Page 34 - 03-May-2024

THE PROFESSOR
University of Alberta Professor of Health Law and Science Policy Timothy Caulfield
SCIENCE COMMUNICATORS FIGHT ONE THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES
BY CORY SCHACHTEL ILLUSTRATION ROBERT CARTER
ne of the best parts about working at Telus World of Science - Edmonton must be the look on kids’ faces as they learn new facts that blow their tiny minds. Every day, people like Director, Science Experience Trevor Prentice get to see true, childlike wonder beam out from adolescent audiences, knowing that they were the ones flipping the switches.
“It’s truly one of the best feelings to be a part of their moment of discovery, when it clicks in their brain and they just ‘get it.’”
So there must be few things more disappointing than when an adult walks in with a more determined look on their face and a dirty rock in their hands.
“When I worked more on the astronomy team about 15 years ago, we would get people all the time coming in with these rocks, claiming they were meteorites and thinking they were worth a million dollars or something,” Prentice starts. “I still think of this long discussion I had with this one guy who was like, ‘Well it wasn’t in my field yesterday, and it was there today, so it must be from outer space!”
34 EDify. MAY.24