Skip to main content
Ingenium Logo

You are leaving IngeniumCanada.org

✖


This link leads to an external website that Ingenium does not control. Please read the third-party’s privacy policies before entering personal information or conducting a transaction on their site.

Have questions? Review our Privacy Statement

Vous quittez IngeniumCanada.org

✖


Ce lien mène à un site Web externe qu'Ingenium ne contrôle pas. Veuillez lire les politiques de confidentialité des tiers avant de partager des renseignements personnels ou d'effectuer une transaction sur leur site.

Questions? Consultez notre Énoncé de confidentialité

Ingenium The Channel

Langue

  • Français
Search Toggle

Menu des liens rapides

  • Ingenium Locations
  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Join
Menu

Main Navigation

  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners

Students dive into science with new STEAM program

Share
3 m
Jul 21, 2020
Categories
Arts & Design
Categories
Aviation
Education
Industrial Technology
Sciences
Media
Article
Profile picture for user Bradley Legault
By: Bradley Legault
Algonquin College
Four students, two in green shirts, two in grey shirts, stand on both sides of a poster with their invention drawn on it. Materials for building their invention are scattered in front of them.
Photo Credit
Ingenium | Jonathan Jerome
Four inventors show off their creations

A hands-on new program — designed to hook young students on science — is celebrating a successful start.

The Elementary Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) Residency Program launched back in October 2018. For five consecutive days, a group of Grade 8 students from St. Patrick’s Intermediate School visited the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. As program participants, the students were challenged to explore new ways to think and create using modern technology and scientific principles. 

A group of 13 students gather around a table. They are discussing ideas and planning the projects. Some speak, some draw, and some do research on laptops
Photo Credit
Ingenium | Jonathan Jerome

Research is done. Ideas are generated. Problems are solved. 

“(The goal is) to create an opportunity for students to get more involved in science.” 

“(The goal is) to create an opportunity for students to get more involved in science,” says Jonathan Jerome, who coordinates the program on behalf of Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation. He adds that he loves seeing what the students can create when they are given the right tools and opportunities.

Jerome receives guidance from The Ministry of Education when choosing the schools and classes to go on these week-long field trips. Since 2018, the Elementary STEAM Residency Program has flourished and grown. To date, eight schools have participated in the program; this number would have been even higher if not for the COVID-related school and museum closures.

Looking back, Jerome says his time spent with the students were his favourite aspect of delivering the program.

Four boys show off their inventions to museum guest. They have invented wristbands to help people move through airports. Two boys model their prototypes, which are made from cardboard and circuitry.
Photo Credit
Ingenium | Jonathan Jerome

One of the best moments of the week is when the students get to show their inventions to museum visitors.

“It’s so much fun and it’s always surprising; I start the week not knowing what I’m going to see from the students,” says Jerome. “I know a little bit about who they are and what their interests are, and it’s really exciting to watch them. Once they finally agree on a topic and start sketching it out, planning, and getting excited about it, it’s fun to watch them overcome challenges and solve problems.” 

Tim Graitson, a teacher at St. Gabriel School, participated in the program with his Grade 6 class. Graitson praised the program, adding that both he and his students benefited from the experience. 

“I love this program and I really enjoy how Jonathan Jerome teaches the class; he is open to ideas and directs (and) challenges the students.” says Graitson.  

At the museum, students are permitted and encouraged to use tools they aren’t accustomed to having at their disposal, such as a laser cutter. Giovanni Giorgio, Giulia Salvin, and Jonny Guercio — Grade 7 students from Frank Ryan Catholic Intermediate School — had the chance to participate in the program with their science and religion teacher, Janette Perron.  
 
“Personally, I like the subject science and it’s fun,” says Salvin. “Sometimes in class we get to do experiments and stuff and at the same time it’s educational.” 

Throughout the week, students are challenged to build their skills as they work towards an end project. Working in groups of three or four — depending on the overall size of the class — students create a prototype of something that would benefit society. 

Three girls program the circuits for their invention. A variety of computer and circuitry gear is arranged in front of them.
Photo Credit
Ingenium | Jonathan Jerome

At the museum, students are permitted and encouraged to use tools they aren’t accustomed to having at their disposal.

Giorgio and Guercio were in a group together, and decided to build something using technology. Instead of building something physical, they decided to make an app that would help you keep track of the trash that you were throwing out. The user could earn money back depending on how much — or how little — trash was disposed. 
 
“For example, (for) every can from canned food — depending on the size — you would get about ten cents, and if it was bigger it would be about 25 to 30 cents,” says Giorgio. 

Salvin’s group created a device that would hook up your laptop or another device to a bike. In order for your device to charge, you would have to pedal. This way, physical activity would be encouraged since most people depend on technology in their everyday lives. She also came up with a way to use a light to gauge whether or not you are pedaling hard enough. 

At the end of the week, the students had the opportunity to showcase their projects to museum visitors and talk about what they created.

5 boys show off their invention to museum visitors. In front of them are a computer and a cardboard box with several attachments and wires coming out
Photo Credit
Ingenium | Jonathan Jerome

Five students show off their amazing invention to a crowd. 

