Practical Science

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Ethics Commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor found that former premier Heather Stefanson, then deputy premier Cliff Cullen and then economic development minister Jeff Wharton, violated the province’s Conflict of Interest Act.

Inquiry must be called to get answers on sand mine scandal

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Preview

Inquiry must be called to get answers on sand mine scandal

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Friday, May. 23, 2025

It’s pretty clear by now that an inquiry should be called into the Sio Silica scandal.

Ethics Commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor released his long-awaited report into the matter this week. He found that former premier Heather Stefanson, then deputy premier Cliff Cullen and then economic development minister Jeff Wharton, violated the province’s Conflict of Interest Act by attempting to approve a licence for a controversial silica sand mining project after their government was defeated in the Oct. 3, 2023 provincial election.

All three ministers pushed to have a Class 2 licence under the Environment Act approved for Sio Silica, days before the new NDP government was sworn into office.

They did so even though they knew, or ought to have known, that it violated the “caretaker convention,” a longstanding constitutional principle in Canada that prohibits governments from making major policy decisions once a general election is called (unless it’s related to an urgent matter of public importance).

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Friday, May. 23, 2025
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Vertebrate paleontologist Maximilian Scott handles the fossilized jaw of a tylosaurus (a type of mosasaur) jaw in the University of Manitoba paleontology lab.
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Paleontologist makes strides toward understanding the way mosasaurs behaved

AV Kitching 6 minute read Preview
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Paleontologist makes strides toward understanding the way mosasaurs behaved

AV Kitching 6 minute read Monday, Jan. 20, 2025

Maximilian Scott is a vertebrate paleontologist who focuses on extinct animal behaviour and behavioural evolution. Scott, 27, from Ovid, Mich., is in the last year of his master’s degree at the University of Manitoba studying mosasaurs, an ancient marine lizard that lived in Manitoba during the late-Cretaceous period.

He also offers tutoring in geology, biology, animal behaviour and conservation to people of all ages. You can find him on Instagram.

Our story doesn’t start with the first book that was written, our story starts a long time before that, a long time before the first humans. It’s all one long story.

Humans have only existed for 200,000 years. The Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years. Life has been around for three billion years, and complex life has been around for 542 million years.

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Monday, Jan. 20, 2025
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Auto detail shop poised to fight pandemic

Willy Williamson 5 minute read Preview

Auto detail shop poised to fight pandemic

Willy Williamson 5 minute read Saturday, Apr. 18, 2020

Since COVID-19 has taught us to continually wash our hands, and many of us have already cleaned every corner of our homes, it's a sure bet a few of us have also turned our efforts to sanitizing our vehicles.

Your usual Saturday morning ritual of washing your car on the driveway with the garden hose and vacuuming the interior and wiping down hard surfaces with car cleaning products is likely all you'll need to keep your vehicle shiny and safe — but if you know or suspect your vehicle has come into contact with coronavirus, or just want to increase your peace of mind, it may be time to call in a professional.

The majority of auto detail shops, which fall under the same essential services category as automobile repair shops, have remained open during the pandemic.

Tom Segal, 45, the owner of Blue Ocean Auto Detailing in Headingley, has seen it all in the more than 25 years he's been cleaning cars, including dirty diapers, rotten food crammed between seats and rodent infestations, but this is his first pandemic.

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Saturday, Apr. 18, 2020
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L’avenir de l’Arctique au cœur de Breaking Ice

Morgane Lemée de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Saturday, Apr. 7, 2018

Breaking Ice, c’est un aperçu de la vie sur un brise-glace de recherche, au beau milieu de l’Arctique. À travers son premier long-métrage documentaire, Christopher Paetkau transmet un message sur des enjeux environnementaux cruciaux pour le Canada et le monde entier. Entre frissons et passion.

Christopher Paetkau, Trevor Gill et Carlyle Paetkau ont fondé la maison de production manitobaine Build Films en 2013. Après plusieurs documentaires et publicités, Breaking Ice est leur plus grand projet. Il vise d’ailleurs à répondre au point central de leur mission: les enjeux de l’Arctique.

“Nous travaillons beaucoup dans l’Arctique, surtout sur des aires marines protégées. Au début, c’était une question de curiosité. Puis, ça nous a vraiment pris aux tripes. Une fois là, on réalise à quel point ces paysages sont complexes et fascinants. Pour nous, l’émotion n’est pas d’avoir une caméra entre les mains. Elle vient d’être capable de transmettre un message.

“Quand vous sentez le sol littéralement fondre sous vos pieds et que vous savez que des gens vivent ici, il y a vraiment de quoi se poser des questions. À mon avis, l’Arctique est d’une actualité brûlante. Il y a tant de choses à entreprendre.”

WILLIAM SINEUX / LA LIBERTÉ Réal Bérard fait des cartes uniques et très précises des rivières manitobaines, agrémentées de croquis et descriptifs de tout ce qui fait l’identité des rivières qu’il explore.
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Réal explorateur

By William Sineux / De La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 5 minute read Preview
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Réal explorateur

By William Sineux / De La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 5 minute read Saturday, Apr. 14, 2012

RÉAL Bérard est l’un des rares explorateurs des temps modernes à partir à l’assaut des rivières capricieuses armé de son canoë, de papier et d’un crayon.

Réal Bérard est en effet le premier à avoir entrepris de cartographier pour le gouvernement puis par passion l’ensemble des rivières manitobaines.

Depuis 1961 le cartographe parcourt ainsi des kilomètres de rivières et des jours durant, pour les dessiner et les décrire dans les moindres détails afin de créer des cartes uniques en leur genre.

“Après avoir fait les Beaux-arts de Montréal j’ai travaillé pour le ministère des ressources naturelles et je patrouillais sur les rivières jusqu’au jour où j’ai voulu intégrer mon art à mon travail de tous les jours en dessinant et peignant ce que je voyais.”

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Saturday, Apr. 14, 2012