important it is to have young people of this province interested in science. Science is a necessary component of our future. How is the government working to interest young Ontarians in science careers?
Hon Jim Wilson (Minister of Energy, Science and Technology): I thank my colleague for the question. The government is committed to increasing young people's awareness of science, technology and innovation in this province through a number of initiatives. Most recently the Ontario government was proud to support the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Kingston. The fair saw approximately 450 of Canada's top young minds in science and technology from grade 7 to high school graduation compete in a number of categories, including computers and biotechnology.
Over 150 of those competing students were from Ontario, and I'm pleased to report that Ontario students earned 10 gold medals and 51 medals overall, as well as 33 honourable mentions. Ontario students attending the fair were part of Sci-Tech Ontario, a project sponsored in part by the Youth Science and Technology initiative of the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology. This initiative will commit $5 million -- that's the first time in the history of this province -- toward science and technology awareness partnership projects by the end of 2005.
Mr Arnott: Minister, I want to thank you for that fine answer, and I want to say that I've been informed that a student from Waterloo-Wellington, Ben Schmidt, was very successful at the science fair. Could you please tell the House about his gold-winning project.
Hon Mr Wilson: I had an opportunity to meet Ben Schmidt of Elora, and yes, he was awarded best junior project at this year's fair.
Interjections.
Hon Mr Wilson: Hey, this is important to Ben Schmidt and his family and to science and technology in the province, so why don't you pay attention over there?
His project, called RAT: Remote Access Topography, was judged to be the best of the 125 grade 7 and grade 8 projects from across the country presented at this prestigious annual event. He designed, built and programmed a robot to create a map while finding its way to a goal through an obstacle course. This robot then uses the map to return, using the most direct path, just like a rat solving a maze. Hence, the name of the project.
Ben will be a guest of honour at the Ontario Research and Development Summit to be held by the Ontario government Research and Development Challenge Fund on May 30. I think the honourable member, and all members of this House, should extend congratulations to Ben Schmidt for his award-winning project.
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