One part of my professional responsibility as a university professor is to try to bring science out to the community. I have found that the most interesting and fulfilling way to do this is to try to get elementary school kids working on their own science fair projects.

My first attempt at doing this was the creation of an interactive "Computers In Science" display at King Edward Elementary school in Edmonton. This was presented in 1993.

The next year, this presentation evolved into an organized activity called "Question Club". Starting in November, and running until the Regional Science Fair in March, Question Club was a weekly lunchtime activity in which I would go into the school, presenting a (hopefully) interesting question from science. The question would be illustrated with a demonstration. As the club progressed through the year, students were encouraged to come up with their own questions of interest. I also tried to help them work towards providing answers to these questions in the form of a science fair project. I helped organize a school science fair (bringing in some of my colleagues and graduate students as judges), and steered some of these projects on to the Edmonton Regional Science Fair.

In 1999, the Internet had been introduced to the classrooms at King Edward Elementary school. This website was constructed to attempt to provide some electronic encouragement about science, as well as to provide a "virtual" question club. Currently, its primary focus is to provide some interesting spins on science, and to get students excited about the possibility of participating in a science fair.