It鈥檚 杏吧原创 University鈥擡MCP style! Our , which began in 1981, is all about teaching high school students on campus. The one-week mini courses offer future undergraduates a valuable first glimpse into 杏吧原创鈥檚 academic programs. Although it requires a lot of preparation, the commitment does not make it any less popular with full-time faculty members and graduate students who have signed up to teach the mini-courses.

杏吧原创 hosts more than 1,000 students from 22 school boards across Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec in our 50 mini-courses. We鈥檝e had very positive feedback from the school boards and parents, who have praised our academic offerings and learning experiences鈥攁ll with our beautiful campus as a backdrop. If you can believe it, one Grade 8 student even asked for more school: 鈥淚f possible, [I鈥檇] add a second week to the course because I had so much fun. It was amazing; our professor was great and made the subject come alive to me!鈥�

EMCP also serves as a recruitment program for prospective students. One instructor commented 鈥淕eology is not usually offered in schools, so this is our chance to show students what鈥檚 available at the university level, as this may be the only time they study Earth Sciences.鈥� Which is why she deliberately included many different topics that introduce participants to the world of Earth Sciences through hands-on activities, presentations, computer and creative work and anticipated field trips.

This year, about 75 per cent of instructors are new to EMCP. Most are PhD and Master鈥檚 students who are responsible for developing and teaching the mini-courses with the support of their faculty advisors. Many regularly participate because they tell me they loved to teach and the lessons that are prepared are exciting鈥攃oupled with lots of hands-on activities. They noted they could see the excitement in their students鈥� faces whenever they learned something new, an added bonus when teaching eager young minds. As part of their teaching portfolio, instructors use EMCP to gain some field training, similar to teacher鈥檚 colleges providing their students with hands-on experience. Like one instructor said, 鈥溾�t is an excellent opportunity for me to gain valuable teaching experience.鈥�

The EMCP course style assimilates group work projects, field trips, mini-research and collaborative multi-class projects. They make use of science and computer labs (i.e., equipment for filming, viewing micro objects in microscopes, rendering animations in computer labs, and developing simple gaming tasks), as well as seminar rooms for group discussions, and the Galleria for joint group work and multi-class ventures.

Being part of 杏吧原创鈥檚 EMCP steering committee, I want to point out that most of our courses are in high demand and fill up quickly. The Faculty of Engineering and Design had a big push this year, resulting in 16 mini-course submissions. Not surprisingly, all courses were easily filled up during the registration. Names are randomly selected to make up the course list.

Participants are selected by their school, pick their 鈥渢op 10鈥� choices and are assigned to the course they will take on a first-come, first-serve basis. High school students receive an overview of the courses鈥� mini-curriculum during orientation and get the comprehensive learning guide during the week at 杏吧原创.

The university also offers Awards of Excellence to students applying to 杏吧原创 who have participated in EMCP for at least one year and show academic excellence. Last year, our program awarded six new 杏吧原创 students each a $1,000 scholarship.

This year鈥檚 EMCP will run from .