THE STEM JOURNEY | March 2026
Your monthly connection to youth STEM in Canada
👋 Hi Aspiring Innovators,
Right now, somewhere in Canada, a student is setting up a display board. Maybe it’s in a school gym, a community centre, a convention hall. They’ve been working on this project for months. They’re nervous. They’re about to explain something they genuinely care about to a room full of strangers.
This is how it starts. This is also, it turns out, how it’s always started.
Regional STEM fairs are kicking off across the country this month, the first step in a journey that, for some students, will lead all the way to Edmonton and CWSF 2026 in May. And while those fairs are just getting underway, we also just got back from watching what that journey can eventually lead to.
Team Canada brings home medals from Taiwan
Last month, Audrey Cowen and Lucas Wang represented Canada at the Taiwan International Science Fair in Taipei, competing against young scientists from 32 countries. Audrey, a Grade 11 student from Toronto, took first place in Microbiology for her research into fighting drug-resistant fungal infections, and Lucas, a Grade 12 student from Burnaby, placed third in Physics & Astronomy for using AI to study how galaxies grow and evolve.
Both of them started somewhere like that gym.
YSC turns 60!
This March 28, Youth Science Canada marks 60 years since we were officially incorporated. The Canada-Wide Science Fair had already been running since 1962, but in 1966, a group of dedicated volunteers decided this work deserved an organizational home.
The mission hasn’t changed. YSC exists to support young, curious Canadians who have questions they want to explore, through months or even years of original research, rigorous investigation, and public presentation of their findings. That kind of sustained, self-directed inquiry does something a single STEM workshop can’t: it changes how students see themselves. Yes, they learn good science. But they also learn to ask better questions, to sit with uncertainty, to communicate complex ideas to real audiences, and to trust their own thinking, skills that shape a person regardless of whether they go on to become a scientist, an engineer, a lawyer, a teacher, an entrepreneur, or a job that doesn’t even exist yet.
Today, YSC delivers that experience through our four focus areas: the National STEM Fair Network (including nearly 100 regional fairs, CWSF, and Team Canada), mySTEMspace, Smarter Science, and the purpleSTEMwave. Together, we’re supporting more than 10,000 students a year at every stage of the STEM journey, from the initial spark of an idea to the international stage.
By the numbers, then and now:
- 45 finalists from 12 regions attended the very first CWSF in 1962 at Carleton University in Ottawa
- Today: 400 finalists from nearly 100 regions, covering coast to coast to coast, inspire us all at the CWSF
- More than 20,000 students have been part of CWSF and Team Canada!
Alumni from those 60 years have gone on to do all kinds of things. Roberta Bondar competed at CWSF in 1963; when she became the first Canadian woman in space in 1992, she brought her CWSF pin with her on the Space Shuttle. Mike Lazaridis was a CWSF finalist in the 1970s before going on to found BlackBerry. Stella Bowles presented her project at CWSF in 2017, her research into E. coli contamination in her local river influenced three levels of government and prompted a $15.7 million cleanup plan. Three very different paths, shaped by the same foundational experience.
And that’s not even mentioning the thousands of others who have gone on to become valued friends within their communities, followed their passions to interesting lives, and contributed to building a better world for us all.
When I look back now as a medical doctor, neuroscientist, astronaut, and photographer, each vantage point leads back to those early days and those early brushes with scientific discovery. It has been an amazing scientific journey and one that has taken me to places that I could only have dreamed of as a young woman. – Roberta Bondar
What’s Happening at YSC
Regional STEM Fairs
Fairs are happening across Canada throughout March and April. If you’re competing: good luck – we believe in you! If you want to cheer on the next generation in person, there’s nothing quite like it.
CWSF 2026
May 23-30 at the Edmonton EXPO Centre and the University of Alberta. We’re still looking for volunteers, judges, exhibitors and sponsors!
Learn more about how to get involved
Join our Board of Directors
YSC is seeking three new directors for three-year terms starting July 1, 2026. Experience in law, finance, or business development and members from underrepresented communities are particularly welcome.
What’s Happening This Month
March Opportunities
- Girls STEM Up 2026: The Future in Focus (March 14) – Atlantic Canada conference for girls and women in STEM
- Earth Science for Society (March 15-17) – Calgary event demonstrating the importance of earth science
- Brower Youth Awards (Apply by March 31) – Youth environmental change leaders ages 13 to 22 should apply!
👉 See all opportunities for more details
Worth Your Time
- Canadian humpback whales in B.C.’s Kitimat Fjords are teaching each other a complex feeding technique called bubble netting, and the population is recovering as a result. Researchers worked alongside the Gitga’at First Nation, who have been monitoring the population for over a decade.
- A biology professor at Wheaton College designed an experiment she knew would fail — on purpose — and spent the rest of the semester teaching her students what failure in science actually looks like. A timely read for anyone mid-project right now.
- Speaking of doing things that make your stomach drop: a journalist spent 2025 interviewing people about the thing they’d always wanted to do but were scared to try. What she learned about resilience, failure, and the stories we tell ourselves is worth carrying into science fair season.
This Month’s Thought
Sixty years of asking questions. Sixty years of students standing in front of their work, a little nervous, about to explain something they care about to a stranger. And sixty years of an organization quietly making sure the next generation gets that same chance.
Good luck to everyone competing this season.
— Stuart
P.S. If you’re part of our history — as a former participant, a volunteer, a judge, or an educator — send me an email. I’d love to hear from you and to share your story.