Presenter(s): Shawn Spencer, Hager Awara and Deborah Zamin
Target Audience: Grade 6-8
Description: We are going to model how students can collaboratively engage in critical thinking and problem solving to identify, design, and communicate solutions to real-world problems identified in certain francophone regions (e.g., the Americas, Europe, Northern Ontario, Quebec, etc.) by implementing the design thinking process. The design process will connect to the UN SDGS reflecting on an action-oriented approach in FSL Grade 4-8. Suitable for Core, Immersion and Extended French.

Presenter(s): Aleeya Ali
Target Audience: Grade 6-8, Grade 9-12
Description: This presentation will look at the amazing accomplishments in STEM from youth both locally and internationally, who are underrepresented in the STEM community. It will inspire students to explore STEM careers and discuss the need for diversity in the STEM field. It will also mention various STEM mentorship programs available for girls and BIPOC, in Ontario, so that aspiring STEM students can align themselves with mentors that look like them.

Presenter(s): Ray Mercer
Target Audience: JK-Grade 2, Grade 3-5
Description: This presentation will demonstrate to students and teachers how they can use their "Engineers Eyes" to look at materials in their homes for their properties. They will work through examples of objects in their local environment to identify their materials (e.g. glass, plastic, metal, wood) to develop solutions to STEM problems by seeing themselves as the person who can be solving them with their natural curiosity.

Presenter(s): Kenrick Deodat
Target Audience: JK-Grade 2
Description: How might we use rich read aloud linked to Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy & Equity STEAM challenges to inspire change beyond the classroom into our local community? Sonia Sotomayor’s book, Just Ask does just this! She inspires our learners to be who they are- different! Equally, honouring, respecting and celebrating the differences of all. Participants are invited to use loose parts and recycled materials to imagine what our world would look like if playgrounds were designed to welcome persons of all abilities. What might you design and build to welcome everyone into your landscape of play?

Presenter(s): Aly Gulamhusein
Target Audience: Grade 6-8
Description: My presentation will look at how planning and building marble runs using Lego and/or cardboard can help students work through engineering design problems and persist through an iterative design process. This activity includes the use of orthographic drawings, as well.

Presenter(s): Shauna Husbands
Target Audience: JK-Grade 2
Description: (Inspired by the book Galimoto by Karen Lynn- Williams) The word galimoto means “car” in Chichewa, the official language of Malawi. The objective of my presentation is to highlight the imaginative and creative capabilities of African children who use found materials to design their own cars (toys). It engages learners in narrative and real world examples of engineering in action. It highlights the inventive and creative nature of children in other countries (i.e., countries in Africa) and how they use the resources they find to design and build. I aim to inspire learners to show their own creative and engineering abilities through a STEAM challenge in which they can design their own toy with recycled/found materials and engage in the design process.