UBC Faculty of Education held our now famous annual event dedicated to hands-on mathematics and science: Seventh UBC Faculty of Education Mathematics and Science Day. We are very grateful for the continuous support of our event. We are also supported by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematics Sciences who realize that children’s interest in mathematics and science starts at home and should be nurtured from the very early age.
This year, more than 500 people took part in our event. We had more than 400 guests, more than 100 different mathematics and science stations and more than 140 volunteers. We see a steady growth in the interest in STEM in our community and we are proud to report that we are contributing to it. We are also excited to see how our Teacher-Candidates learning to communicate science to the general public. Making sure that parents are involved in mathematics and science education of their children is very important and this was an excellent opportunity for our Teacher-Candidates to practice how to engage families in STEM.
It was very encouraging to witness how parents and children were excited about mathematics and science. We saw entire families (grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren) doing activities together and having fun in the process.
This year our elementary and secondary Teacher-Candidates collaborated on their stages and the effect was amazing. We also collaborated with our art education students and had a very interesting Creative Lab, where guests used recycled materials to create their own project. In addition, we incorporated the video resources we have created earlier with the support of UBC’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund: STEM Education Videos for All.
It was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun.
Submitted by
Marina Milner-Bolotin & Cynthia Nicol
Organizing Committee 2017 Co-Chairs