At Quanser our goal is to motivate, captivate and educate students about engineering sciences. But why wait until kids reach university age to get them stoked about science? When the opportunity arises, we reach out to younger students as well.
Recently Herve Lacheray, Quanser’s Software Manager volunteered as a judge in the All Science Challenge (ASC) at York University in Toronto. Presented by Let’s Talk Science, the All Science Challenge is an exciting question and answer competition for Grades 6, 7 and 8 student teams. It takes place annually on university campuses across Canada in May.
The young participants were well-prepared. For at least two months they’d worked in teams of four to study a broad range of science topics in the All Science Challenge Handbook, from which all the questions were taken. On event day the competition was divided into four parts. Two extensive question and answer quizzes were followed by an intriguing Design Challenge - building a shock-absorbing container that would protect an egg from breaking when dropped. The top three scoring teams entered a Final Elimination Round of questions and answers.
The day was a great success for all involved, not just the winning team. At York on this day, the participation of girls was particularly high, demonstrating (if it still needed to) that science isn’t a “boys club” anymore. That’s good news for future science enrollment at universities. So was the enthusiastic participation by the young contestants. “The kids were very enthusiastic,” Herve noted. “You could see that they had studied hard. It was a pleasure to be a part of it all.”
On May 30th Quanser participated in a second, highly engaging All Science Challenge event, this time at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. Our volunteer judges on that day were Fayez Khan, R & D Engineer, and Don Nguyen, Production Technician.
We take great pride in helping schools excite students about science and fully expect a few of these girls and boys will soon be studying engineering at the university level. Chances are, some Quanser course materials and educational experiments will be part of their studies then as well.
To check out the ASC event at York University, watch this video:
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