The Saskatchewan Science Centre returned to Estevan for the Go Science event, which was hosted by the Estevan Public Library on Aug. 24.
The event featured activities related to several science topics including ‘With Great Power’, which focused on super powers, ‘Building Better’, which had the youths learning about and building structures, and ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy Life’, where attendees learned about the planet we call home, as well as various other fun science related activities.
Jean-Paul Belanger, science educator with the Regina Science Centre, said the event maintains a yearly focus of introducing youths to science and sparking an interest in science related activities.
“We’ve been planning this day since probably sometime in January,” said Belanger.
“As soon as we find out what the summer reading program themes are we start thinking about different workshops, activities and experiments we can do that kind of fit in with that theme.”
The event ran from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and saw roughly 70 local youths in attendance.
“Today's event is totally free, the kids just had to register online to join us and have some fun,” said Belanger.
“We have a bunch of really fun things planned for the kids. They’re going to learn about the digestive system, they’re going to do some building in a three little pigs style, where we are going to blow their buildings down with a leaf blower, we’re also doing some shrinky dinks and lots of other really great stuff.”
The Saskatchewan Science Centre has been involved with several events in the Estevan area in previous years, and participated in more than 100 science-related events in Saskatchewan this summer alone. According to Belanger the centre hopes to continue to peak the interest of youths throughout Saskatchewan and increase interest levels in the sciences.
“This is hands down the busiest summer that the Science Centre has seen through our outreach program. From July to August we’ve had over 100 science-themed events, so it’s been non-stop for us, but we absolutely love seeing the kids getting interested in science,” said Belanger.
“It's always a pleasure to be coming to events like these. Estevan is always a hit, the kids love it and have a great time, and we already have kids talking to us about the pig’s brain that we brought last year for them to see and telling us how cool it was. Unfortunately we don’t have anything quite that gross with us this year but I think the kids will still have a great time.”
According to Belanger the event will make a stop in Estevan again next year, but the themes will be new and exciting and will continue to be geared towards involving youths from across Saskatchewan in science.
