58 Results:

Fascinating Experiments

Fascinating Experiments

Click on an experiment in the list below to get instructions, sample curriculum links, cross-curriculum arts activities and more!

Want to request a poster for your classroom? Please email your request to contact@IngeniumCanada.org.

Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Grade Level:
JK - Grade 12 (Ontario)
Preschool - Secondary Cycle 2 (Quebec)
Program Location
Online

Clinometers: 19th century tools with a variety of uses

Clinometers: 19th century tools with a variety of uses

With downloadable 3D files and activity sheets, students will explore the clinometer, a 19th century tool used by scientists, explorers and naturalist. Emphasis is placed on using the clinometer to determine the height of an object as well as using it to determine your latitude.

The 3D printing files can be downloaded individually. Activities and 3D print files for the module can be reproduced as necessary for your classroom.

TERMS OF USE

3D Printing File

Download and print your very own clinometer! Use these .stl files in the activities below.

Download STL files

Activity 1: How high is that?

In this activity you and your students will build a clinometer and learn how to use it to determine the height of an object. There are two versions of this activity, a simple one and an advanced one which uses trigonometric functions.

Download PDF – Simple method

Download PDF – Advanced method

Download Clinometer label

Activity 2: Determining your location

Your students will build a clinometer and learn how to use it to measure the location of the sun and to determine where you are on this planet!

Download ACTIVITY 2 PDF

Download Clinometer label

ArtiFactsheet

The artifacts collected, preserved, and displayed by Ingenium showcase Canada's rich history of innovation in science and technology. Each artifact tells a story of innovation and illustrates how science and technology have contributed to the transformation of Canada. Learn more about this artifact with this "ArtiFactsheet".

Download ARTIFACTSHEET PDF

Ingenium
Program Location
At Your School
Online

Liquids and Solids

Liquids and Solids
Make a reservation request

Program Description

This program invites students to examine the properties of materials through an exploration of liquids and solids. They will investigate the differences between the three states of matter, and will learn about how buoyancy changes in response to liquids with different densities. Armed with this new knowledge, they will be challenged to build a stable and buoyant structure that will be tested to see how much weight it can support.

Curriculum Links

ONTARIO QUEBEC
Grade 2 Science and Technology – Understanding Matter and Energy Elementary Cycle 1 Science and Technology - Material World
    Elementary Cycle 2 Science and Technology - Material World

Teacher Tips

Make name tags to help the museum educator build rapport with students. Students may bring a lunch or purchase one from the museum’s café.

Teachers may preview the museum free of charge at any time, by presenting proof of their teaching status at the admission desk.

Consider familiarizing your group with our site by downloading a PDF document and PowerPoint presentation available below.

Download information for planning your visit (ZIP, 6 MB)

Fees

$9 per student.
Includes Museum admission.
A minimum fee of $135 will be charged per group.

Canada Science and Technology Museum
Grade Level:
Grade 1 - Grade 3 (Ontario)
Elementary Cycle 1 - Elementary Cycle 2 (Quebec)
Fee
$9 per student
Duration
60 minutes
Dates Offered
September to May
Max Group Size
30
Program Location
At the Museum
A pin with the words ‘Science Needs Women’ being held up in front of a Women in STEM Poster of Irene Ayako Uchida.
5 m
Article
Social Science & Culture

Wikipedia edit-a-thons give recognition to women in STEM

Profile picture for user Lauren DiVito
May 31, 2019
On June 23 — which marks International Women in Engineering Day 2019 — Ingenium will open its doors to volunteer editors eager to participate in a Wikipedia edit-a-thon. In partnership with Engineers Canada, this free event, hosted at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, will celebrate the achievements of women in engineering through the editing and creation of Wikipedia pages. “An edit-a-thon puts facts on the page, allows us to change biases, and adding translations in both French and English
Find out what this is !
5 m
Article
Collection Development

