Science Odyssey: A Full Week of STEM!

Looking for ways to celebrate the end of a school year? Starting May 12th, teachers, parents and students across Canada alike can do just that, and get kids excited about science and math in the process.

Science Odyssey defines itself as “Canada's largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, featuring fun and inspiring experiences in museums, research centres, laboratories and classrooms from coast to coast…Science Odyssey demonstrates how discoveries and innovations shape our daily lives and foster a strong science culture in Canada.” In 2016, 222 Canadian cities participated in Science Odyssey, hosting 616 different events. Some of this year’s events include, among many others, a Planetarium screening of Asteroid: Mission Extreme free of charge until September 30th, right here in Montreal.

Additionally, throughout the month of May, Kids Code Jeunesse (KCJ) is teaming up with Science Odyssey to offer Canada-wide coding workshops, all of them for free. These workshops will also celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. One project looks at famous Canadian logos, from hockey teams to cities and allows kids to design their own logo. The second projects lets kids create a short story featuring their favourite Canadian animal. KCJ and Science Odyssey are also offering similar workshops for teachers and students.

On May 20th at the St. Michel Library, kids between the ages of 8 and 12 can come together to learn how to experiment with logos that symbolize Canada, using the MIT-developed block coding program Scratch. This workshop will be held in French. A second French workshop will take place in Quebec City, also on May 20th. A Scratch workshop will also be held in the Lighthouse Labs office in Toronto on Saturday, May 13th. During this workshop, “kids will create a short story featuring their favourite Canadian animal and, through the magic of code, bring their story to life.”

Teachers will have a chance to take part of the fun as well, by attending an Intro to Computer Programming course on Tuesday, May 16th at 6:00 p.m!

Science Odyssey runs for 10 days from May 12th to May 21st. For more information about Science Odyssey you can visit http://www.sciod.ca