Mylene Poudrier is an elementary school teacher in Quebec. The project she brought to Science on Stage in 2010 involved her students working with Robots, and designing a device on order to care for people with Lou Gehrig’s disease. The success of this project inspired Carly DeBoice, an informal educator at the Science Centre in Calgary to create a new program for Junior High students called “Tech Care”. This program was tested at a school in Calgary, and will be offered for over 3,000 students visiting the New Science Centre in 2011/2012.

Students on the Beamlines: Students conduct world-class science research: Students on the Beamlines, one of the professional development options available through Science on Stage Canada, connects the students of participating teachers to scientists working with the Canadian Light Source synchrotron so they can design and conduct a research project using this state-of-the-art facility.

Thanks to these connections students from the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick have gained experience in authentic scientific research into meteorites, diabetes, nanoparticles, bacteria, and more.

Johanne Patry, Ph.D., presented her space mission simulation project to many events such as Science on Stage Europe. Teachers from Finland and Norway who attended these events adapted her project to their own classes. ‘Out in space’ was awarded the prestigious Science on Stage award in 2008 in Berlin for the best project in the category ‘Self-Perception in the Teaching Process’.

While attending the Berlin event, Mrs Patry was attracted to an Austrian project named the Latexmotor. This project is being used mainly as a demo to explain the special properties of latex in Austria. She brought the idea back to Canada, adapted it in such a way that it became a student driven activity. Hundreds of students built their own motor. Moreover, it was very well received during an annual convention so much so that it is now sought out from teachers all over the province of Québec. In addition, the Austrian teachers presented pictures of the Canadian students constructing their motor to a convention in Switzerland.

Teacher Bryan Chappell and his high school students in the community of La Loche are doing research on the effects of acid rain on their local flora and fauna. Bryan was invited to attend Science on Stage Canada 2 to get training on the beamline at the Canadian Light Source so that they could analyze tree cores. This provided an opportunity for Bryan to better connect with the Saskatoon research community. It also raised Bryan’s professional profile, as he was invited to be a presenter at the Northern Saskatchewan Science Teachers In-Service in December 2010. The Outreach Office at the College of Engineering (U of S) is the main host partner of Science on Stage Canada 3 and supports Bryan’s project.