“They [program organizers] made it fun because not only were you working the whole time, but you also got to go outside or see the museum; I think most of the people liked going to see the museum as well,” says Guercio. 

With the sudden closure of schools and museums in March 2020, the Elementary STEAM Residency Program paused operations. Currently, staff are assessing how they might restart the program in the future, using a format that protects the health and safety of all involved. 

For more information, visit the STEAM Residency Program. 

A cardboard box with wheels and grey solar panels above is shown, along with two cylinder hydraulic system.
Photo Credit
Ingenium | Jonathan Jerome

The inventions of many students are amazing, and this one is no exception. The design and layout is exactly what students are capable of doing in the right circumstances, and Elementary STEAM Residency Program hopes to bring that out of every student they have. 

Tags
STEAM, STEAM residency, elementary STEAM residency program, school, innovation, inventions, prototype, technology
Author(s)
Profile picture for user Bradley Legault
Bradley Legault

Bradley Legault is an English Writer/Editor who is currently interning from Algonquin College to create for Ingenium. His crafty wordplay and simple tone paints a picture in readers minds to bring the wonderful nature of museum history and science and technology to life.

More Stories by

Profile picture for user Bradley Legault
Bradley Legault
Algonquin College
A wide-angle photo shows the Artifact Alley exhibition within the Canada Science and Technology Museum. A variety of artifacts are visible in cases on both sides of the image.

Augmented Alley: The future meets the past in museum’s new app 

A group of teenagers and one coordinator gather in a circle to sort out their ideas and problem solve. Behind them is a showcase of the different kinds of bikes there have been through time.

Program gives youth STEAM to explore new fields

Related Stories

A dirty glass slide of a stromatolite with a dirty cotton swab at the bottom; a close-up on a bee with a green head and thorax on a yellow flower; a false colour 3D view of the surface of Venus showing volcanoes and lava flowing towards the foreground.

3 Things you should know about how native bees are important pollinators, how saliva is used to clean artifacts, and active volcanism on Venus

A close up of prison bars through which a hallway can be seen.

Captive Labour

Tracey-Mae Chambers stands under her art installation made of red and orange yarns at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum.

Métis artist uses art to encourage conversations about decolonization

A large impact crater viewed from the rim, a woodern spoon full of small yellow grains, a close up of a forearm being tattooed.

3 things you should know about the untapped potential of millet, the permanence of tattoos, and asteroid airbursts

A bushplane, the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, on display at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. A new text panel sits in front of the aircraft: a gray structure with wood-tone side panels and dark metal legs. Its backlit surface presents the name of the aircraft, a selection of images, and interpretive texts. A life-size display of a dock sits to the right, followed by another aircraft and panel.

Whispering Loudly: An Update about the “Quiet Updates”

A photograph of the large, multicoloured and multimedia Northern Lights mural.

"Northern Lights" 3-D Mural: A Colourful Artistic Tribute to Canada’s Jet Age Beginnings

Colourful Eckert IV map projection generated by AI

Art to Critically Examine AI & Robotics

The Shell By-Plane X 100 Astroterramare of Professor Septimus Urge (far right), Pleasure Gardens of the Festival of Britain, Battersea Park, London, England. Anon., “New British Jet Unique, but Not Matchless.” Aviation Week, 18 August 1952, 44.

Heath Robinson / Rube Goldberg machines that Heath Robinson and “Rube” Goldberg themselves would have approved of; Or, The wonderful world of Frederick Rowland Emett and his things

Sophie working with a series of toaster artifacts placed on a worktable.

A Toast to the Collection: The History of Toasters in Canada

A typical Tillson Company Limited advertisement. Anon. “Tillson Company Limited.” The Canadian Grocer & General Storekeeper, 13 May 1892, 19.

“A Food, not a Fad:” The life and times of Edwin Delevan Tillson of Tillsonburg, Ontario

A painting depicts a castle-like building at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

Living in two worlds: Celebrating the Park Car Murals

A woman is silhouetted in front of a circular, glowing showcase presenting the Koenig Sound Analyser. The title, “Seeing Sound” is visible on the wall.

Mind the gap: The positive impact of multi-sensory experiences

Footer

About The Channel

The Channel

Contact Us

Ingenium
P.O. Box 9724, Station T
Ottawa ON K1G 5A3
Canada

613-991-3044
1-866-442-4416
contact@IngeniumCanada.org
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Channel

    • Channel Home
    • About the Channel
    • Content Partners
  • Visit

    • Online Resources for Science at Home
    • Canada Agriculture and Food Museum
    • Canada Aviation and Space Museum
    • Canada Science and Technology Museum
    • Ingenium Centre
  • Ingenium

    • Ingenium Home
    • About Ingenium
    • The Foundation
  • For Media

    • Newsroom
    • Awards

Connect with us

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest Ingenium news straight to your inbox!

Sign Up

Legal Bits

Ingenium Privacy Statement

© 2023 Ingenium

Symbol of the Government of Canada
  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners