Workshops

JK/SK

Gr. 1

Gr. 2

Gr. 3

Gr. 4

Gr. 5

Gr. 6

Gr. 7*

Gr. 8*

Gr. 9
Academic

Gr. 9
Applied

Gr. 10
Academic

Gr. 10
Applied

Biology

Marshmallow Forest

Animal Welfare

Biology

Biology

Chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry

Earth, Space Science

Environmental Science

Environmental Science

Physics

Physics

Angry Avians

Physics

Science

Science

Habitats

What is a habitat? What does a bird need in its habitat? Students will see a real birds nest and role-play birds collecting supplies to build their own! Students will act out different habitats and draw their own habitat.

Feast for the Senses

The search for food is on. In this workshop, we will explore how animals use their senses to locate foot, one of the keys to survival. 

Something Good

In this nutrition-based activity, students will read a story, learn about food groups, sort “good” foods from “sometimes” foods, and do a craft project to make a balanced plate. If a projector is available, and time permits, we’ll watch a short Cookie Monster video!

Story Time Science: Robert Munsch, Something Good

Going Batty

Children will learn all about bats, including what it means to be a nocturnal animal and how echolocation works.

Story Time Science: Magic School Bus, Going Batty

Butterflies and Bugs, oh my!

In this activity, students will read a book about butterflies, and learn about mimicry and camouflage.  We will also talk about pollination, and create a craft that demonstrates the life cycle of a butterfly. 

Story Time Science: Magic School Bus Butterfly and the Bog Beast

Angela's Airplane

In this flight-themed activity, students will read a story, learn about the parts of a plane, the basics of propulsion, air resistance and lift. Activities may include building mini-rockets and paper airplanes.

Story Time Science: Robert Munsch, Angela's Airplane)

Animal Adaptations

How are living things adapted for survival? Students will learn some of the ways animals survive in different climates – how they stay move around, how they stay hidden, how they catch prey. Hands-on activities may include making camouflaged fish, trying to eat like a bird, comparing foot sizes, or assembling a crazy-creature.

Good for Wider Age Ranges

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 1

Materials and Structures

Volunteers will read a story and then help students build and test the strength of structures of three different materials. Students may also have the chance to talk about the value of recycling and make recycled paper as a class.

Story Time Science: Jon Scieszka, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 1

Power Up!

What is energy and where does it come from? Students will learn about the sun as a source of energy, and the importance of chemical and electrical energy.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 1

50 Below Zero

In this temperature and seasons themed activity, students will read a story and learn about temperature and how it is measured. How does the seasonal temperature affect the animals and people? Activities may include testing different insulating materials, like imitation-fur and blubber, and making a take-home thermometer craft. Story Time Science: Robert Munsch, 50 Below Zero

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 1

Junior Marine Biologist

This activity is based on marine biology, and children will learn about the layers of the ocean, types of animals that live in the ocean, ocean currents, and the human impact on the ocean. This kit will require access to water.

Story Time Science: The Magic School Bus, On the Ocean Floor

Junior Astronauts

In this space-themed workshop children get to become junior astronauts and gain a basic understanding of space exploration and the vast universe around them!

Story Time Science: The Magic School Bus, Lost in the Solar System.

Animal Life Cycles

In this life cycle themed activity, students will learn how some baby animals look the same as their parents, only smaller, while some animals undergo major changes in appearance as they grow up! Students will read a story, and activities may include a bird and/or butterfly life cycles craft and acting out the life cycle of frogs.

Story Time Science (Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 2

Playful Machines

Welcome to the science of the school playground! Students will examine simple machines by incorporating levers, wheels and axles, and inclined planes into a model playground. Simple machines will be transformed into real objects that are familiar to the children.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 2

Matter Matters (Junior)

What are the states of matter? How are solids, liquids, and gases different from each other? What happens when you mix a solid and a liquid? Students will explore the properties of liquids and the interactions between solids and liquids in hands-on stations.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 2

Water, Water Everywhere

Students will learn about the water cycle and how water moves from oceans to the atmosphere and how precipitation brings it back to the ground. Students will taste the difference between salt water and fresh water, and as a demonstration, we’ll make it rain in the classroom! We will finish with a colouring activity of the water cycle.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 2

Plants and Pollinators

Kids will learn about the main parts of a plant, and things plants need to survive. Students will handle different seeds and learn how they can be spread. Students will also learn about pollinators and their favourite plants. Activities include a UV-active “nectar guide” flower craft. In the spring and summer, the class can plant bean seeds to study the root structure as they grow.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 3

Bridges and Towers

Kids learn about what properties make structures strong and stable. Activities may include studying bridge designs and testing a suspension bridge, identifying the stable shapes for tall towers and a tower building competition.