A peek inside the mind of a collector

Profile picture for user Michel Labrecque
Apr 25, 2019
A biochemist, avid cross-country skier, and former science budget analyst speaks on the joys of collecting, the lessons learned, and the importance of preserving material culture.
Erin Secord holds up an example of a hazardous artifact. Oil for a printing machine in a bag.
3 m
Article
Industrial Technology

Behind the scenes: Conservators face unique task handling hazardous artifacts

Profile picture for user Connor Wilkie
Apr 17, 2019

Collections & Connections

Stories from our collections, about the people we meet and the work we do at our three museums. Hosted by Collections and Research staff at Ingenium, find out about our diverse activities and projects, the exhibitions we work on, and the connections we make across Canada and around the world.

25 Stories

Panoramic photograph of delegates to the 1883 International Fisheries Exhibition in London. Below the image is a hand-drawn silhouette, used for identification purposes.
4 m
Article
Fisheries

Anniversary of an excursion: Canadians at the 1883 London fisheries exhibition

Profile picture for user William Knight
Aug 30, 2019
Cariole collected by Marius Barbeau in 1936, Staint-Pascale-de Kamouraska (now Saint Pascal). Ingenium Museums, artifact No. 1967.0197.
5 m
Blog
Agriculture

Recovering the lost artifacts of ethnologist Marius Barbeau

Profile picture for user Denise Steeves
Aug 21, 2019
You might not imagine that volunteer work at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum would involve unravelling a mystery. But in truth, it can!
An infographic with four feature images of bicycles and other artifacts from the Shields collection.
3 m
Infographic
Collection Development

Ingenium's big move: Packing Canada's largest bicycle collection

Profile picture for user Camas Clowater-Eriksson
Aug 20, 2019
VIEW INFOGRAPHIC It’s no secret that Ingenium is gearing up for a big move. As staff busy themselves with this mammoth task, let us take a moment to fully appreciate just one of the MANY collections being packed up for the journey to the new Collections Conservation Center. Did you know that the Canada Science and Technology Museum holds the largest collection related to the history of bicycle technology in Canada? The Shields Collection contains over 3,000 items from the early nineteenth
Intern Charlotte Clemens, standing outside the museum in front of the museum sign.
3 m
Blog
Education

Diving into museum work: The life of a summer intern

Profile picture for user Charlotte Clemens
Aug 8, 2019
When I arrived in Ottawa about three months ago to work as an exhibition intern with the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. My short time with the museum turned out to be more interesting and colourful than I ever could have imagined; I’ve conducted damage reports, gone “undercover” for an in-house investigation, and even built an airplane out of a pool noodle! But before I delve into everything, let me tell you the real reason I’m here. This internship has
The inside of the metal carrier for the soil test kit, and the label affixed to the lid.
5 m
Blog
Agriculture

A colourful, family history shines behind a soil test kit

Profile picture for user Vanessa_Finney
Aug 12, 2019
Behind a single artifact, there are many interwoven stories.
"Saint-Norbert Historique"
3 m
Blog
Social Science & Culture

Crossroads of Identity: French heritage and street naming in Saint-Norbert, Manitoba

Profile picture for user Ayda Loewen-Clarke
Jun 26, 2019
In an urban environment, street names provide essential information: where am I? Where am I going? Where am I coming from? They orient us to our location, not only physically but also culturally, historically, and linguistically. As a result, street names can simultaneously reflect and create a community’s identity.
A black and white image of Gander Airport.
3 m
Article
Aviation

Stepping inside an artifact: A visit to Gander International Airport

Profile picture for user Erin Gregory
Jun 19, 2019
Find out what this is !
5 m
Article
Collection Development

A peek inside the mind of a collector

Profile picture for user Michel Labrecque
Apr 25, 2019
A biochemist, avid cross-country skier, and former science budget analyst speaks on the joys of collecting, the lessons learned, and the importance of preserving material culture.
Cristina Wood and Tom Everrett examine records of tailwater elevations from the Domtar/E.B. Eddy/J.R. Booth Collection, which provided some of the historical data sets used in the “Songs of the Ottawa” project.
2 m
Article
Social Science & Culture

