Redeemer Science Education Program

Every year, from September to June, Jennifer Chiang, lecturer of biology and laboratory instructor, organizes and leads the Redeemer Science Education Program for elementary and high schools. Professor Chiang began the program for elementary students in 1991 with her husband Dr Gary Chiang, and since then, the program has grown significantly.

Over 300 elementary and secondary students are welcomed each year. Schools, church groups, and home educators participate in a variety of science-related activities, including labs, demonstrations, and experiments, on topics such as insects, soil, and cells.

The Whaley Teaching Garden, which Professor Chiang manages year-round, plays a significant role in the elementary school trips. It is used for demonstrations and hands-on learning as the students are invited to dig up the soil, collect insects and worms, and examine the plants.

Apart from exposing younger people to the excitement of science, the program raises awareness about Redeemer. Students considering post-secondary education are able to experience Redeemer University College and become familiar with the
opportunities available.

Alumni News

Randy Elzinga '01, who majored in mathematics at Redeemer, obtained his PhD at Queen's University, Oct. 25, 2007. In his thesis "The Minimum Witt Index of a Graph" he acknowledges his mathematics courses at Redeemer "opened my eyes to the beauty of mathematics and provided the foundation for success in graduate studies." Randy is currently teaching at Queen's University.

Alan Meijer '94, who majored in biology at Redeemer, has since obtained an MSc in crop science from North Carolina State University. He is currently an Extension Associate: Tillage and Soil Management at the Vernon G. James Research and Extension Center of NCSU.

Felix Lam '06, is pursuing a MSc in biology at the University of Western Ontario. He is studying octopamine receptors in the cabbage looper, Trichoplusiani, and is becoming proficient in molecular biology as he identifies, isolates and sequences gene fragments.

Lisa Scully '01 obtained her PhD from the Department of Biological Sciences at Brock University. She has co-authored several articles with her supervisor based on her microbiology research. Her studies were funded in part by a prestigious NSERC postgraduate doctoral scholarship.

Aart Smit '07 and Dr. Schuurman presented a paper in Montreal, based on summer undergraduate student research sponsored by NSERC and subsequently published "Robust Subspace Position Measurement Using Localized Sub-Windows," Proceedings of the Canadian Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, May 2007, pp. 282-288.

Jakob Van Dorp '06, is pursuing a Master's degree in urban and regional Planning (MPl) at Queen's University. Jakob obtained a BSc with majors in environmental studies, history and English and has continued his interest in urban issues, particularly related to improving access to food and growing food in cities. His research currently involves looking at how community garden programs are developed and maintained in Toronto.

David Speicher

David J. Speicher (Redeemer 2004) who obtained an honours biology degree from Redeemer, graduated from Griffith University School of Biomedical Sciences with an MSc (honours) in Clinical Microbiology, working in the Qpid (Queensland Paediatric Infectious Diseases) Laboratory. David is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the School of Dentistry and Oral Health, researching oral cancer in patients with AIDS caused by human herpes virus 8. David intends to compare the prevalence of this virus in Australia, India, and Kenya. If research goes as planned, he will be heading to India in May for 2-3 months of field work and training of their lab staff. On World AIDS Day, David was privileged to spend the day helping at an AIDS camp in India where free medical, dental and eye examinations were given along with free lab work and medical supplies. It was run with a Christian AIDS organization called ACET (AIDS Care, Education and Training) in conjunction with Operation Blessing India.

Loretta Vanderspek

Loretta Vanderspek (Redeemer 2007) was awarded a prestigious NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship worth $17,300 for graduate studies. She declined the award since she had made a commitment to teach high school for one year. She is teaching mathematics, English and art at Norwich Christian School and plans to continue further studies in September 2008.

Monarch Butterfly

The Monarch Butterfly is found throughout Canada in areas where the host plant Milkweed is found.

Monarchs east of the Rockies migrate to central Mexico. Frederick Urquhart of the University of Toronto discovered the first Mexican wintering site in 1974.

