Science North celebrates its 40th anniversary

More than 40 years ago, Mike Franklyn was working in the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence harvesting the skeleton of a beached fin whale.

It was a dirty job and he was paid $3.35 an hour to do it.

"The carcass was bloated," Franklyn said.

"We had to stab it with a 40-inch machete and run down the beach to let it de-gas for about an hour before we could even approach it."

Once the skeleton was cleaned and preserved, it was eventually put on display in what would become Science North.

The science centre in Sudbury, Ont., celebrates its 40th anniversary this week.

Franklyn was one of the original "bluecoats," the science communicators at the centre, who wear their now iconic blue lab coats.

There's still a picture of Franklyn on display when he was collecting the fin whale skeleton. He was studying geology at McMaster University at the time, and eventually became the lead physician at Sudbury's Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic.

While collecting whale bones was often unpleasant, Franklyn says he still fondly remembers his time as a bluecoat.

"One of the most gratifying things for me to see is young kids inspired to study science based on their experiences at Science North," he said.

Sudbury's new poet laureate, Alex Tétreault, was also a bluecoat — from 2011 to 2016 — and said he made lasting friendships during his time at Science North.

One of his favourite memories was when a staff scientist gave the younger bluecoats an assortment of fruit, including a watermelon.

Tétreault and his colleagues had just seen a video of an experiment involving a watermelon and decided to recreate it for visitors at Science North.

"We spent three or four hours wrapping rubber bands around this watermelon — even drew a sad little face on it," he said.

"And then we just made it explode in front of visitors, which was a real delight."

Tétreault said the "fun atmosphere and camaraderie" remain his biggest takeaways from his time as a bluecoat.

An emphasis on science

Ashley Larose, CEO of Science North and Dynamic Earth, estimates they've had about 5,000 bluecoats in their 40-year history.

Larose calls the bluecoats the organization's "secret sauce."

"The founders of Science North and the original team set a vision that we would be northern Ontario's science centre and that storytelling and connecting people with science would be our foundation," she said.

Larose said discussions to have a museum in Sudbury date back to the 1950s. The original plan was to have a centre dedicated to the region's mining history.

"The emphasis started to change in the late 1970s toward a centre not just for geology or mining technology, but general science, really as a way to show how diverse our community was becoming," Larose said.

After opening its doors in 1984, Science North became the region's biggest tourist attraction.

Looking ahead, Larose said, Science North wants to keep up with the latest technology and expand across northern Ontario.

"That may look like building new science centres to make sure that everyone across the north is able to access the in-person kind of experiences that we have here in Sudbury," she said.

As for the 40th anniversary celebrations, Science North will host a barbecue on Wednesday and encourages community members to bring items for a time capsule.