Songs of the Ottawa: Using sound to interpret historical data

Profile picture for user Tom Everrett
Apr 5, 2019
Data visualization techniques are commonly used by researchers to interpret and share data. If you’ve ever encountered a bar graph, pie chart, or infographic, then you’ve already observed one of the many ways that researchers use visual imagery to render complex data sets more approachable and easier to understand. But what if instead of visuals , researchers instead used sounds to communicate information about their research data? This is one of the guiding questions that motivated Carleton
A mother and daughter weaving a carpet.
6 m
Article
Arts & Design

Unseen and unrecognized: Women’s key role in the history of computer memories

Profile picture for user Ghazaleh Jerban
Apr 1, 2019
In 2017, I had the honour of travelling to Iran — the country that's world famous for its hand-woven carpets — to study women’s traditional practises of Persian carpet weaving. I visited collective and home carpet-weaving workshops in Kashan , where I interviewed local women who were involved in carpet weaving. Frames of astonishing designs, mixed with attractive colours using traditional tools, have been fixed in my memory. Traditional tools used for carpet weaving, ToranjMehrab carpet weaving
The unloading of the nitroglycerin carried from Shelby, Montana, to Calgary, Alberta, aboard the (purple?) Stinson SB-1 Detroiter operated by Great Western Airways Limited, February 1929. Anon., “–.” Canadian Aviation, April 1929, 17.
Article
Aviation

Unsafe at any speed or time

Profile picture for user rfortier
Apr 1, 2019
Is that an expression of shock or disbelief I see on your face, my reading friend? Shock would be an appropriate reaction. Disbelief, not so much. What follows is no joke, my reading friend, but I beseech you not to try this at home. This week’s story comes to you courtesy of the most successful aviation magazine in Canadian history, personal opinion, the monthly Canadian Aviation , more specifically its April 1929 issue. Once upon a time, early in 1929 to be exact, Calmont Oils Limited, a
microdensitometer
5 m
Blog
Space

A space-age microscope for reading the stars

Profile picture for user David Pantalony
Mar 12, 2019
Each object we move to the new Collections Conservation Centre comes with many stories, connections, and interpretations. As a curator for physical sciences and medicine, I have the privilege of examining incredibly diverse objects in the national science and technology collection. This microdensitometer stands out for a number of reasons; first, it has an illustrious connection to Canadian and international astronomy. The microdensitometer featured here came to Ingenium from the David Dunlap
An artist’s rendering of the Ingenium Collections Conservation Centre, currently under construction next to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.
3 m
Article
Engineering & Technology

Not your average warehouse: Ingenium’s new Collections Conservation Centre

Profile picture for user Anna Adamek
Mar 1, 2019
Ingenium’s new Collections Conservation Centre will open in only a few months. This is a dream come true for those of us who have been caring for Canada’s national collection of scientific and technological artifacts for our entire careers, and have been waiting for this moment for over a decade.
An oil painting depicts a hotel dwarfed by the mountains of Banff.
3 m
Blog
Social Science & Culture

Why we collect

Profile picture for user Sharon Babaian
Feb 26, 2019
As Ingenium prepares to move the national science and technology collection into the new Collections Conservation Centre over the coming months, curator Sharon Babaian reflects on the purpose of collecting. As curators, we collect objects to document, preserve, and understand the past. The things made and used by people are physical evidence of human invention, activity, and need; they also reflect the societies, communities, and cultures that created and adopted them. At Ingenium – Canada’s
A black-and-white image of a plane in flight.
3 m
Article
Aviation

The death of a dream: The sixtieth anniversary of Avro’s Black Friday

Profile picture for user Erin Gregory
Feb 20, 2019
Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the cancellation of the CF-105 Avro Arrow, Canada’s first and only supersonic fighter interceptor. It remains one of the most contentious moments in Canadian aerospace history.
Two men stand in a dirt field; one bores into the soil while the other looks on.
5 m
Blog
Agriculture

