MAY 2019 BCBUSINESS 43 LINDSAY SIU
M
usic and science
have been twin
passions for Sandy
Eix since her teens. Now
director of
STEM learning at
Science World in Vancouver,
she studied piano and played
in the orchestra for high school
musicals in her hometown of
Oakville, Ontario. Her love
of science led to degrees in
physics: a BSc from Waterloo,
followed by an MSc and a PhD
from
SFU. In 1998, as Eix was
‡nishing her doctorate while
also working at Science World
as science learning lead, she
woke up one day with an urge
to learn Cape Breton–style
‡ddle music.
"I found myself going from
e‹ectively having two full-time
jobs to only having one, so I
had time to think about what
other things I might want to
learn," Eix recalls. "I'm not
quite sure where that came
from, except that at the time
there was a popular resurgence
of that style of music, so
you heard a lot of Natalie Mac-
Master and Ashley MacIsaac
and the Rankins." Because of
the island's isolated location,
Cape Breton music remains
similar to what Scottish settlers
played when they arrived there
in the early 1800s.
Eix owns two ‡ddles. She
Fiddling Around
Science World's Sandy Eix is in tune with the
music of Cape Breton
by Felicity Stone
W E E K E N D WA R R IOR
(
quality time
)
WARRIOR
SPOTLIGHT
Science World marks its
30th anniversary in May,
and Sandy Eix has been
there almost from the
start. In 1996, she became
science learning lead
while still at
SFU, and she's
been inventing exhibits,
programs and shows ever
since. As director of
STEM
(science, technology,
engineering, math) learning
since 2016, Eix recently
worked with teachers and
kids on learning about
coding, robots and compu-
tational thinking. She's also
launching a tinkering space
where people can use their
science knowledge and
artistic skills. A new exhibit,
A Mirror Maze: Numbers
in Nature, combines art,
science and math.
O FF
T H E
C LO C K
STRING FLING
Eix woke up one day
with a sudden desire
to learn the fiddle
