Open to students in grades 4 to 9

The STEMFest Engineering Olympics, presented by Engineers Nova Scotia, is an interactive engineering event for students in grades 4 to 9. Students are given a series of problem-solving challenges that demonstrate the fun side of engineering, and allow students to see first-hand how this field impacts our everyday lives.

The STEMFest Engineering Olympics provides students the opportunity to cover many areas of engineering study while learning to work and interact within a group. Teams will use their skills and innovative ideas to develop creative solutions to various challenges throughout the afternoon. All challenges have been coordinated by Engineers Nova Scotia.

Each team consists of four to six students and one coach (teacher/chaperone/parent). Each team must have a coach who supports them at the event. Participants will register in divisions I or II, depending on their grade. Grades 4-6 students will be in division I and grades 7-9 students will be in division II. Teams will be given a score for each challenge. Each division will have bronze, silver, and gold recognition.

Spectators are welcome. Bring someone to watch and cheer for your team. Space is limited, and is available on a first come, first served bases. Cost to register is $20 per team. If cost is an issue please .

Can we Live 200 Years?

That question would have made no sense 25 years ago but today is different. The extraordinary and continuing rise in human life expectancy has scientists thinking, for the first time really, of ways to push through the boundaries to a human life.

There are controversies: could we routinely live beyond 120? Do we know enough about aging in other species to get a grip on the crucial processes? Could we really achieve what the optimists call: escape velocity for longevity?”

It is a crucial time for understanding aging, and perhaps overcoming it.

Jay Ingram was co-host of Daily Planet, the hour-long prime-time science program on Discovery Channel, for 16 years and helped launch and design the show. Prior to that he hosted CBC’s Quirks and Quarks for 12 years, freelanced for CBC’s Morningside, and hosted two CBC radio documentary series. He was contributing editor to Owl magazine for five years, he wrote a weekly science column in The Toronto Star for 12 years, and currently writes a column for Canadian Wildlife.

While there is no cost to attend the event, space is limited and only those with tickets will be admitted.

Movie Night

Who will build the amazing future of our human race? That question sparks a giant-screen adventure unlike any other in Dream Big: Engineering Our World, an epically fun tour of inspiration through the visionary advances made by yesterday’s, today’s—and most thrillingly of all, tomorrow’s—engineers.

Engineering: upon first consideration, it might not seem the stuff of grand cinematic adventure. But could engineering secretly be an exciting, creative, heroic realm where the optimists of today are creating the life-saving, world-altering marvels that will make for a safer, more connected, more equal and even more awe-inspiring tomorrow?

With an eclectic, stereotype-bursting engineer cast, the huge story told by Dream Big answers that question with a resoundingly “yes” using a series of surprising human stories to expose the hidden world behind the most exciting inventions and structures across the world. It is not only a journey through engineering’s greatest wonders, but equally a tale of human grit, aspiration, compassion and the triumph of human ingenuity over life’s greatest challenges.

While there is no cost to attend the event, space is limited and only those with tickets will be admitted.

Zombies in the Natural World: How a Parasitic Wasp Hijacks the Brain of its Caterpillar Host

Speaker: Dr. Shelley Adamo, Professor,
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University

Some parasites can control their hosts behaviour. This take-over is best understood in insects (the real zombies). In these systems, parasites typically exploit communication links between the body and brain to produce behaviour favourable to the parasite.

Free event.

Scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, November 6 at the Halifax Convention Centre, science slam is a scientific speaker session where presenters discuss their own scientific research work in a five minute period - in front of a non-expert audience. This event is open to the general public—we encourage all to attend. The focus lies on knowledge translation that teaches current science to a diverse audience in an entertaining way. Presentations will be judged by the audience.

This event will showcase scientists, researchers, and students as they battle to communicate science. Presenters will be selected from all walks of science. Judges will be a mashup of scientists from Nova Scotia’s top science institutions and volunteers from the general public.

Contestants can present on any science topic, but cannot use a projector or slides. They are judged not on their data and methods, but on their ability to communicate science in an engaging, entertaining, and concise way. This event will combine science communication and audience participation in an effective and engaging way.

While there is no cost to attend the event, space is limited and only those with tickets will be admitted.

The 2018 Dan MacLennan Memorial Lecture in Astronomy will be the fourth in the annual series of lectures that has featured Nobel prize winners. This lecture is endowed by the family of the late Dan MacLennan, a life-long learner and one-time Saint Mary's student.

While there is no cost to attend the event, space is limited and only those with tickets will be admitted.