Creating, Critical Thinking and Deep Exploration with STEAM

STEAM Centre school workshops tap into a variety of creative tools from simple scissors and markers to complex – design thinking, 3D design and electronics – to help students learn foundational, character-building skills that empower them to solve authentic problems, develop perseverance, engage in their community and develop a global perspective. 

For the 2024/25  school year, we're offering live in person and online instruction or asynchronous virtual instruction, along with complete classroom kits of materials for each student. Learn with us or at your own pace.  Classes start at just $10/student including all materials (minimum 20 students required/billed). If you find a workshop that interests you simply fill out our school workshop request form to find out more information or to book.

K-8 Workshop BrochUre

School Workshop Request Form

Learn about building strong and stable structures by making your own versions of the Three Little Pigs houses! Except, we will teach you to make yours even stronger! At the end, you will compare your 3 structures to discover what makes them so strong. Then, we will put them to the test with your very own Big Bad Wolf mini vortex cannon or try it against a simulated flood, earthquake, hurricane, and giant alien attack! While you're building, consider the pros and cons of each material you're using! Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours Kindergarten: Problem Solving and Innovating Grade 1/3: Geometric and Spatial Reasoning, Grade 1/2: Measurement Grade 1: STEM Skills and Connections Grade 1: Everyday Materials, Objects, and Structures Grade 2: Properties of Liquids and Solids Grade 3: Strong and Stable Structures *may contain latex

Math and art go hand-in-hand in this delightful workshop where students will get the chance to make their own card weaving art creation. Bringing their creativity and math skills to life using patterns, shapes, and colors. This workshop + your class = an amazing experience!

Vroom, vroom...Make your own moving car! All cars use wheels and axles, but our car is special because it also contains a pull-back mechanism to shoot it forward! In this field trip we will look at mechanisms and movement. Mechanisms make things move using simple machines. These mechanisms include levers, inclined planes, pulleys, screws, and wheels and axles! A mechanical engineer or a mechanic gets to build and fix simple machines all day. See what it would be like to work in their world. Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Grade 1/3/4: STEM Skills and Connections Grade 1: Everyday Materials, Objects, and Structures Grade 2: Simple Machines and Movement Grade 3: Strong and Stable Structures Grade 3: Forces and Motion Grade 4: Machines and Their Mechanisms *may contain latex

We can control forces and movement by creating simple machines to perform specific functions. Today we will build a crane to lift and knock over objects. Cranes are a type of mechanical system because they use simple machines to move objects. The crane we are building today uses pulleys to move objects up and down, and an axle to pivot from side to side. Cranes involve a number of different forces to perform different tasks. To lift the crane, we will crank the knobs which winds up the crane's cables using the input force of pulling. This will produce an output force of the crane lifting. The crane will also pivot and use a magnet. Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Grade 3: Forces in Motion Grade 4:Machines and Their Mechanisms Grade 5: Forces Acting on Structures

By creating a mini greenhouse for a seedling to germinate and grow, students will explore how light waves can physically interact with the natural world and see the stages of their plant as it develops. From there they will learn how sound waves come from everywhere and how our friend the bee both creates sound and helps plants live! This will be done by building their very own buzzing bee, providing students with an encompassing experience in light, sound, and plant science! Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Grade 3: Growth and Changes in Plants Grade 4: Light and Sound

Combining the human organ systems and circuits in this workshop students will complete exciting challenges that introduce them to how bodies function, with focus on important systems and how they can link together. Following each challenge students will create a circuit connecting organ systems. This workshop brings the learning off the page and creates a heavily interactive workshop that gets students moving, thinking, and also understanding the fundamental components of circuits! Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Grade 5: Human Health and Body Systems Grade 5: Conservation of Energy and Resources Grade 6: Electrical Phenomena, Energy, and Devices

A-Mazing Ozobots* With these Ozobots you will be challenged to complete challenges that progressively increase in technical difficulty. You’ll have to work on your own or as a team to determine the best approach to each task and use your critical thinking skills to navigate these fun activities. You’ll use colour-coding techniques to direct your Ozobots and complete the mazes created in-class during exciting timed challenges. *Hardware availability for in-person workshops only

Get ready to spread your wings and take flight! Students will learn about how things fly and complete challenges, compare flight tests, and make some awesome designs along the way! Build up from paper plane, to paper helicopter to laser-cut foam glider! Then create a colourful parachute to get first hand experience of how air creates drag! It will teach you about the amazing way things fly, building some creative confidence along the way and let you unleash your inner designer on the laser cut glider! Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Grade 5: Forces Acting on Structures Grade 6: Flight Grade 6: Geometric Reasoning Grade 7: Form, Function, and Design of Structures

BBC Micro:bits have many internal functions and external outputs that make them extremely unique. In this workshop students will be able to work to their own level making creative designs and sound outputs, while learning how to control their functions on the device. Following this students can then learn how to create and play a classic game between devices making this an educational and fully interactive session for all ages and skill levels!

In this workshop the sky's the limit! We can adapt this workshop to suit any skill level using a variety of hardwares and softwares, mixing the unique adaptations of various coding structures with the limitless possibilities of your imagination. We will work with you to build up your skills whether it’s learning the basics, a new skill for an experienced coder, or just upping the ante on your own expertise, all while showing you that coding can be a fun and creative space for your own ideas to flourish!

In this workshop students will explore the importance of water as a resource for all living things and how inequities around the world challenge access to clean and drinkable water systems. Students will design and build their own water filtration systems through the lens of representing various countries and analyze the success of their experiment based on their acquired materials. They will also be provided with simulated funds and supplies to work out numeracy in budgeting, learn about Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the role of international governmental aid. Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Grade 7/8: Money and Finances Grade 8: STEM Investigation and Communication Skills Grade 8: Water Systems

In this field trip students will be designing a flapping bird automaton! An automaton is a mechanical machine that helps us move objects in a predetermined way. For example, we would like to make a bird's wings flap. An automaton can help us do that without having to touch the wings! Automatons are like the ancient ancestors of robots! Just like we program robots like OzoBots with code to follow a set of instructions, we essentially program automata with mechanical systems! The automaton is a system of simple machines and components that work together to perform the desired function, making this machine almost like code you can hold in your hands! Curriculum Connections or Topics Covered: Grade 7: Exploring Forms and Cultural Contexts Grade 7/8: Creating and Presenting Grade 7: Coding Grade 7/8: Number Sense

Take a step back in time through the history of animation and bring your students’ understanding of the moving picture to the next level! Students will build a device to run a simple animation in this creative and technical workshop. By building a simple machine we can bring art to life for your future animators and engineers!.

Get inspired to explore the Trade’s fields through the understanding of engineering design principles. Students will be given a problem statement for which they will need to prototype a solution. They will learn the skills needed to ideate, design, build and test their prototype models in response to this workshop’s challenge while learning overall design thinking concepts that they can use in daily life for problem solving.