IPY Youth Steering Committee...call for involvement!

Salutations from your Canadian Youth Steering Committee (CYSC) for the International Polar Year (IPY).

The CYSC is working to raise interest in Polar issues among Canadian high school students and to incorporate the voices of youth into the legacy of IPY. To accomplish this goal, we aim to build a network of teachers, educators, school districts representatives and northern community members and associations.

We are seeking northern youth to act as High School Ambassadors (HSAs) along with educators to facilitate the involvement of youth and communities in our initiatives:

1. Distribute and promote a "Northern Lesson" series suitable for high school students, and available from the CYSC website.

2. Complete a Canada-wide northern survey dataset, collected by high school students and compiled by the CYSC.

3. Advertise our northern photo and writing contest with submissions compiled at the end of the IPY

All data collected, lessons produced, and photos and short stories submitted through Canadian YSC initiatives will be included in an IPY Time Capsule that will leave a youth legacy for IPY 2007-2008.

The CYSC is working closely with several partners to help distribute information about our activities. Some of our partners include: Youth Science Foundation, Let’s Talk Science, Youth Environmental Network, International Youth Steering Committee, Canadian Geographical Society, and Students on Ice.

Start participating right now and send us your ideas:

1. The Grassroots portfolio would like to receive your ideas about possible grassroots projects youth has in your communities to incorporate in CYSC activities to help us estimate our funding demands. This initiative is in collaboration with the Youth Environmental Network micro-grants for youth project.

2. Our surveys are almost ready and will be available for testing soon. Updates will be posted on our Google Group. HSAs and educators will be added to the group as you join the CYSC)

3. Submit northern photos and pieces of writing for our contests to be compiled at the end of the IPY. There will be prizes and a possibility of publication.

If you are interested in getting your school more involved with CYSC and IPY, please contact us at cysc@ualberta.ca.

HSA posters available online at: http://www.ualberta.ca/~ipy/YSC/HSA.html

Thank you for your collaboration and have a great IPY!

Please find our April 2007 newsletter attached to this message.

CYSC Communications cysc@ualberta.ca