A few years ago, Dr. Emily Milne was working on a youth community-engaged research project when she asked a student what she could do to break down barriers to post-secondary education. The student's answer? "Take me to MacEwan."

Those four words lit a spark in the sociology associate professor who teamed up with her physical sciences colleague, Dr. Kaitlyn Towle, to launch a pilot project called MacEwanCYU (child and youth university). 

Throughout the 2022/23 academic year, the two profs and their MacEwan Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts student research assistants worked with teachers and students at Ben Calf Robe/St. Clare Elementary and Junior High School to share an early glimpse into university life. It may not sound revolutionary – STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) outreach has been a classroom mainstay for years, says Dr. Towle. But MacEwanCYU isn't only about getting students excited about science. 

Built on a qualitative research method called photovoice, the pilot leans on community-based research approaches to examine barriers students face when turning an interest in science into a university education. 

"Just because we have a STEM outreach program doesn't necessarily mean it fits the needs of our community partners and that it leads kids to pursue the sciences," says Dr. Towle. "Ultimately, this project is about looking at ways we can do STEM outreach better to create more equitable, inclusive and accessible post-secondary educational opportunities."

It's something Dr. Milne is passionate about. "I never saw myself going to university," she says. "Now that I'm here as a professor, I see it as part of my job to make sure that kids know that they are welcome at MacEwan – that we're all smart in different ways, that university is a place to thrive and have fun, and that we all belong here."

But how do we inspire a love of learning and open our doors to invite children in?

Drs. Milne and Towle looked to Dr. Sandeep Raha, who co-founded McMaster University's Children's and Youth University program, for guidance. The trio of research partners isn’t trying to replicate the McMaster program but instead creating an Edmonton-based program that reflects the unique needs of the city's youth and community.   

Doing so meant working closely with their Ben Calf Robe School community partners and building relationships with teachers and students. "We were creating something together, and a big part of that meant trusting the process and allowing things to unfold," says Dr. Towle. "I now see just how important it was to be at the school every week."

Bringing people together

Beginning in January 2023, every Thursday morning, a group of MacEwan undergraduate science and arts students and Drs. Milne and Towle went to Ben Calf Robe to facilitate a series of hands-on workshops. They led the junior high school students through science activities, including using pocket telescopes, making ice cream and planting an indoor greenhouse. The pièce de résistance combined 200 pounds of cornstarch with water to fill a child-sized pool with Ooblek (a fluid that temporarily solidifies when force is applied).

"The students sat on chairs with their feet in the pool, they jumped in and were dancing in it, and everybody was goopy," says Dr. Milne. "It was the best kind of 'secret learning' – learning by having fun."

But it wasn't all flash and bang, says Dr. Towle. The real focus was on building relationships with the kids.

Those connections, she says, made things more comfortable when it came time to move their weekly visits to the MacEwan campus in May. The junior high students visited a different university faculty each week, exploring learning opportunities. They spent time in the nursing, anthropology, physical sciences and biological sciences labs, explored telescopes, held hissing cockroaches, looked at artifacts and extracted their DNA. Perhaps just as important, they stood in line with current MacEwan students in the cafeteria.

"They got to share this space and feel a part of it – and the MacEwan community," says Dr. Milne. "In our many conversations with junior high students from Ben Calf Robe school, they told us that now they're familiar with MacEwan and that it feels comfortable here.”

Celebrating that feeling of belongingness and community was at the heart of a celebration of learning event in early June that wrapped up the MacEwanCYU pilot. 

In addition to an impressive line-up of activities and learning, the day focused on the insights the Ben Calf Robe students had to share. 

On June 2, close to 300 guests came together to celebrate all the students had learned. Ben Calf Robe students and teachers were joined by busloads of students from Edmonton Public, Edmonton Catholic and Sturgeon Country school divisions, educational leaders, Elders, city councillors, representatives from Alberta Education, the City of Edmonton and Telus World of Science and members of the MacEwan community to share some of their experiences with MacEwanCYU.

Disseminating young people's knowledge

Throughout their classroom and campus experiences, Ben Calf Robe students had cameras in hand, taking photos that captured their experiences. 

In May, with help from their teachers and MacEwan profs, they sifted through the photos they had taken to decide which ones were most important to them. They added titles and captions to reflect the meaning associated with the pictures, and the result was a photovoice exhibit at the June 2 celebration of learning event.

The photovoice exhibit was an essential part of the celebration of learning. The 58 photos selected by MacEwanCYU project students were displayed alongside photos from Dr. Milne’s work with Ben Calf Robe students in 2020 and 2020. The full display included close to 200 images.

"With traditional research, the knowledge dissemination would happen in an academic article that few people can access," says Dr. Milne. "But with photovoice, we can disseminate knowledge in a way that allows students to share their own experiences, what was meaningful for them and how it could help us create more equitable and inclusive post-secondary educational opportunities."

Ensuring the students knew their work would be seen and heard was critical. "We wanted the students to hear that we are proud of them, that we believe in them, and that they belong here and are part of our community," says Dr. Milne. 

But the junior high students weren't the only ones taking something away from the experience. 

"This is a true collaboration, which means that our MacEwan students and faculty have learned so much from these kids and their teachers," says Dr. Milne. "We are all doing this work together, exploring and having conversations. Our MacEwan science and arts students have smudged with the students at Ben Calf Robe – something many of them have never done before. And we, as faculty, are being reminded of why we love what we do and sharing our excitement with kids. I think that impacts our teaching. It's good for all of us."

The researchers plan to conduct a focus group and combine those findings with the themes, insights and knowledge generated throughout the pilot project into a report with the hope that MacEwanCYU will become a permanent fixture at the university. 

"This is a pilot – a baby step, but one we're proud of," says Dr. Milne.