Months of hard work are not in vain for Canadian students who have invested time and talent into a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project over the past year. Today, students from across Canada are proudly showcasing their STEM projects, 635 in total, as part of the first Youth Science Canada Online STEM Fair.

“Hundreds of students have expended great energy and enthusiasm on STEM projects this year,” says Reni Barlow, executive director of Youth Science Canada. “We’ve launched this online fair, not to replace the Canada-Wide Science Fair, but rather to encourage these students to share their projects and fuel their journey of discovery and curiosity. We could not be happier with the response.”

Addressing eight challenges: agriculture, fisheries and food; curiosity and ingenuity; digital technology; disease and illness, energy, environment and climate change, health and wellness; and natural resources, each project features a one-minute video, images and brief text segments explaining their work.

To enhance student visits to the online fair, including as part of a home learning experience, teachers and parents can register to receive a PDF Student Activity Guide and Teacher/Parent Guide at https://events.eply.com/VisitorsYSCSTEMFair.

In addition to the 635 student projects, the YSC Online STEM Fair also features a STEM Expo area where visitors can engage with STEM-related organizations like Cenovus Energy, Intact Financial Corporation and NSERC.

From late March to early May, many regional science fairs as well as the Canada-Wide Science Fair, hosted by Youth Science Canada, were forced to cancel their long-awaited competitions, showcases and exhibits due to COVID-19.

Launching an online fair was part of Youth Science Canada’s long-term plans. The sudden arrival of the pandemic served to accelerate the launch, which was enabled by engineering.com.

“It’s been absolutely amazing to watch our two teams work so hard and tirelessly over the past five weeks to bring this exciting online event together” said Frank Baldesarra, CEO of engineering.com. “Now it’s time to put the spotlight on Canada’s future bright young scientists and engineers as they will surely provide us with ideas and projects that will make a profound impact in these challenging times”.

Initially expected to go live earlier this week, the website experienced some delays due to a high volume of project entries in the last hours.  To ensure all students could successfully enter their project, Youth Science Canada extended the submission deadline by 24 hours. All 635 projects are now visible at makeprojects.com/ysc for the public to see and enjoy as a team of judges simultaneously reviews the entries to give recognition to outstanding projects. Digital ribbons will be announced for top-ranking projects on May 29.

About Youth Science Canada

Established in 1962, Youth Science Canada fuels the curiosity of Canadian youth through science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects. The registered charity works to ensure that Canadian youth have the capacity and skills to generate and answer questions and identify and solve problems. YSC also engages leading public and private sector organizations in the development of a national STEM network of Canadian youth. For more information, please visit youthscience.ca.

About engineering.com

Engineering.com is a global online publisher and discussion forum for problem solving, tech news, innovations and resources, with a simple mission to inspire engineering minds to be and do better. The company’s ProjectBoardplatform, now powering makeprojects.com/ysc , provides Makers and STEM communities a fun and engaging way to share ideas, develop projects and learn in groups online.

For more information:
Melissa Arauz
Torchia Communications
[email protected]
Cell: 514-377-6461