Next week, OCSB students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 will participate in our third annual #ocsbSTEAM Week. And no, we’re not talking about a Nordic spa experience! The STEAM week is an opportunity for your child to celebrate and explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math through learning activities and virtual events.
From February 27 to March 3, we will focus on a different STEAM letter each day. On Monday, we explore science. Tuesday, we take a closer look at technology & the trades. Wednesday is all about engineering. Thursday, we investigate the arts, and Friday, we cap off the week with a fun math day. We will offer a weekly challenge and live events, daily. Our STEAM Week activities will be offered in English and French.
A week of exploring career opportunities!
It’s no coincidence that STEAM week happens when high school students choose their courses for next year! Our high school experience allows students to explore their skills and interests. We hope this week inspires high school students to consider science, trades and technology, engineering, arts, and math courses for next year! STEAM week is a time for students of all ages to think about careers and learn from experts.
#ocsbSTEAM Week at a glance
Next week will be action-packed with opportunities to explore career paths and engage in hands-on STEAM activities that align beautifully with the classroom curriculum. Students and educators can also win prizes for participating in events, so stay tuned for those announcements!
#ocsbSTEAM Week Challenge!
Educators will guide their students with a grade-appropriate challenge throughout the week. Don’t forget to ask your child how they are learning about STEAM in their classroom!
Grades K- 6 — Things that Move
The focus will be on design thinking and the creative process centering on things that move. Students work collaboratively through the process while embedding Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, Marth, Religious Ed, Social Studies, and Indigenous Perspectives.
Grades 7-12 — Computational Thinking
Students will participate in activities designed to develop their computational thinking skills of abstraction, algorithmic thinking, data collection/analysis/representation, debugging, decomposition, and pattern recognition
STEAM Week Highlights
| Grade | Activities and events | Date |
| 5-12 | Keynote – Brian Aspinall – Award-winning educator in coding and computational thinking. | February 27 |
| 4-8 | Sasha Ariel Alston- Young Black author and entrepreneur who encourages youth to explore educational and career opportunities in STEM. | February 27 |
| 4-6 | Belouga Presentation – Participating students and teachers will have the opportunity to ask questions to the panellists, along with receiving access to resources on Belouga that dive deeper into environmental innovation, sustainability, and inventions. | February 28 |
| 5-6 & 7-9 | Kids Code Jeunesse (KCJ) – AI intro with Scratch – students will code a Scratch project that tracks their facial movements and gestures using AI. | February 28 |
| K-34-67-12 | Skills Ontario Presentations- STEAM in Skilled Trades gr. K-3, gr. 4-6, gr. 7-12 | February 28 |
| 9-12 & Parents | Skills Ontario Virtual Presentation – learn more about fantastic career opportunities in the Skilled Trades and Technologies. The Skilled Trades and Technologies offer ESSENTIAL and IN-DEMAND career opportunities with excellent earning potential. This session is open to parents, educators, and high school students! Register to receive the link. | February 28, 7:00 pm |
| 5-12 | Junior and Senior STEAM Career Panels sponsored by the Ottawa Network for Education. | March 1 (gr. 5-8) & March 2 (gr. 7-12) |
| 5-12 | Joseph Pitawanakwat – Indigenous STEM speaker teaches about the art of observation in understanding plant medicines and their relationships with the human body. | March 3 |
| 3-5 &K-2 | TVO- STEM Activity Sessions – Our interactive TVO Learn activity sessions will encourage participants to wonder, tinker, and delve into STEAM activities during and after the live event. | March 1 & March 3 |
| 3-8 | Minecraft with Logics Academy – Student workshops | March 1 |
| 7-12 | Kids Code Jeunesse (KCJ) – JavaScript – Students will be introduced to p5.js, a Javascript coding library for artists, and ml5.js, a Machine Learning coding library, so budding algorithm artists can keep creating after the workshop. | March 2 |
| 3-6 | Music and Microbits – students will engage in block coding on the makecode.microbit.org website and will use the built-in BBC micro:bit simulator to watch/hear their creations come to LIFE! | March 2 |
| 3-6 &7-10 | Math with David Poras – learn about Desmos – Mathigon and Polypad! This interactive session will have David walk students and teachers through some of the amazing functionality of the platform Mathigon. | March 3 |
| 3-6 & 7-12 | Tinkercad Workshops – Participants will work through the design thinking process as they use Tinkercad to create a 3D model ready for print. | March 3 |
Participate and follow along on social media!
Whether your child learns in-person or online, you and your child can experience #ocsbSTEAM week at the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Share your photos and experiences online using our hashtags: #ocsbSTEAM, #ocsbEL (experiential learning), #ocsbScience, #ocsbTechEdge, #ocsbArts, #ocsbMath #ocsbFSL (French), #ocsbCodes and #ocsbCSEd (computer science).