April 14, 2008
UNB Fredericton News Release: E321
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UNB STUDENT WINS NATIONAL AWARD

She also wants to show children that science can be exciting, and her work in New Brunswick schools has attracted national attention. The Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada (SWAAC) has awarded her the 2008 Graduate Student Award of Merit, one of three in Canada this year.

Ms. Kucera will be presented with the $2,500 award at the SWAAC annual conference in Halifax in early May for her work in provincial schools.

She founded the Let’s Talk Science Partnership Program (LTSPP) in New Brunswick, which brings volunteer scientists, students, faculty and staff into classrooms where they use hands-on activities to teach kids about scientific methods they may have seen on popular programs such as CSI.

“My work with the LTSPP has been very rewarding, and it’s an honour to be recognized by SWAAC,” she said. “I'm looking forward to meeting the women who are movers and shakers at universities across Canada when I attend their conference in May.”

Let’s Talk Science is a national organization with programs operating at 23 universities and colleges across the country. Ms. Kucera worked on the program as an undergraduate at Simon Fraser University. When she arrived at UNB in Fredericton, she mustered the support of fellow graduate students, and started a local chapter.

The goal of the New Brunswick program is to increase science literacy in schoolchildren by partnering volunteer graduate students with educators who host the volunteers in their classrooms.

The program began with 10 volunteers who visited classrooms in Fredericton, and has grown to include two coordinators and more than 60 student volunteers who reach about 1,500 youth annually across the province.

- more - Ms. Kucera is completing her doctoral program at UNB and is studying various kinds of coastal marine algae, or seaweeds, and is testing DNA bar coding to identify different species of marine algae.

Her supervisor, Gary Saunders, is the chair of the biology department and a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Systematics and Biodiversity.

“Hana is a highly motivated self-starter who almost single handedly brought the LTSPP to UNB,” said Dr. Saunders. “She initiated the program, engaged her colleagues to establish the team of volunteers, and worked to get the support of the chair of biology and dean of science. We are all very proud of the program she has built, while at the same time excelling in her dissertation research. I am definitely proud to have her as a member of my research group and as a contributing force in our outreach activities.”

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