On May 7th, Youth Science Ontario hosted a mini Science Olympics outreach event for the visiting public as part of Science Rendezvous 2011. Science Rendezvous is a free annual province-wide science festival. Initiated in 2008, the festival has grown to involve more than 2,000 volunteers and 300 events across Ontario. Our event took place at Ryerson University in Toronto.

In teams, youth and their families participated in four exciting hands-on Science Olympics activities. In each of the activities, teams were assigned scores that were tallied upon completion of all activities to determine the teams’ overall score. The four chosen activities were scaled down versions of actual high school level Science Olympics events.

Participants had the opportunity to make slime and learn about polymer chemistry. They also learned about concepts of weight, density and buoyancy as they strategized on how to construct a paper boat that would hold as many pennies as possible without sinking in a pool of water – an activity known as Penny Float. Heavy Engineering proved to be quite a challenge as teams used simple materials to build the strongest and most stable structure that could hold up to 2.5 kg of mass without collapsing. In Dante’s Peek, an exercise in communication, it was exciting to watch participants race against time to build K’nex models with only one person on the team peeking at the original designs.

The day was filled with energy, fun and excitement. The feedback received from visitors was very positive. Parents thought the activities were interactive and they particularly enjoyed the fact that the volunteers spoke of the science behind each of the activities.

Youth Science Ontario would like to sincerely thank the 17 enthusiastic and dedicated university student volunteers who made the event possible. Appreciation is also extended to Ryerson University for allowing us to be part of their wonderfully run event and the support received from their Science Department staff. We would also like to thank our sponsors, Hydro One and the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their generous and continuous support.

Youth Science Ontario is aiming to implement Science Olympics for grade 7 to 12 youth in communities across Ontario where students do not have access to such science outreach initiatives. To learn more about the Science Olympics program and how to get the program started in your community, please visit http://www.youthscienceontario.ca/programs/what-science-olympics or contact our Program Coordinator, Carolyn Loos at cloos@youthscienceontario.ca or (416) 598-8827, ext. 103.

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