Excavating Canadian soil science history

Profile picture for user Peter Anderson
Dec 5, 2018
In honour of World Soil Day, this blog post reports on a collaborative research project that explores the history of soil science in Canada. Launched in June 2018, the project documents the history of Canadian soil scientists and their research programs, as well as their documentary and artefactual heritage. This project was generously funded by the Canadian Soil Information Service at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Enigma machine
5 m
Article
Military

Making sense of an Enigma

User profile image
Oct 24, 2018
Students at Maupeltuewey Kina'matno'kuom, an elementary school (primary to 8) located in Membertou.
2 m
Blog
Indigenous

Visit to Membertou, Cape Breton

Profile picture for user David Pantalony
Jun 25, 2018
6” Cooke & Sons refracting telescope
5 m
Article
Social Science & Culture

Award profile: Putting a historic telescope back into focus

Profile picture for user Sonia Mendes
Jun 1, 2018
Through the course of a project spanning nine years, two Ingenium conservators — Tony Missio and David Elliott — had the chance to work on the complete restoration and preservation of the 6” Cooke & Sons refracting telescope, bought by the Meteorological Service of Canada in 1882. The telescope was in service for over 100 years; it was donated to the museum by its last owner, the University of Toronto, in 1984. The telescope was dismantled and brought to the national collection storage. On
The Petrovic Collection
5 m
Article
Social Science & Culture

Award profile: Finding cultural connections through our shared mathematical heritage

Profile picture for user Sonia Mendes
May 23, 2018
The Petrovic Collection at the Canada Science and Technology Museum is a collection of over 130 mathematical instruments from the twelfth to nineteenth centuries. These instruments came to the museum in 1980 from Dr. George Petrovic, a Serbian-born architect who collected them in order to document the connections between mathematical practice and architecture in the eastern Mediterranean regions, as well as countries that were once part of the Ottoman Empire. The collection is now at the centre
Seventy-six women from around the world were participants on the inaugural Homeward Bound Women In Science Leadership Expedition to Antarctica.
7 m
Article
Social Science & Culture

Homeward Bound: Women in Science and Leadership in Antarctica

Profile picture for user Shelley Ball
Apr 11, 2018
What better place to sharpen one’s leadership skills than amidst the harsh landscape of Antarctica. The frozen continent is filled with stories of leadership from the early 20th century explorers and their race to be the first to set foot on the South Pole. For 76 of us from around the world - all women with science backgrounds - Antarctica was the backdrop for our own explorations into leadership.
Alexa, a Canadienne dairy cattle calf, laying down in the calf barn at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum.
10 m
Blog
Agriculture

Alexa: 400 Years of History, and an Uncertain Future

User profile image
May 22, 2018
A short post on the history and current status of the Canadienne dairy cattle breed.
A selection of apiculture journals in the Rare Books Collection at Canada Science and Technology Museum.
5 m
Blog
Agriculture

Apiarist Ambitions: Subscription Incentives in the Canadian Bee Journal

Profile picture for user Stephan Pigeon
Apr 25, 2018
When the going gets tough, I get this vision: I’ll pick up my life, buy a plot of land in the countryside, and take up apiculture. That’s right: beekeeping.
Envelope sent to John Horn from Samuel Morse in 1871. It appears between pages 470-71 in Horn’s volume of The Telegraph in America.
5 m
Article
Social Science & Culture

Enhanced Reading: John Horn’s Volume of The Telegraph in America, 1879

Profile picture for user Stephan Pigeon
May 25, 2018
Books are tools that organize knowledge. When readers access that knowledge, they engage a reading experience.
Joust for Atari (artifact no. 2002.0384.001)
5 m
Blog
Sports & Gaming

Rising from the Grave: “Deadplay" and Video Game Preservation

Profile picture for user Dany Guay-Belanger
Oct 16, 2018
Videogames are cultural heritage artifacts worthy of preservation. My Master’s major research project culminated in the creation of a podcast and website which investigates videogame preservation and proposes some solutions to this complex and pressing issue.

