In just one day they may gaze at the universe through a giant telescope, examine the intricacies of primitive hand-made tools, marvel at massive gray whale skulls, and watch forest fires blaze in Indonesia via satellite images.

And these are only some of the experiences UVic’s Young Minds program offers kindergarten to Grade 9 students when they take campus tours designed especially for them.

Created in 1999 to expose elementary and junior high school students to what UVic has to offer, Young Minds is a one-day whirlwind tour that takes class groups around campus. To date, about 800 students from all over the province have taken part.

In addition to visiting the astronomy, anthropology, and geography departments, tour stops are also possible in the biology, physics, psychology, chemistry, education, law, humanities, fine arts, earth and ocean sciences, human and social development, physical education, and engineering buildings. Additional stops can be made at the centre on aging, the office of international affairs and the centres for forest biology, learning and teaching, and global studies.

Each teacher decides which parts of campus the students will visit, and some tours stop at as many as five different sites.

For the most part, the tours help kids understand that what people study and research at UVic is part of their everyday lives. “Kids especially don’t know what goes on in a university, and they tend to view it as some sort of strange thing they can’t interact with,” says anthropology lab instructor Becky Wigen.

When the groups arrive in her department for a crash-course in anthropology, Wigen takes them through the archaeology lab and shows them animal skeletons. They also get a chance to see artifacts from the Kosapsom excavation, a site in Victoria.

Most of the archaeology that children get in school has to do with far away places, notes Wigen. “It doesn’t have any effect on them. Until they see our artifacts, they have no notion that archaeology is also local.”

And, of course, the kids are not shy about asking questions. “Where did you get all the dead animals?” they often ask Wigen. “I get a certain amount of pleasure showing enthusiastic people what I do,” says Wigen of the tours.

“They learn that you can start being a geographer in Grade 4,” says John Newcomb, senior geography lab instructor. When the students visit the geography spatial lab, he shows them satellite images of extreme weather and introduces them to global positioning systems. He also lets them work with an interactive computer program that shows water budgets from different cities around the world.

“They really get a kick out of it, and they’re surprised to find out that Victoria has a water crisis in the summer,” says Newcomb, who tries to make them appreciate that a brown lawn is a beautiful lawn.

He also tells them that they can start to be geographers immediately by learning how to read road maps. “I don’t blow them away with facts, I try to give them a flavour for how geography affects their daily lives, their sense of space and home and place.”

When the young minds arrive in the astronomy department, they want to know if there’s life in outer space, if there are little green men on Mars, and whether black holes really exist, smiles Russ Robb of the physics and astronomy department, who gets a kick out of answering these questions.

He takes kids up the spiral staircase — or as one youngster put it, the “swirl stairs”— on the fourth floor of the Elliott Building to the observatory so they can peer through the giant telescope. “I let them push buttons and open the roof,” says Robb, who enjoys watching the kids’ eyes light up.

“They want to know about lots of things, and they are so keen on this stuff,” explains Robb. If it’s a nice day he also takes the tour to the roof to see the sun through a piece of welder’s glass, and to watch magnified sun rays light a pencil on fire.

Dr. Dave Duffus in the geography whale research lab is surprised at how much the kids already know when they visit. “When we talk about killer whales, some kids will say, ‘Actually, the killer whale is a member of the dolphin family.’”

While in the lab, the groups see things like whale skeletons and jars of whale food. They like anything they can get their hands on, says Duffus. “They’re fun because they respond. Usually when you’re teaching a university class, students are not as responsive.” Duffus adds that when kids get a chance to meet real field researchers at UVic, they realize there are plenty of whales around here, not just on television.

“By the time they have to leave, he says, “we’re still talking.” Each tour stop lasts just half an hour.

But the goal of Young Minds is to leave lasting impressions. Newcomb, for example, encourages kids to get on the Internet and visit the geography Web site after they leave campus. And although the Young Minds program hasn’t been going on long enough for past participants to now be UVic students, he’s hoping to see some soon.

The class teachers are just as hopeful. “The idea is to let our students know that university is a possibility,” says Garry Garraway, whose Grade 7 classes from Willows Elementary have participated in the program for the past two years. “It’s about encouraging them to keep doors open. And if some of them don’t start thinking about it now and change their work habits, they might not have the grades to get into university.”

But on tour day, the kids aren’t thinking that far down the line. They’re too busy enjoying themselves, says Garraway: “They especially like staying on campus for lunch, and getting to see all the people walking around with books.”

Tours are offered in response to requests from schools. This year, four schools have already signed up to take part in the program, which runs from March to June. To get involved in the program, or for more information, contact Eileen Gormley in UVic communications at 721-6248.