Celebrating the Successes and Challenges of the 2021 Daily Discovery Series

Naturalists are individuals who study species in their native habitats. They study all kinds of interesting animals and plants while finding out cool facts!

Being a naturalist sounds like an awesome career and in the final week of the Daily Discovery Series, participants were naturalists in training. Little explorers were encouraged to get outside, sample nature, and critically think about our planet.

Activities for the sixth and final week of the series included making two different bird feeders and going outside to observe and identify plant and animal species while playing a fun game of nature bingo.

All of those exciting activities wouldn’t be complete without an equally excited programming assistant and Pascale Campagna-Slater, a full-time coordinator at Let’s Talk Science, fits the bill. The coolest thing about her is that she completed an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s degree in marine biology in Australia! A self-proclaimed wildlife and environment aficionado, Pascale strives to teach young explorers the importance of environmental protection: “My goal is to combine my interests to hopefully inspire youth to be interested in and protect the environment and wildlife around them.“

Week six provided opportunities for programming assistants to write and record about topics they hold close to their hearts. Cassidy is passionate about sustainability so she wrote about how to make a home composting system. Gardy is a bird aficionado and he was overjoyed about doing a video about birds, even saying he wished he could have written a 45 minute video on the topic. He, like all of the programming assistants, thoroughly enjoyed seeing participants posting to Flipgrid.

 

Related Article: How Can Birds Help Monitor the Health of Ecosystems?

 

Pascale has many years of experience working as a naturalist on whale watching tours. She enjoyed bringing these life experiences into her work for the Daily Discovery Series. Although, even with her past work and education experiences, this series was no easy feat. While filming for the nature bingo activity on a boat, her footage turned out quite shaky so she had to settle for a photo. She explains, “But that’s okay, that’s how science works. Sometimes things work, and sometimes they don’t, so you make changes and try again!”.

Early in the series, Pascale had issues getting her film setup just right. In the first week, we noted how each coord

inator struggled with perfecting their setup. In that same week, Gen fully embraced messy science, embracing her inner Bill Nye the Science Guy. From Messy Science to fire safety and perseverance, week two showed us that science is all about experimenting and working through the challenges that arise. Josephine encouraged participants to engage in STEM because you never know where it may lead you.

Week three of Daily Discovery Series programming featured “out of this world” activities led by programming assistant Cassidy—who prefers life underwater. Cassidy acknowledged that her post-secondary education was aided by on-demand videos similar to those produced by the Daily Discovery Series. As the series got past its midway point, future game show host Teagan catapulted us into the world of physics. As a physics major herself, the fourth week was made for Teagan. She aspires to be a female voice on television for STEM-related game shows and we can’t wait to watch her live someday! Finally, in the penultimate week, the Daily Discovery Series got unplugged and featured next level creativity from our programming assistants. Gardy and the other programming assistant taught digital literacy through the use of hopscotch and bead necklaces.

Looking ahead, Let’s Talk Science is offering numerous programs that may interest participants of the Daily Discovery Series in the upcoming months. Tomatosphere is an annual activity that has participants order and plant two different types of seeds and record the results.

STEM at Home encourages active learning and discovery outside the classroom. Discover online events and presentations, hands-on activities from around the web, and participate in cool projects and competitions.  Don’t forget also to check out the Send a Postcard to Space program, available to all ages!

An unmissable series of events for high school students are the Visionary Symposiums. This event will inspire, fuel critical thinking about leading-edge technology, and prepare high school students to meet the needs of tomorrow. Don’t miss out, register today.

Finally, we would appreciate it if you would consider subscribing to the STEM at Home Digest. We really enjoyed the conversations that we had throughout the Daily Discovery Blogs and would love to keep it going. Sent twice a month, this newsletter contains resources and links that may be helpful for engaging youth at home in STEM activities and learning.

Pascale and each of the programming assistants certainly enjoyed their summer of activities and they were each challenged to come out of their comfort zones and learn new things! They believe STEM is for everyone and will always encourage participation in STEM: “Science is everywhere, science is fun, and science can be whatever you make of it. Follow your hobbies and they just might lead you to a career in STEM”

 

 

Develop leadership and communications skills that will set you apart from the workforce while also inspiring young explorers. Learn more about volunteering for Let’s Talk Science - https://letstalkscience.ca/volunteer/become-a-volunteer