MONTREAL, May 9, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Astronaut Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space, will deliver the opening keynote address to invited guests at the Canada-Wide Science Festival on May 18 at Montreal's McGill University. Approximately 1500 people will be in attendance for the opening keynote, including teachers, student finalists, student visitors from neighbouring schools, volunteers and invited guests, such as McGill professors serving as judges throughout the festival.
As part of the 55th edition of the Canada-Wide Science Festival, Youth Science Canada (YSC) has partnered with the Leadership Committee for English Education in Quebec (LCEEQ) to host the STEMpower teacher's conference. STEMpower is a professional development opportunity for teachers and consultants across Canada, which will also allow the educators to interact with the student finalists participating in the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
"The Canada-Wide Science Festival is a wonderful and unique opportunity to bring educators together from across the country. The rich discussion and reflection that takes place when teachers are provided a venue for exchange impacts the way science and technology is taught in our classrooms. We are happy to partner with Youth Science Canada in order to provide this element of the festival," said Cindy Finn, Chair of LCEEQ.
"It's a great honour to have Canadian science icon Chris Hadfield join us as he is the embodiment of our event theme, which is to empower youth through science and technology," said Brad McCabe, executive director of Youth Science Canada. "Mr. Hadfield is an inspiration to people around the world and a model example of the heights that can be reached through the pursuit of science and technology."
Hadfield is the 2015 winner of the NSERC Award for Science Promotion, given by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The honour recognizes the Canadian that has made an outstanding contribution to the promotion of science through activities encouraging popular interest in science or developing science abilities.
"Challenging these young students to pursue their passions and empower them in their advancement in science and technology brings me great pride. I applaud the Canada-Wide Science Festival for encouraging the achievements of these youth and for celebrating Canada's new generation of scientists," said Chris Hadfield.
"Through this once in a lifetime event, we hope to inspire students to pursue science and technology as a career path as well as encourage teachers to engage student curiosity on related topics," said Agostino Porchetta, president of the Educational Alliance for Science and Technology (EAST), local host committee for the Canada-Wide Science Festival.
Held in a different city across the country each year, Montréal last hosted the event in 1964. The Canada-Wide Science Festival is a Youth Science Canada event hosted this year in collaboration with EAST, the official local host committee. LCEEQ, YSC's STEMpower partner, is a not-for-profit organization which serves the English speaking educational community in Quebec.
About Youth Science Canada
Since 1962, Youth Science Canada has been Canada's leading organization for the promotion of innovation and celebration of excellence in science, engineering and technology among our nation's youth. A national, registered charitable organization, Youth Science Canada provides or partners in programs to increase awareness and involvement of youth in science, engineering and technology to engage, mentor and recognize Canada's young scientists. The not-for-profit also engages leading public and private sector organizations in the development of a national science, engineering and technology network of Canadian youth. For more information, please visit http://youthscience.ca.
About EAST:
The Educational Alliance for Science and Technology has been organizing science and technology competitions for 35 years, including Junior and CRC Robotics. EAST is a non-profit organization that offers extracurricular science and technology activities and is also responsible for organizing the Hydro-Quebec Montreal Regional Science Fair for English speaking schools in the Montreal, Montérégie, Laval, Laurentians and Lanaudière regions. For more information, please visit http://sciencetech.ca/
About LCEEQ:
LCEEQ is a collaborative professional learning community established for the purpose of promoting educational leadership in response to the needs of the English educational community in Québec. For more information, please visit http://lceeq.ca
SOURCE Canada-Wide Science Festival
Sarah Cope-Corbeil / Marie-Emmanuelle Khoury, Torchia Communications, 514-288-8290 (ext. 222 / 214), [email protected] / [email protected]
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