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!

The Annual Let's Talk Science Challenge at the University of Guelph

Friday, April 25, 2014 was the fourth annual 

Let's Talk Science Challenge at the University of Guelph

The Let’s Talk Science Challenge is a free science enrichment event for Grades 6-8 students across Canada. This event includes an exciting question and answer competition followed by a hands‑on design challenge that inspires students to acquire science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) knowledge beyond their curriculum. To prepare for the question and answer competition, teams of two to four students study from the 2014 Let’s Talk Science Challenge Handbook, which was released in January, and covers a breadth and depth of science material that goes far beyond the school curriculum. At the end of the day, the winners are celebrated, presented with medals, and crowned the 2014 Let’s Talk Science Challenge Champions.

The University of Guelph’s Let’s Talk Science Challenge brought 30 teams of 2-4 students plus parent volunteers and teachers to campus for the day. We also had seventeen Let’s Talk Science volunteers and three coordinators helping with everything from judging and score keeping to taking photographs and distributing awards. Teams were encouraged to dress in costumes or wear matching team-ware as a we'd award a SPIRIT Award at the end of the day along with prizes for the top 3 teams.

Special Guest Speaker Dr. Cecelia Paine, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, welcomed the students to the University of Guelph campus during the Opening Ceremonies and offered up a bit of history of her career from small farm to academia. She also acted as our ceremonial Quiz Master, asking the first five questions of the Let's Talk Science Challenge Quiz session. Many thanks to Cecelia for making their welcome so special!

During the lunch break, participants were offered tours of the engineering building roof & wind turbine as well as a preview of the WindENG program. 

Thanks to the School of Engineering for making this possible!

While final scores were tallied, Jamie Doran, Entrepreneur, Big Thinker, Musician, Geek & COO of Innovation Guelph, regaled the audience with some bits of wisdom learned on his varied career adventure. Thanks Jamie!

Thanks to 3M for donating all the Let's Talk Science Design Challenge supplies to the National Office, and to the University of Guelph Bookstore for donating 16 reusable grocery bags for the winners' prize packs.

Check out some of our photos of the Challenge Day below! 

Photos complements of our 3 volunteer photographers: 

Alex Swirski, Jessica Nelson and Keith Poore.

The Quiz Challenge!

The Design Challenge!

The Victors!

Spirit Award Kortright Team 1 from Kortright Hills Public School, Guelph	3rd Place Wildcats from Willow Road Public School, Guelph
2nd Place The Return of the Protons from Waverley Drive PS, Guelph	2014 Let's Talk Science Challenge Champions! Not So Average Joes Team 1 from Laurel Wood PS, Waterloo

The team of volunteers that helped us pull it all off!

(and yes, almost everyone is looking at the other camera! LOL)

Let's Talk Science at Guelph Activities Nominees and Finalists for National Awards

Congratulations to some of our volunteers who were nominated for national Let's Talk Science Awards!

Read the official National Office announcement and story here

The National Let's Talk Science Volunteer of the Year Award

This award recognizes volunteers that have shown outstanding innovation, communication and a commitment to science outreach and education, whether at a Let’s Talk Science Outreach site or by volunteering directly with the Let’s Talk Science national office.

Nominee: Alexandra Swirski

Nominee: Kate Williams

Nominee: Kayla Skubowius

You can read more about Alex and Kate in our other blog post: 

http://ltsatuog.blogspot.ca/2014/04/happy-national-volunteer-week.html

A feature post about Kayla will be coming soon!

The Canadian Institute of Health Research-Synapse Award
The annual CIHR-Synapse Award recognizes an outstanding and innovative health research-related activity done by a Let's Talk Science volunteer(s). The activity for which they are nominated must relate to health research, but the volunteers do not have to be registered in a health-related program at their post-secondary institution. They must have also been trained using Science with Impact^®.

Finalist: Kaitlyn Roke & Maude Perreault 

were finalists for the 2014 CIHR-Synapse Award for their Let's Talk Nutrition activity.

You can read more about their nomination and activity in the @Guelph story.

http://atguelph.uoguelph.ca/2014/05/nutrition-workshop-aimed-at-making-healthy-choices/

Finalist: Keith Poore 

was also a finalist for this award for his statistics based disease propagation activity, 

which will be appearing in our catalogue of available activities in Fall 2014.

Kaitlyn, Maude and Keith were beat out by Jovian Tsang, a volunteer from the Let's Talk Science at the University of Ottawa site. His activity was based on designing a vaccine to save the world from the spread of the zombie-virus.

