This year, all eyes are turned to Qu�bec City, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It all started in 1608 for the French-speaking people of the Americas when Samuel de Champlain decided to settle in �K�bec�. Four centuries later, Qu�bec City is celebrating all that it has become after years of change and encounters between Europe and North America, the First Nations and settlers, and France and England. These are but a few of the many groups that have influenced the evolution of Quebec City; they brought new and innovative ideas that helped shape this beautiful city.
There are many parallels between innovative thinking today and that of 400 years ago. Centuries ago, explorers were individuals who made a difference. They were identified as �out-of-the-box� thinkers, as being innovative. They journeyed into the unknown, to discover unchartered waters, and they took risks. Those who founded Qu�bec City possessed many of the same qualities and attributes we see with today�s innovators: curiosity and interest, searching for new and better ways, and an insatiable appetite for learning.
Like explorers from years ago, new ways of communicating, collaborating and exchanging information are allowing today�s society — whether it’s our institutions or organizations, our people or businesses — to make a difference and enable progress.
One such event is taking place in Quebec City. It, too, wants to challenge, stimulate interest and arouse curiosity, to develop innovative thinking and learning. To mark the 400th anniversary of Qu�bec City, IBM is proud to collaborate with the Mus�e de la civilisation to present its brand new interactive discovery zone, Neurons in Action.
Innovation has always been an integral part of IBM. We’ve explored frontiers of the possible and brought those discoveries to benefit institutions, education, businesses and society.
We are constantly learning throughout our lives, but how do we actually do it? What roles do factors such as intelligence, memory and emotions play? These are the questions which fourteen teachers working with the Mus�e team invite us to explore.
Neurons in Action will allow visitors to find answers to these questions. The concept is at times a personal journey, a unique multi-sensory and multi-communication experience that combines learning with experimenting.
“Making a difference and enabling progress� That’s the philosophy we live by and use when playing a leading role, today and in the future, in our local community,� said Jules Bois, Executive Manager, Quebec City Office and Public Sector, at IBM. �We want to take action, and thus become agents of change to help innovate and support the effort for cultural, social and economic growth in Qu�bec City which is celebrating a significant historical milestone in 2008.”
For IBM Canada, which celebrated 90 years of doing business in Canada and Quebec in November 2007, the project follows IBM’s drive to support organizations that focus on education, literacy and labour development initiatives.
Neurons in Action is innovative thinking. And it opens doors to new possibilities, to expand the boundaries and to improve the learning process.
Please note: photograph image on IBM Canada Homepage is by Idra Labrie, from the Neurons in Action exhibit at the Mus�e de la civilisation in Quebec City.
Neurons in Action is a presentation of Industrial Alliance in collaboration with IBM, produced in partnership with F�d�ration des �tablissements d�enseignement priv�s (FEEP). Hydro-Qu�bec is a partner in Mus�e de la civilisation�s educational programming.