The lifespan of most Monarchs is less than two months but the last generation of the summer enters into a non-reproductive phase known as diapause and may live up to 7 months. It is during diapause that the butterflies make the long migration south. The generation that over winters generally does not reproduce until it leaves the over wintering site sometime in February and March. It is the second, third and fourth generations that return to Canada in the spring.

As a defense against predators Monarchs are foul tasting. Whether the butterfly is toxic depends on the species of milkweed the caterpillar was reared on. The common milkweed is nonpoisonous but other species of milkweed contain deadly cardiac glycosides.

Symposium on the Conenose

Earlier this month, Dr Gary Chiang chaired a symposium on the biology of blood-sucking conenoses, vectors of Chagas Disease at the 7th International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. The quadrennial event took place Aug 12-16 in Salvadore, Bahia, Brazil.

Speakers were:

• K.G. Davey, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.


• I. Orchard, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON, Canada.


• E.S. Garcia and Dr. P. Azambuja, Departamento de Bioquimica e Biologia; Molecular, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.


• Erwin Huebner, University of Manitoba, Canada. (pictured above)


• Claudio R. Lazzari, Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l'Insecte, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université François Rabelais, France.

The conenose, or Kissing Bug, is the principal vector of the parasite that causes Chagas' disease, which affects millions in South America. Chagas' disease, which more frequently attacks children, involves fever and damage to the spleen and nervous system, as well as to the liver and the heart muscles. It is sometimes fatal.

Alumni News - Heidi Renkema

Heidi Renkema (Redeemer 2005), completed a joint MSc degree in land resource science and international development at the University of Guelph. Her thesis "Thallium Accumulation by Durum Wheat and Spring Canola: The Roles of Cation Competition, Uptake Kinetics, and Transpiration" was co-supervised by Dr. Berkelaar. She is currently in a one-year internship at ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) in North Fort Myers Florida. ECHO is a Christian ogranization with a mission to equip and support people doing agricultural development overseas.

Alumni News - Kyle Vander Linden

Kyle Vander Linden, who graduated from Redeemer in 2005 with a major in environmental studies as well as a major in history, is currently pursuing a master's degree in environmental planning at the University of Waterloo. As part of his studies, he had the opportunity to do research on a green roof at Waterloo City Hall, focusing on storm water quantity and quality. Last month, Kyle began working for Roof Greening Systems. In particular, he researches stormwater quantity, thermal insulation properties, soil quality, weight issues and optimizing plant growth in extreme conditions. Kyle notes that Roof Greening Systems is one of the first companies in Canada to pre-grow native vegetation mats to be placed on green roofs.

Redeemer Summer Research Students

(left to right): Jeremy Burns, Leanne Kersbergen, Matthew West, Amy Koopmans, Laura Brunsting, Timothy Ubbens, Chris Kim [McMaster], Julie Kikkert, James Harskamp and Loretta Vanderspek.

Jeremy Burns, pursued summer research co-supervised with Dr. G. Chiang with funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program and Dr. M.J. O'Donnell at McMaster University. Jeremy worked both at Redeemer and McMaster, carrying out studies on a visceral muscle in the blood-feeding insect Rhodnius prolixus.

Leanne Kersbergen '07, who graduated with a double major in biology and psychology, studied how readily selenium moved from root to shoot tissue of wheat and canola, under the supervision of Dr. Berkelaar. She also studied to what degree this process is influenced by transpiration - the evaporation of water from plant leaves.

Matthew West '07, who graduated with a major in mathematics as well as a major in computer science and physics, worked on NSERC-funded physics research "Time Evolution of Quantum Systems" under the supervision of Dr. van Dijk.

Amy Koopmans, a fourth-year biology major, exposed wheat and canola seedlings to different amounts of thallium and potassium in an effort to determine if potassium and thallium compete with one another for uptake and to see if the two plant species behave similarly or not. Amy worked under the supervision of Dr. Berkelaar.

