DAY 1: Saturday, May 24, 2008
10 am - 5:00 pm (local time)
Registration desk opens at the entrance to the Gym, Yukon College.
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Early Bird Program: short field trips of varying lengths, departing from Yukon College and/or downtown hotels.
1:00 - 4:00 pm
Family Science Day, Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. Co-sponsored with the Yukon Science Institute.
Features science writers Deborah Hodge, Jude Isabella, and Pippa Wysong.
5:30 pm
Bus will take delegates from Yukon College, Westmark Hotel and Yukon Inn to S.S. Klondike for the annual Science in Society Journalism awards gala banquet.
6:30 pm
Presentation of the sanofi pasteur Medal For Excellence In Health Research Journalism by Dr. Luis Barreto, Vice President Public, Scientific and Medical Affairs, Sanofi Pasteur Limited.
7:00 pm to 11:00 pm
36th Annual Gala Awards Banquet
Location: Circus-style tent beside SS Klondike, Parks Canada National Historic Site, on banks of Yukon River, downtown Whitehorse
Enjoy performances by a cappella ensemble Les Ceusses-qui-ont-du-fun-quand-y-chantent and First People's Performances, a group of drummers, singers and dancers who sing the songs of their ancestors and live close to the traditional teachings and ways of the Indigenous peoples of the Yukon Territory.
11:15 pm
Bus returns delegates to hotels and Yukon College.
DAY 2: Sunday, May 25, 2008
Theme: Northern Science / Northern Knowledge
Location: Yukon College
Co-chairs: Jean Carey (Yukon Environment) and Amber Church (Simon Fraser University)
Continental breakfast available in Yukon College Gym
8:30-9:05 am
Official welcome from:
• CSWA President Tim Lougheed
• Council of Yukon First Nations: Grand Chief Andy Carvill
• Yukon Government: Premier Dennis Fentie
• City of Whitehorse: Deputy Mayor Jeanine Myhre
9:10-10:10 am
Session 1: Keynote Panel – The upper left-hand corner: An overview of Yukon science
Chair: Jean Carey, biologist, Yukon Environment
10:10-10:30 am
Break: Nutrition and networking
10:30-11:30 am
Session 2: Changing climate, changing world: The forces driving research in the North
Chair: Ian Church, Science Advisor to the Yukon Government and Chair, Canadian National Committee, International Polar Year
11:30-12:00
Scientific Poster Session: Hear from the researchers
12:00-1:30 pm
Lunch: College cafeteria, followed by opportunities for networking, chatting with researchers, and browsing posters
Lunch sponsored by The Big Wild, with guest speaker from The Big Wild
1:30-2:30 pm
Session 3: Simultaneous Sessions
A. Climate change: What do you do when it’s all around you? -- Room T1023
B. Science and northern communities -- Room C1440
C. Future stories: Young Yukon scientists -- Room A2601
D. Long, long ago: archaeology, anthropology, palaeontology -- Room A2103
2:30-3:00 pm
Break: opportunity to see more posters, network, and move back to Gym. Refreshments available in Gym.
3:00-4:15 pm
Session 4: Covering northern science from the North and Outside (Professional Development Panel)
4:15-5:00 pm
AGM and election of officers
5:00 pm
Buffet supper at Yukon College cafeteria
6:30 pm
Bus starts taking people to Beringia Centre for tour and presentation.
7:30-9:30 pm
Joint CSWA/Yukon Science Institute talk in Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre theatre. Speaker: Martin Rose, Director of the British Council in Canada and co-founder of the Cape Farewell project.
9:30 pm
Bus starts ferrying people back to College and downtown
DAY 3: Monday, May 26, 2008
Theme: International Polar Year
Location: Yukon College
Co-chairs: Karen Edwards (IPY secretariat) and Bob Van Dijken (IPY Yukon manager)
Continental breakfast available in Yukon College Gym
8:50-9:15 am
Keynote Speech for Day 2: Canada and the International Polar Year Speaker: David Hik, Executive Director, Canadian IPY Secretariat
9:20-10:20 am
Session 1: Science – The Yukon and the IPY
Panel chair: David Hik
10:20-10:40 am
Break: Nutrition and networking
10:40-11:30 am
Session 2: Science. CARMA: anatomy of an IPY project – what it takes to pull together an international project, why do it, how to organize and run it, what can it accomplish – and how science writers can approach it. Speakers: Don Russell, Joe Tetlichi, and Dorothy Cooley of the CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment (CARMA) Network.