Congratulations everyone!

And thanks for all your hard work!

Featured Volunteer: Sana Khan!

Sana Khan is one of our most dedicated volunteers, and this month, we are featuring her in both our educator newsletter and on our blog site!

Sana routinely brings an enthusiasm and passion to LTS activities that impresses both kids and educators (and us!) alike! She is always looking for ways to help us plan and deliver new programs and activities and is always willing to lend a hand with our special events -- even if that means driving through a torrential rain storm from Mississauga to Fergus to help run an all-day LTS booth at the Fergus Fall Fair! Sana was the 2013 LTS at Guelph All Science Challenge Quizmaster, delivering questions to our keen ASC participants.

Last year, we nominated Sana and another volunteer, Justine, for the Let's Talk Science CIHR-Synapse Award, which recognizes an outstanding, innovative, health research-related activity done by a Let's Talk Science Outreach volunteer or pair of volunteers. Sana & Justine's Non-smoking Awareness activity for the Guelph Public Library was selected as one of the top three finalists, and ultimately as first-runner up by the National selection committee.

Q. What are you studying and what have you studied in the past?

A.  I completed my undergraduate degree at McMaster University in Bio-Physiology. I am currently in the 2nd (and last) year of the Masters of Public Health program at University of Guelph.

Q. What has been your favourite part of volunteering (or what is the best activity that you've done so far)?

A. Throughout my volunteer work with Let's Talk Science, I have met a lot of enthusiastic and curious kids. I love watching kids light-up and be fascinated by the activities we conduct. And there is no greater joy than watching these children thoroughly enjoy the activities you have prepared and being told the kids are already look forward to your next visit! I have really enjoyed conducting the Chemistry Magic Show as most of the chemistry tricks completely surprise the kids and they are left with a passion to learn more about science.

Q. Why did you become a Let's Talk Science volunteer?

A. I absolutely love working with kids in any capacity and I am extremely passionate about Science. So when I heard about the opportunity to get involved with Let's Talk Science, I couldn't imagine a better fit for myself. I have been a volunteer with Let's Talk Science for more than a year now, and I have genuinely enjoyed every aspect of being a part of this group.  

Q. What are your goals for the future?

A. I have recently applied to Medical School and am interesting in the field of General Surgery.

Good luck Sana! We're rooting for you!!!

Our Fantastic Volunteers!

We've totaled the numbers and tallied the points, and concluded it was yet another fantastic year here at Let's Talk Science at the University of Guelph.

From July 1, 2012 - June 30, 2013, our volunteers conducted over 130 activities and reached over 4100 youth. This amounts to over 1300 hours of volunteer time from our 96 active volunteers!

We'd like to tip our hats to all of our active volunteers, especially our top five volunteers, who volunteered the most number of hours to help reach out to youth in our communities.

1. Linda Jewell - 46 hours

2. Roman Kondra - 39.5 hours including 4 rural activities

3. Marshall Lindner - 36.5 hours including an amazing 8 rural activities!

4. Nick Jeffery - 35 hours

5. Larry Chen - 34.5 hours including 2 rural activities (and Larry only started volunteering in Jan!)

Thanks so much for everyone's help! There is absolutely no way we could make such a difference without y'all!

Cheers to a fantastic year!
And cheers to an even better one coming up!

Congratulations to the Let's Talk Science National Award Finalists!

The annual Let's Talk Science CIHR-Synapse Award recognizes an outstanding, innovative, health research-related activity done by a Let's Talk Science Outreach volunteer or pair of volunteers.

This year, we nominated Sana Khan and Justine Hutchinson for their efforts putting together an activity for Non-Smoking month at the Guelph Public Library. The Let's Talk Science head office agreed that they did an amazing job, and a jury of LTS employees and volunteers included Justine and Sana in the top three finalists for the award.

Congratulations girls

Read more about the 3 finalists and about Sana and Justine's activity here:
http://www.letstalkscience.ca/volunteers/showcase-and-awards/cihr-award-showcase.html

2010-2011 Award Winning Volunteers!

I can't believe it's the end of the school year already! Things have finally started to quiet down (except for the activities from summer schools and community groups!), which means that it's time to name this year's volunteer and activity of the year award recipients! On June 30th, we had a volunteer appreciation and awards night to honour the hard work of all of our fantastic volunteers.