Good for Wider Age Ranges

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 3

Fun With Forces

What is a force? Where can we find forces in our everyday lives? Students will learn about gravity and muscular force and will learn about magnetic force with a take-home magnetic work of art! Other activities and demos may include a propulsion mini-rocket race, a model submarine, or a crazy magnetic pendulum.

Good for Wider Age Ranges

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 3

Dirt Detectives

Kids learn about the different layers and types of soils and how humans can make good and bad changes to the soil. Students will read a story (Doreen Cronin’s A Diary of a Worm), discuss the importance of worms, and learn about composting.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 3 

Biomes-in-a-box

Students will have a chance to populate habitat dioramas, deciding which plants and animals belong in each environment. Once they’ve assembled their ecosystems, we’ll investigate the effects of various sources of human impact and interventions, and ways we could minimize this impact.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 4

Chemistry Magic Show

Fires! Slime! Rockets! This kit includes activities and demonstrations to illustrate basic lessons in chemistry and physical science. The scientific explanations can be simplified for a younger audience or scaled up for older students. It is highly visual, and (depending on the size and age range of the group), many of the activities are hands-on. Typically, all students will get to make a polymer-slime at the end to take home.

Good for Wider Age Ranges

Special Interest Science

Pulleys and Levers (Junior)

Students will be introduced to the importance of simple machines in everyday life. A focus will be placed on pulleys and levers, helping students gain an understanding of how simple machines make it easier to move heavy loads. Activities may include testing different pulley setups to feel (or calculate, depending on age) the mechanical advantage, and/or using levers to build scales and catapults.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 4

Luminous Light

What is light? What are the primary colours in light? What happens when light enters a material that slows it down? Kids will take part in several demos related to refraction and colour theory.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 4

Junior Geologists

Students will help model of the rock cycle, creating crayon models of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. Students will learn how important rocks are as a natural resource, and they’ll have the opportunity to handle, examine and characterize different rocks and minerals that exist here in Guelph and around the world!

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 4

GUTS!

Kids will learn about major organs of the body, which may include the heart, lungs and stomach. Activities may include a heart rate test using stethoscopes, a lung capacity test, a lung model, and fun / gross digestive system model.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 5

Wonders of Weather

In this workshop, students will learn how sun, air and water affect the weather. Students will construct and test weather instruments including a thermometer and an anemometer and compare different types of clouds.

Special Interest Science

Super Science Challenges

Teamwork is essential as students solve these mini-engineering, science and math challenges. Can they design a method to move ping-pong balls without touching them or passing beyond specific boundaries? How many pennies can they get onto a paper bridge? We have a zillion different mini-challenges and can select a few to suit your time, space and age requirements.

Good for Wider Age Ranges

Special Interest Science

Rube Goldberg Challenge

Students will learn about Rube Goldberg, and depending on their age, have a brief discussion about potential and kinetic energy and conservation of energy. They will then work in teams to build Rube Goldberg machines that demonstrate these basic physics principles. Activity kit may include pulleys, marbles, dominoes, balloons, race cars, meter sticks, and lots of other small parts. This kit is all about creativity!

Good for Wider Age Ranges

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 5

Matter Matters (Intermediate)

Students will learn about the states and properties of matter. Topics covered include density, solutions vs. mixtures, and the states of matter. Activities may include a take-home density tower and/or a buoyancy/density demo toy.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 5

Tomatosphere^TM

This activity teaches the skills and processes of scientific inquiry. Students will examine the effects of the space environment on the germination of tomato seeds. Volunteers will bring all of the supplies needed to create a greenhouse to grow tomato seeds that have either been brought to space, or exposed to space-like conditions at the Univerisity of Guelph. 

This activity is designed for classroom visits, and availability is dependant on our supplies. 

Junior Crime Lab

Armed with a list of suspects and clues collected from the scene of the crime, students become forensic scientists trying to solve a mystery. Techniques used may include chromatography, fingerprinting, handwriting comparisons, and chemical analysis.

Good for Wider Age Ranges

Special Interest Science

Biodiversity

What do scientists mean when they talk about biodiversity, and why is it important? Students will play a game to model how biodiversity can preserve the balance in an ecosystem, and they will play a matching game to learn how scientists identify species (to survey biodiversity).