11:30 am -12:00 pm
Scientific Poster Session: Hear from the researchers
12:00-1:30 pm
Lunch: College cafeteria.
Lunch sponsored by the Swedish Embassy, with guest speaker Stefan Edman
1:30-2:00 pm Science Under the Midnight Sun. Presentations by Conference sponsor Yukon College.
2:30-3:30 pm Session 3: Simultaneous professional development sessions
A. Writing science for kids -- Room T1023
B. Top ten things not to do when covering stories in the North -- Room C1440
C. Markets for northern science stories, and how to break into them -- Room A2601
D. Covering the IPY -- Room A2103
3:30-4:00 pm
Break: opportunity to see more posters, network, and move back to Gym. Refreshments available in Gym.
4:00-5:00 pm
Session 4: Ask the experts: a chance for participants to pick the brains of experienced science writers
5:00-5:15 pm
Closing remarks, announcements: Tim Lougheed
Suggested evening activities (not organized by the CSWA but conference attdndees may choose to go in groups):
• Take a walk on the popular, paved trail that runs along both sides of the Yukon River. The full five-kilometre circular route crosses the river at the Robert Campbell Bridge in downtown Whitehorse and Millennium pedestrian bridge just below the Yukon Energy Corporation's hydro dam. Common sights include nesting gulls, mergansers, shorebirds, ducks, bald eagles, ravens -- and a wide assortment of local Yukoners walking, cycling, rollerblading, fishing, and whitewater kayaking. A number of interpretive panels provide information about the human and natural history of the river valley. Free.
• Follow the riverside trail on the west side (downtown side) of the river north past Shipyards Park, where the steamboats were once hauled up for the winter, and along a bend in the river where Arctic Terns and gulls nest, and passing ducks and swans hang out. There are interpretive signs with information about the human and natural history of the area all along the path. Free.
• The Frantic Follies -- see a turn of the century vaudeville revue which depicts the entertainment seen by the pioneers of the Great Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. For times, tickets and more info, go to www.franticfollies.com
Please NOTE: these activities are not organized by the CSWA and fees are not included in conference registration
DAY 4: Tuesday, May 27, 2008
7:30 am
Meet at the Yukon College
Boxed breakfast ‘to go’
8:00 am
Departure from Yukon College
Leave for Takhini Valley permafrost research site, first stop of the day!
8:40 am
Arrival at the permafrost research location.
3 separate sites will be visited.
Researcher Dr. Chris Burn will share research from the Takhini Valley permafrost site, located in the discontinuous permafrost zone
10:15 am
Departure from the research site, drive to the Kwaday Dan Kenji, Long Ago Peoples Place
This interactive exhibit, camp, shares with visitors the pre-contact, traditional living style of the Southern Tutchone people
10:45 am
Walking tour and bannock with tea at the Long Ago Peoples Place
12:15 pm
Departure for drive to Kathleen Lake, with a quick stop to grab box lunches in Haines Junction
1:30 pm
Arrival at Kathleen Lake, Kluane National Park
Box lunches provided.
Informal presentations by Fisheries and Forestry researchers and Parks Canada
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Departure from Kathleen Lake for Haines Junction.
4:00 pm
Option to walk around the beautiful Village of Haines Junction and/or tour the Kluane National Park and Reserve Visitor
Reception Centre. Free time before dinner.
5:00 pm
Haines Junction Convention Center
6:00 pm
• Dancers from Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
• Informal Catered Dinner
Roundtable Discussion on traditional and scientific knowledge and how the two approaches can work together:
Science and traditional ecological knowledge have an important, but sometimes contentious, relationship in the north. This informal, facilitated round-table discussion presents the hard-won experiences of northern practitioners and researchers in successfully bringing together these two ways of knowing about the world around us, and our place within it.
Return to Whitehorse.
