I got an announcement from the Science Rendezvous organizers about Canada’s upcoming national science festival and went to the Science Rendezvous homepage to find this description of the organization and the 2014 event,

Science Rendezvous is an annual festival that takes science out of the lab lab and onto the street! We work with Canada’s top research institutes to present a coast-to-coast open house and festival that is free for everyone. With over 300 events across 30 cities and 1000’s of mind-blowing activities, Science Rendezvous is Canada’s largest celebration of the amazing feats of science and engineering happening right here at home.

In 2013, more than 160,000 attendees participated in our unique brand of hands-on science, a new landmark for such events in Canada

Science Rendezvous is the only organization that generates this level of public engagement with science, and direct face-to-face involvement with those at the very frontiers of innovation.

This SATURDAY, MAY 10TH 2014 over 6,000 of Canada’s greatest innovators, researchers, engineers, and scientists from 80 partner organizations will open their doors and close city streets to present exciting demonstrations, hands-on activities, and boom explosive experiments. From the physics of rock and roll to the chemistry of ice-cream, Science Rendezvous has something for everyone!

The organizers have highlighted a few of the festival events (from the May 5, 2014 announcement),

Key events  taking place across Canada on May 10 [2014]:

• Yonge-Dundas Square (hosted by Ryerson University): Science Stage Shows, liquid nitrogen  and fire shows; walk on water with non-Newtonian fluid pools;  and the Physics Circus.
•  U of T, St. George Street: The Amazing Science Chase (obstacle course-meets scavenger hunt-meets science!); solar car races; exploding fruit; detonating hydrogen balloons; interactive behind the scenes tours of cutting edge research labs; plus a 120lb robot that plays sport.
•  uOttawa & Carleton University: Science of Rock and Roll; Light up the night with chemistry in the dark
• University of Regina: Project Boomerang (a high-altitude balloon experiment); a live brain to touch and feel; Science Quiz competition
• Hacking Health marathon in Whitehorse, Yukon
• Memorial University of Newfoundland: Magic of Chemistry show; marine animal touch tank

You can find a list of events and cities here,  I notice there are two for 2014 in British Columbia (there were three in 2013 as per my May 10, 2013 posting) one is in Burnaby at Simon Fraser University and the other is in Langley at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Both events here in British Columbia start at 11 am and finish at 4 pm.

Science Rendezvous has produced a video highlighting the 2013 Yonge-Dundas Square event which included a dance of science (specifically glucose molecules),

It’s good to see this initiative. Bravo!

I hope one day that by building on initiatives such as Science Rendezvous, we Canadians will see science festivals that are more adult-oriented in the way of something like the World Science Festival in New York. That 2014 festival is being held May 28 – June 1, 2014. If anyone’s listening, here’s a sample of events demonstrating what a science festival for adults could look like based on the 2014 World Science Festival lineup,

Measure for Measure: Quantum Physics and Reality
Date: Thursday May 29, 2014
Time: 08:00 PM-09:30 PM
Venue: NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
Moderator: Brian Greene
Participants: David Z. Albert, Sean Carroll, Sheldon Goldstein

Throw a baseball and you can track its arc across the sky without disturbing it. Scientists don’t have that luxury with quantum particles. When no one is looking, a particle has near limitless potential: it can be nearly anywhere. But measure it, and the particle snaps to one position. …

Pioneers in Science: Martin Rees
Date: Thursday May 29, 2014
Time: 01:00 PM-02:00 PM
Venue: Colloquium Room, NYU Global Center
Participants: Martin Rees

Great minds inspire greatness in others, which is why the Pioneers in Science program gives high school students from around the globe rare access to some of the world’s most renowned scientists. This year, students will engage with British astrophysicist, Lord Martin Rees.  …

Cells to Silicon: Your Brain in 2050
Date: Thursday May 29, 2014
Time: 08:00 PM-09:30 PM
Venue: The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
Participants: Gary Marcus, John Donoghue, Sheila Nirenberg, Michel M. Maharbiz

We are at the dawn of a revolution in neuroscience, with the potential to dramatically expand how the human mind interacts with the world. For the most part,  brains still need bodies—vocal cords, hands, eyes—to turn thought into action, but rudimentary mind-to-machine links have already been developed.  The science fiction …

Science and Story: The Write Angle
Date: Thursday May 29, 2014
Time: 05:30 PM-07:00 PM
Venue: The Great Hall of the Cooper Union
Moderator: John Hockenberry
Participants: Sean Carroll, Steven Pinker, Jo Marchant

Doing science? Hard work. Explaining the results to an interested but scientifically untrained public? Just as difficult. And just as important. Join a conversation with Sean Carroll, Jo Marchant, and Steven Pinker to discuss the responsibilities and challenges science writers face when leading the uninitiated into worlds filled with equations, …

Cheers to Science! Nordic Grog: Brewing on the Wild Side
Date: Thursday May 29, 2014
Time: 07:00 PM-08:30 PM
Venue: Wythe Hotel, Main Event Hall
Participants: Sam Calagione, Patrick E. McGovern

Join biomolecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern and pioneering brewmaster Sam Calagione as they explore the biotechnology of ancient ales from around the world, and reconstruct an ages-old Nordic Kvasir. Taste the results of chemical, botanical and pollen evidence taken from a 3,500‐year‐old Scandinavian drinking vessel. Observe the results of several kinds …

You will notice on the World Science Festival website that the events for children and adolescents are integrated into a larger programme. While I think it’s important to have events that are primarily for children and/or adolescents, in Canada we seem to have a ‘one or the other’ approach, e..g., it’s a science event for children/adolescents or it’s a science event for adults but never both.