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 6

Flight School

Kids will learn all about the principles of flight, especially lift (with an emphasis on Bernoulli's principle) and perform several small activities to demonstrate key concepts, including creating and testing paper airplanes. There is a PowerPoint that goes with this activity.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 6

Junior Electricians

Students will build fruit circuits and investigation the difference between fruits/vegetables with different levels of electrolytes. They’ll also have a chance to see static electricity in action!

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 6

Exploration Mars

Is there life on Mars? This space-themed workshop will give students a basic understanding of space exploration followed by a design challenge! Each group of students will get to design their own rover and lander to see if it will survive Mars’ harsh conditions!

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 6

Astronaut Academy

Students will learn about gravity, objects in space, and centripetal and centrifugal forces. Activities include investigating craters, making a star chart or planisphere, and take-home instructions on how to make a homemade telescope! If time permits, younger students will do a constellation craft, while older students (if a microwave is available) will measure the wavelength of light and calculate its speed. 

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 6

Entrepreneurial Science

Students learn about the economics of science by forming companies to design self-propelled objects. By ‘purchasing’ parts, building and testing their creations, students discover a variety of potential energy sources. Having a novel idea is just the first step in inventing. Turning the idea into a viable product is definitely not easy and may not be inexpensive. NOTE: This is a long workshop that runs about 2 hours.

Great for Wider Age Ranges

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 7

Pure Substances & Mixtures

Students will learn about particle theory,  and the difference between pure substances and mixtures. By playing a variety of Bingo, students will classify different materials. 

Requires Liquid Nitrogen- availability varies

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 7

DNA

Kids will explore the components that make up their genetic code and construct a model of double-stranded DNA out of sugary treats! Students will discover human genetic relations to other mammals, insects and food. Activities may include a DNA extraction from fruit with simple at home tools, a DNA fingerprint matching game, a chromosome mix-up game, and trivia.

Weather and Climate Change

In this workshop, students will learn about El Niño, ice cores, and climate change. Students will graph data, and construct models of the north and south polar ice caps. If time allows, the activity leader can run a demonstration of a cloud in a bottle. 

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 8

Special Interest Science

Fantastic Fluids

Students will learn about Pascal’s Law, how force travels through fluids and will conduct an experiment about viscosity.

Human Impact on Aquatic Ecosytems

Students will learn about how human activities can affect aquatic ecosystems. We will discuss a real-world example of Guelph's aquatic ecosystem and test water samples for pH level, nitrogen, and phosphates. 

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 8

Squishy Circuits 

Students will learn about series and parallel circuits and insulators and conductors.  Homemade playdough will be used to create circuits. The optional activity involves creating a battery and testing the voltage.

Great for Wider Age Ranges

Angry Avians

Who says science is boring?! With the new Angry Avians kit, students will gain hands-on experience with trajectory physics and use critical thinking to modify and optimize their catapults to launch an angry bird at the piggies' fortress. This is a great activity to get students interested in physics by bringing the popular Angry Birds game to life!

DNA Extraction

Students will learn about DNA, genetics, and complete a DNA extraction from fruits.

Curriculum Complements: Gr. 10

Viral Vaccines

Students take part in a real-world scenario of a disease outbreak and are tasked to work as research scientists to come up with the most effective vaccine to combat the outbreak. Along with learning about vaccines, the students also learn about the importance of collaboration in the research world. The students split into various research labs around the world and choose whether or not they share their scientific findings with their colleagues or keep it to themselves.

Transportation & the Environment

Drive into the multi-faceted world of transportation! In this workshop, students examine current and potential energy sources used for transportation. Students will test fuel cells cars, wind-powered cards, and explore the various types of fuels used in transportation. Discussions will encourage critical thinking around this topic in connection to sustainability in everyday travel. 

Forensic Science (Senior Crime Lab)

 Armed with a list of suspects, students will try to solve the crime by analyzing the evidence. Techniques will include chemical analysis and chromatography, and may also include ballistics analysis, fingerprint and handwriting comparison, and blood splatter analysis.

Marshmallow Forest

Ever wonder what evolution is all about? Students will learn the basics of evolution with fun and competitive simulations using forks, spoons, and marshmallows! 

Let's Talk Biotechnology

This kit includes advanced molecular techniques including DNA extraction (20 min), gel electrophoresis (50-90 min), and a polymerase chain reaction (20 minutes). Activities can be customized to your schedule. 

Suitable for a grade 11 and above biology or chemistry class or an enriched grade 8 or above science class. 

Animal Welfare

In this workshop, students will learn what animal welfare is and why it is important and how it relates to evolution (for both wild and captive animals) and bioengineering. Group activities include matching animals’ traits to their ecosystem, designing an animal, and designing a zoo!

Suitable for Grade 11 or 12 classes.