The first award that was distributed was the Activity of the Year Award, which is given to the volunteer (or volunteers!) who develop and exceptionally creative, useful, and detailed activity.  The winners of this year's Activity of the Year Award were Nick S. and Angie R. for their activity about pulleys and levers!  Honourable mentions went to Amanda N. for her amazing Barcoding activity and to Adam T., whose anatomy field trip didn't quite see the light of day (but which was still pretty amazing!).

The second award that we distributed was the Christopher Zweerman Volunteer of the Year Award, which is given to a volunteer who has demonstrated a tremendous amount of passion, dedication, and creativity. This award is named in honour of the U of G's first Volunteer of the Year, Christopher Zweerman, who tragically passed away in 2010. We chose to name the award in his honour because he exemplified all of the qualities that make for a fantastic volunteer.
The winner of the 2010-2011 Christopher Zweerman Volunteer of the Year Award is Midori B., who not only performed an astounding 15 activities, but who also traveled to rural communities, developed new activities, and lent a hand with the All Science Challenge!  Honourable mentions went to Jan (Edward) L., who was also an amazingly dedicated volunteer who spent an enormous number of hours working both in Guelph and in rural communities; to Derek T., who single-handedly managed one of our busiest partnerships (and still found time to do other activities!); and to Kaity R., who not only had a hand in Adam's developing field trip activity, but who also performed several activities and who stepped up when other volunteers became unavailable on short notice.

We also had several volunteers who were nominated for national awards!!  Lisa W. was nominated for the National Volunteer of the Year Award due to her creativity, strong teaching skills, and dedication.  She is an outstanding volunteer! The CIHR Synapse award recognizes an outstanding activity in the field of health science. Amanda W. and Marina N. were nominated for this award based on their fantastic activity about microbes, and they were national finalists for this award!!

Thank you SO MUCH to all of the amazing volunteers this year! We really achieved some amazing things this year, and none of it would have been possible without you!

A message from Joanna - Award winning volunteers!

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! The following post was written by Joanna, the original Let's Talk Science coordinator here at the University of Guelph who was active between 2008-2010.
--
Happy new year! I hope all of you had a restful break. For those of you that were unable to make it to the volunteer appreciation party, I just wanted to let you all know what a pleasure it has been being the coordinator over the past few years. I have officially stepped down and am no longer coordinator. With that being said, being the coordinator was one of the most exciting, rewarding, and fun things that I have had the privileged of taking part in. Since I started up the program a few years ago, we have reached over 1000 youth! This makes me very proud and happy that I was able to work with so many amazing volunteers. Without you all, none of this would have been possible. However, despite me leaving (if I could stay forever, I would!!) I leave the program in Linda's hands. Even over the past few months she has already expanded the program more than I could have even imagined!! I can't wait to see how the program will grow in the future.

With regards to the party, a few more things occurred that I feel are worth mentioning. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the award winners. This past year Lindsay Bergeron and Mike Gerling earned the Project of the Year award. They both created such a cool workshop involving the human body. They gave a tour of the human anatomy lab on campus followed by a tour of the Science Centre Exhibit (Body Works). Not only did they engage the students and create something fun, unique, educational, and hands-on, they also did this all on their own (including recruiting educators, students, and arranging transportation)! They both went above and beyond, and greatly deserve this award. I applaud them both.

Secondly, before I announce the winner of the Volunteer of the Year Award, I have some sad news to share with all of you. One of our previous volunteers, Christopher Zweerman recently passed away in an unfortunate motorbike accident. Chris was an amazing volunteer. He was one of the most enthusiastic, happy, and passionate people I have ever had the privilege of meeting. He was a volunteer in the first year of the LTS program here at Guelph, and since completing his Masters was attending Medical School in Australia. I am so lucky that I had a chance to work with him. He embodied everything an LTS volunteer should be, and for this he was awarded the first ever LTS Guelph Volunteer of the Year Award. In his honour we have decided to name the Volunteer of the Year Award after him to keep his memory alive.

So, that brings me to the next (more positive) note. The recipient for the Christopher Zweerman Volunteer of the Year Award goes to Beau Frigault. Beau was an avid volunteer and did a great job. Congratulations to Beau.

Once again, I thank you all for the hard work and dedication to sharing science with kids. Thank you for making this such a positive experience for me over the past few years. Also, you haven't seen the last of me yet since I will be volunteering!!


Sincerely,

Joanna McPherson, MSc
Ontario Veterinary College
Class of 2012