Our story: Supporting math and science education

Supporting math and science education in Canada

 

Monica Samper, president of the Imperial Oil Foundation, with students from the Calgary Girls School

(Left) Monica Samper, president of the Imperial Oil Foundation, with students from the Calgary Girls School.

 

Imperial’s long-standing commitment to help strengthen education in mathematics, science and technology in Canada was reinforced in 2009 when the Imperial Oil Foundation announced that grants totalling almost $2 million will be directed to five Canadian universities over the next five years to support math and science programs. Having contributed more than $20 million to such programs over the years, Imperial is a leading Canadian corporate supporter of math and science education.

“Imperial’s operations are based on science and technology, and we believe that education in these disciplines is critical to remaining competitive in an increasingly technology-dependent world,” says Monica Samper, president of the foundation. “We are also concerned that in a 2008 survey of OECD countries in which Canada received a C grade for the number of people choosing to pursue a math or science education. We believe this should be a concern to Canadian governments, educators, parents and citizens.”

The foundation’s contributions will be directed toward three strategic objectives, Samper says. These grants will help provide math and science teachers the tools they need to attract younger, pre-university students to math and science studies and careers, and to increase public awareness of the need for and importance of these disciplines.

The foundation grants are:

  • $600,000 over five years to Queen’s University to support outreach and action research programs focused on elementary and secondary education in math and science among under-represented youth groups such as minorities and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
  • $500,000 to the University of Western Ontario over five years to maintain its Education Through the Ages program It includes the Engineering Summer Academy for high school students and a Math Performance Festival for elementary school students in which math concepts are represented creatively through songs, poems, animation, sports and games.
  • $400,000 over four years to Dalhousie University to extend its successful Math Circles outreach program, which presents interactive lectures and activities to high school students, from the Halifax area to schools across Nova Scotia.
  • $250,000 over four years to McMaster University to support a Geomatics High School Outreach Program at the School of Geography and Earth Sciences to foster students’ interest in geology, mining and the earth sciences.
  • $225,000 over three years to the University of Waterloo to enable its Seminar in Computer Science for Young Women, which focuses on young women in Grades 9 and 10, to be introduced in western Canada with the cooperation of western universities.