Let's Talk Science

A national program that connects educators and youth with trained post-secondary volunteers at over 50 Let’s Talk Science Outreach sites. Trained volunteers engage children from early years to Grade 12 in a variety of curriculum-aligned, hands-on STEM activities both virtually and in-person. Visits are offered in English and French (location dependent) and are customizable and flexible for classrooms, community groups, libraries, summer camps and after-school programs.

Let's Talk Science's website has a collection of curriculum-aligned STEM resources—lesson ideas, learning strategies, backgrounders, informative articles and career profiles in English and French.

• Career Resources Let’s Talk Science’s career resources are centred around a wide range of profiles from real people outlining what they were like in high school, their career path, what motivates them and why their jobs are important to others. There are also educator resources to help integrate career discussions into the classroom and take students to a deeper understanding of how STEM skills can advance and expand career options. The Let's Talk Careers competition is run twice a year in partnership with ChatterHigh, and in 2020 Skills Canada joined on as a partner.[4]

Let's Talk Science's educator professional learning programming incorporates digital literacy and global competencies to solve real-world problems in the classroom. Delivery options include webinars, live broadcasts, self-paced learning, in-person training, seminars, summits and summer institutes.

Hands-on experiments that build inquiry and problem-solving skills as they learn to do real science and contribute to national databases.

• Tomatosphere™ A free program where tomato seeds that have travelled to the International Space Station (ISS), or have been exposed to simulated space conditions, and a control group of seeds are provided to educators along with educational resources. Students plant the seeds and compare the germination rates of the two sets in a blind study. After submitting their results, participants discover which packet contained which seeds. The program uses the excitement of space exploration to teach students the skills and processes of scientific experimentation and inquiry. Tomatosphere™ was launched in 2001 by parties at the Canadian Space Agency and Guelph University, Let's Talk Science took over operations in Canada in 2014. [5] The current consortium of partners who oversee Tomatosphere™ include the Canadian Space Agency, HeinzSeed, Let’s Talk Science (operations in Canada), First-the-Seed Foundation (operations in the United States), Stokes Seeds, and the University of Guelph.[6]
• Living Space Developed in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency, students study the key environmental conditions that are monitored on the ISS and develop their understanding of optimal ranges for human health. They collect data on their own environments and make a plan for environmental improvement based on those understandings. The national Living Space database allows students to compare their classroom data with information from other participating classrooms in Canada and data from the ISS.
• Clothing4Climate Participants in grades 7 to 12 learn about the science behind climate change, the impact our clothing system has on the environment, and how they can take action to make a difference.
• Lunar Rover Research Challenge Teams of students pitch their mission plans for the chance to remotely operate a Canadensys rover in a lunar-like environment.
• Travel4Climate A community-based and future-looking experience where students explore solutions that reduce emissions while improving their local conditions.

Let’s Talk Science events allow students to interact with leading researchers, test their knowledge and design skills and participate in discussion about real-world STEM issues.

• The Let’s Talk Science Challenge A team-based, competitive enrichment event for grades 6–8 students offered virtually and in-person. The Let’s Talk Science Challenge includes a knowledge challenge and an interactive, hands-on engineering design challenge.
• High School Symposiums Full-, partial- or multi-day events hosted by post-secondary campuses across Canada that draw focus to timely and relevant STEM topics. Youth connect with leading researchers and volunteers to discuss the impact of their research and pathway to their current careers. Popular Symposiums include Let’s Talk Cancer, StemCellTalks, DNA Day, and Let’s Talk Neuroscience.