We're changing how you connect with us!

In the past, we have referred educators to this blog to find our most up-to-date activity listings and to register for visits; however, we are discontinuing this blog as we migrate its information to two new platforms!

You'll find the new U of Guelph Outreach page at:

http://outreach.letstalkscience.ca/uguelph.html 

At the top of the page, there are drop-down links for:

• About Us - an introduction to the program at U of Guelph and more information about the coordinators and our volunteer team
• Local Programs - information about class/group visits + our annual Let's Talk Science Challenge. This will soon be the new home of our List of Available Kits and their descriptions.
• Get Involved - information for potential volunteers and supporters. We are a registered charity and offer our activities 100% free to participants; however, if every school we visited donated just $5 to our program, that would go a long way towards stocking our supply shelves for the whole year! We could then spend less time fundraising and more time organizing visits to your students!!! Please consider asking your school's administration to make a small donation to our group and ask your PTA if they would contribute $10. Our online fundraising campaign is here.
• New and Events
• Contact Us - (NEW!) this is now where you will find the link to our educator registration form for requesting visits. Click on the "Request a visit from our volunteers" link and complete the form.

Let's Talk Science at the University of Guelph is now also on Facebook! Like us at https://www.facebook.com/LetsTalkScienceGuelph We'll be using our FB page to post pictures of our volunteers in action, announcements about upcoming community events, etc. (basically taking the place of our blog postings). You are also welcome to post pictures of our visits and activities; however, please note, unless we (ie. Let's Talk Science) have signed photo permission forms from parents, pictures may not show students' faces -- just backs of heads, or close ups of hands-on moments or the crafts the students have created. Thank you for your support in helping us respect your students' right to privacy. (If you are interested, we do have photo permission forms we can send to be signed, which will allow us to use pictures of enthralled, smiling faces too! :D )

LTS Monthly Social Invite!

Calling all Let's Talk Science at UofGuelph volunteers!

Thursday, Sept 11 will be our first monthly Social of the semester :)

Come on out to kick back, relax, and play some Grad Lounge Trivia.

We've reserved the big table at the back for 6:30 if you'd like to pop by early to grab some grub and drinks, and then trivia starts at 7. (There are two rounds, which usually takes about 2 hours).

The more the merrier, so feel free to invite your friends!

Info & Training Sessions for New Volunteers!

Our most frequently asked question is: 

What is the time commitment?

We ask our volunteers to commit at least 10 hours per year. Some volunteers will help with a few regular activities (1-2 hours each) throughout the year. Some volunteers may instead choose to help with one or two half- or all-day events, like our College Royal Display or the Let's Talk Science Challenge. Some volunteers will opt to help out more than the 10 hours per year (last year, our top 5 volunteers had each put in over 40 hours!), but this is above and beyond our expectations. :D

If you can offer us about 5 hours per semester, we'd be thrilled.

Link to register for a session: www.surveymonkey.com/s/GF78BDN

Annual Volunteer Appreciation Night

It was another amazing year of Science Outreach from the University of Guelph, and we couldn't have done it without our amazing volunteers. Over 130 volunteers helped us run over 200 activities this year, which represents a 50% increase over last year's 89 active volunteers and 124 activities! Our volunteers donated over 2000 hours of their own time to work with 6600 youth this year, and we couldn't be prouder!

Our annual year end volunteer appreciation night was held Thursday, June 12th in the Grad Lounge.

We'd like to congratulate our top 5 volunteers this year:

1. Alex Swirski

2. Keith Poore

3. Heather Gibling

4. Kate Williams

5. Kayla Skubowius

As our top volunteer, Alex was awarded the Christopher Zweerman Volunteer of the Year Award. This award is named in honour of Christopher Zweerman, who won the first ever Let’s Talk Science at the University of Guelph Volunteer of the Year Award. Chris became a volunteer for Let’s Talk Science during its first year at the University of Guelph. His enthusiasm, passion and genuine cheer embodied everything a Let’s Talk Science volunteer should be. After completing his Masters at Guelph, he headed to Australia for Medical School. Tragically, Chris was killed in a motorbike accident in 2010. Each year, with his spirit of volunteerism in mind, we award this certificate to our top volunteer.

While these 5 volunteers collectively donated over 260 hours of their time, they could not have done it along. Some of you trained them during their first activity, some of you may have gone with them on YOUR first activity. Some of you accompanied them on local or even rural trips! Either way, Let's Talk Science at the University of Guelph is a TEAM effort, so

thank you

for all you do!

"Science is the Best!" says Sir Isaac Brock Student

Gloriana, Abdul and I just got back from the Sir Isaac Brock end of year BBQ where we offered some awesome FREE hands on science programming. There was amazing turn out -- in fact, we ran out of slime making supplies!!! After hanging out with us for a bit, making slime and literally walking on egg shells, one of our visitors exclaimed, "science is the best!"

Who says eggs are fragile?!

She doesn't think so!

We amazed everyone with The Egg Crusher, demonstrating just how strong the arch shape of an egg really is.

The school organized a ton of other phenomenal entertainment, 
including a special furry guest!