Professor Jennifer Chiang together with student worker Laura Brunsting and volunteer Vanessa Chiang '05 served as leaders for an amazing week of scientific discovery. Ten young people, ages 9-12 years, attended Redeemer's very first summer science camp. For one week, these young people explored the world of forensic science through hands-on activities in which they were given the task of solving a "crime" of the day. The campers were guided through a variety of techniques such as how to take and lift fingerprints, identify blood types, analyze lipstick through chromatography, identify insects and more. It is hoped that the camp will be offered in the summer of 2008.

Timothy Ubbens, a second year computer science and mathematics major worked for Dr. Schuurman on an NSERC-funded project "Computer Vision for Mobile Robots."

Julie Kikkert, a fifth year honours biology student, oversaw a study of wheat and canola plants grown in soils contaminated with trace amounts of selenium and thallium, in an effort to see how much of these elements were accumulated by various plant tissues over the course of the life cycle of a plant. Over 1000 plant samples (roots, shoots and seeds) were generated in this study, supervised by Dr. Berkelaar. The samples will need to be analyzed for trace elements next summer.

James Harskamp, now in his third year of an honours biology degree, developed a cadmium microelectrode with help from Dr. Brouwer and Dr. O'Donnell at McMaster. With Dr. Berkelaar, he used this to determine where along the length of a root plants accumulate cadmium and to what extent the rhizosphere (the region immediately surrounding the root) becomes depleted of cadmium as the plant removes it from its exposure solution.

Loretta Vanderspek '07, who graduated with a major in mathematics, explored "Elementary Symmetric Functions and Inertia," a project in qualitative system analysis, funded by NSERC, and under the supervision of Dr. Vander Meulen.

2007 Redeemer Science Graduates

Bachelor of Science - Honours
Kevin Renkema, Laura Schuurman, Sheraya Sims

Bachelor of Science - Four Year Major
Erin Garden-Smith, Loretta Vanderspek, Mark van der Woerd, Debra Vuyk, Matthew West, Eric Windhorst

Bachelor of Science - Four Year General
Cassandre Dauphin, Nancy Geertsma, Jillian Hermansen, Cara Hovius, Leanne Kersbergen, Amanda Koopmans, Jasmine Lightfoot, Alicia Wolting

Gospel of Judas Top Story

National Geographic has made finding the Gospel of Judas its top story of 2006. It beat out such Science stories as August's demotion of Pluto to just being one of 40 dwarf planets and February's discovery of a "Lost World" in Indonesia with its previously unknown species of kangaroos, birds and bugs.

The Gospel of Judas manuscript dates back to the third or fourth century A.D., it is thought to be a Coptic, or Egyptian Christian, translation of a Greek text written sometime prior to 180 A.D. In this gospel, the Apostle Judas Iscariot is not a traitor but a hero, the chosen disciple. Jesus Christ asks Judas to betray him to the authorities.

In the early centuries A.D. diverse texts were circulated. Texts, such as the Gospel of Judas, were no longer copied when Christianity coalesced around New Testament Gospels. With St. Irenaeus calling the alternative texts 'fictitious histories' the manuscripts were either destroyed or hidden. The Gospel of Judas was so succcessfully hidden it remained so for 1700 years.

Ontario Christian Schools Science Fair

The Sciences Division will be hosting its seventh biennial Ontario Christian Schools Science Fair for Grades 7 and 8 at the Redeemer University campus on Thursday and Friday, April 12 and 13. Dr. Humphreys will be presenting his well-loved show, which is open to the public, on the Thursday evening.

At the last fair in 2005 individual prizes went to Carolyn Daichendt, Rianna VandeHoef, Tyler VanderWoude with the Arthur Custance Awards for Christian Perspective in Science being won by Brittany Veldboom, Ashley Hagen & Erika Scott, Bethany Wallar. The first place school was the Maranatha Christian Academy from Windsor (pictured).