Tag Archives: NSERC Science Promoters

Canada wide Science Odyssey May 1 – 16, 2021

This coming Saturday, May 1, 2021 is the start of Canada’s annual Science Odyssey (the rebranded Canada Science and Technology Week). These days the exercise is funded through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada’s (NSERC) science promotion (PromoScience) programme.

Let’s move on to the important things: Science Odyssey runs from May 1 – 16, 2021. You can find the events listed here on the Science Odyssey website. where you will find them listed by date. (I was not able to use the filters to narrow down my searches to a geographic area or topic but perhaps your system is more up-to-date than mine.)

You can check out the @Sci_Od Twitter feed or the @OdySci hash tag for tips about events,

Science Odyssey @Sci_Od· [April 26, 2021] Marine invertebrates are getting a close-up on May 5th for #OdySci with @MaritimeMusBC!

Maritime Museum BC @MaritimeMusBC · 1h Marine invertebrates are getting a close-up on May 5th at 10 AM PDT for @Sci_Od. Join @Ocean_Networks for a virtual presentation with MMBC and friends from @BamfieldMSC @FisheriesTrust and @SalishSeaCentre Register for FREE: http://sciod.ca/event/2606/ #KnowTheOcean #MuseumAtHome

Science Rendezvous on May 8, 2021 (part of Science Odyssey)

This year, Science Rendezvous, an annual family festival, is being held on Saturday, May 8, 2021. Here’s a description of this year’s event from the About page,

Science Rendezvous will STEAM Green Saturday, May 8, 2021, and you are invited to the first ever virtual Science Chase.  Race between event sites across the country, answer STEAM challenges, learn about Canadian research and innovations along with the art in Science, and collect points for the national Science Chase leaderboard.  This FREE kick-off festival for Science Odyssey week will be the most fun your family will have with science all year!

In typical years, Science Rendezvous takes science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) research and innovation out of the lab and onto the street in true festival style for you to discover and experience. Stage shows, robotics, virtual reality, INVENTours, large-scales experiments and demonstrations, science buskers and Science Chase races are designed to delight and excite the young and the young at heart. Hands on experiments, make-and-take projects, and demonstrations will allow you and your family to participate, and really get in the action. Slime, liquid nitrogen ice-cream, fire tornadoes, walking on water, and explosions are some of our favourite activities! We have been busy this year reimagining these activities in a virtual way to keep us all safe.

Science Rendezvous is unique because it is created by scientists and innovators, and the next generation of STEAM students, the people who are the most passionate about STEAM.  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.

This SATURDAY, MAY 8th 2021 may look a little different due to COVID-19. We are working with Canada’s greatest innovators, researchers, engineers, and scientists from 285 partner organizations to develop some very exciting events~ From the physics of rock and roll to the chemistry of ice-cream, Science Rendezvous has something for everyone!

As for the inspirational video on the Science Rendezvous About page, I had a flashback to a time when Canadian items of interest on television or Canadian educational movies shown in class were narrated by a man with an English accent or a man with a Canadian dainty accent. From the Canadian English entry on Wikipedia,

Historically, Canadian English included a class-based sociolect known as Canadian dainty.[33] Treated as a marker of upper-class prestige in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Canadian dainty was marked by the use of some features of British English pronunciation, resulting in an accent similar, but not identical, to the Mid-Atlantic accent known in the United States.[33] This accent faded in prominence following World War II, when it became stigmatized as pretentious, and is now almost never heard in modern Canadian life outside of archival recordings used in film, television or radio documentaries. [emphasis mine][33]

Getting back to the events, here’s the Science Rendezvous website where you can find this list of virtual events being held from now to May 14, 2021. BTW, I found this listing easier to navigate and more informative than the one on the Science Odyssey website.