ID Guide Design (Nanaimo, BC)

We would like to create unique ID guides for children in the Nanaimo Area including native and invasive species, with illustrations or high quality photos, and designs appropriate for use in a school setting. ID guides would be themed for popular Nanaimo (British Columbia) areas, including Bowen Park, Departure Bay Beach, Colliery Dam, Buttertubs Marsh, etc. Additional content including maps, landforms, and points of cultural relevance/historical significance can also be part of this projectNanaimo Science will share our brand design guidelines with the successful intern(s) to ensure the ID guides follow our standard designs. Production will include feedback meetings and/or written feedback with Nanaimo Science Outreach Coordinators who will also provide background information for science activities intended to pair with these guides.

Science Outreach with Youth & Families

The learner will develop skills in planning programs directed at youth (school-aged children or families with young children) to share information about science, sustainability, and STEM in general. The learner will develop lesson plans and individual activities for these programs, create teaching materials, handouts, crafts, games and other content to help youth learn through hands-on activities.The learner will also learn behaviour management techniques, develop project and time management skills, and learn to work within a team.

Longitudinal Bivalve Survey - Data Entry (Nanaimo, BC)

Nanaimo Science has worked with youth on a Citizen Science project since 2015, collecting data on bivalves (specifically clams) at Departure Bay Beach. Our data set has been updated to record all Varnish Clams from students' data sheets, however, records for other clams (Manilla and Pacific Little Neck Clams) has not been recorded. We are looking for a student to encode these records into our existing data set.This project will allow us, together with our partners at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Nanaimo-Ladysmith Public School Board (who provides the classes of students who takes part in the Citizen Science project annually) to get a more complete picture of the number of non-target species found during these surveys.

Coding for Kids lesson plans

Nanaimo Science provides STEM activities for kids between the ages 6-12. We want to improve the way we teach coding, taking advantage of the variety of teaching tools we have available, as well as online/off-line resources. We would like students to help us with creating content that is aligned with our hands-on/experiential teaching approach. Principles of programming (e.g. variables, loops, conditional statements, etc.) should be presented in ways that children can easily understand, and apply in a variety of coding activities.Nanaimo Science has at its disposal the following programming/robotics resources:- Ozobots- Micro:Bit V2- Edison Robots V2- Scratch/Scratch Jr.- Laptops or tabletsAdditionally, resources such as online videos, games, and print outs/posters can be used to support learning activities.Ultimately, you will be working on lesson development for our organization, including developing activities, instructions, and milestones to assess comprehension.