Genetics and Biotechnology

Genetics and Biotechnology School Program
Make a reservation request

Program Description

How are genetics and biotechnology used in agriculture? What is their impact on the environment? In this highly interactive program, your students will have an opportunity to apply their knowledge of heredity and genomics to improving the genetics of the museum’s dairy herd. Students will also explore how genetic engineering has transformed farming practices, and how it continues to push the boundaries of farming for the future.

Consult this Educational Activity Kit for ideas to extend the learning — and the fun!

GENETICS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY KIT

Curriculum Links

ONTARIO QUEBEC
Grade 11 Science — Biology Secondary Cycle 2 Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Science and Technology
Competency 1—Seeks answers or solutions to scientific or technological problems
Grade 12 Science — Biology
Science — Sciences		    

Please see the following document for more detailed curriculum links:

Ontario Quebec

Teacher Tips

The Museum is also a demonstration farm, complete with potential hazards. Please advise students accordingly and dress for the outdoors. To plan your visit, see the pre-visit tips or download the pre-visit information PDF.

Fees

$9 per student, $1 per chaperone (group leader is free).
Includes Museum admission.
A minimum fee of $135 will be charged per group.

Canada Agriculture and Food Museum
Grade Level:
Grade 11 - Grade 12 (Ontario)
Secondary Cycle 2 (Quebec)
Fee
$9 per student
Duration
150 minutes
Dates Offered
September to June
Program Location
At the Museum

Properties of and Changes in Matter: Bread

Properties of and Changes in Matter: Bread School Program
Make a reservation request

Program Description

Your students will explore changes in matter by transforming grains of wheat into a delicious loaf of bread. They will learn key bread-making processes, including fermentation, protein coagulation, and starch gelatinization. At the same time, students will discover that a kitchen is, in the end, a wonderful science lab!

Consult this Educational Activity Kit for ideas to extend the learning — and the fun!

PROPERTIES OF AND CHANGES IN MATTER: BREAD EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY KIT

Curriculum Links

ONTARIO QUEBEC
Grade 5 Science and Technology — Understanding Matter and Energy Elementary Cycle 3 Science and Technology, Competency 2 —
To make the most of scientific and technological tools, objects, and procedures

Please see the following document for more detailed curriculum links:

Ontario Quebec

Teacher Tips

Make name tags to help the Museum Educator build rapport with students. Stay for lunch (not provided) in the outdoor picnic area. See additional pre-visit tips or download the pre-visit information PDF.

Fees

$9 per student, $1 per chaperone (group leader is free).
Includes Museum admission.
A minimum fee of $135 will be charged per group.

Canada Agriculture and Food Museum
Grade Level:
Grade 5 (Ontario)
Elementary Cycle 3 (Quebec)
Fee
$9 per student
Duration
120 minutes
Dates Offered
September to June
Program Location
At the Museum

Self-Guided School Visit

Self-Guided School Visit School Program
Make a reservation request

Self-guided tours are an ideal way to chart your own course through the exhibitions, as you and your students explore the museum’s superb collection at your own pace. Discover Canada’s contributions to science and technology, along with exciting stage demos and the museum’s Exploratek studio!

Teacher Tips

Students may bring a lunch or purchase one from the museum’s café.

Teachers may preview the museum free of charge at any time, by presenting proof of their teaching status at the admission desk.

Consider familiarizing your group with our site by downloading a PDF document and PowerPoint presentation available below.

DOWNLOAD INFORMATION FOR PLANNING YOUR VISIT (ZIP, 6 MB)

Fees

$9 per student.
A minimum fee of $135 will be charged per group. 
Includes Museum admission.
Fees do not include applicable taxes.

Canada Science and Technology Museum
Grade Level:
Daycare Centres 18 mos to 5 yrs - Grade 12 (Ontario)
Preschool - Secondary Cycle 2 (Quebec)
Fee
$9 per student
Dates Offered
Year-round, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Max Group Size
30
Program Location
At the Museum