Our in-class, hands-on

workshops will be one

of the best teaching

tools you’ll encounter

all year!

Elephant Thoughts has the most sophisticated and effective science and technology outreach program in Canada. Our constantly increasing repertoire of available workshops is the largest available in any program. Our programming, created by experts in the field, has been designed to complement provincial science and mathematics curricula, while each workshop also applies to many other subjects including Language, Social Studies, Health and Physical Education. Our programming is designed to be very hands-on, emphasizing scientific method and design, and engaging the students’ imaginations. We will demonstrate how exciting science and the study of the natural world can be!

Our Workshops:

NEW!

EARTH KEEPERS

Thanks to generous funding provided by the Ontario Ministry of Energy, an exciting new program promoting energy conservation is being delivered free of charge to dozens of schools across Ontario’s Georgian Triangle Region.

Earth Keepers is a fully interactive, hands-on learning experience for children in grades five to eight. Students are engaged in four half-days of programming, designed by certified teachers and a variety of professionals in the environmental and energy fields. It explores a number of topics that are related to energy conservation and linked to existing, age-appropriate curriculum. Students begin with concepts that help to explain the nature of energy, while interacting with a variety of hands-on educational tools and incredible contraptions—from model fuel-cells and solar-powered cars to real, make-your-own-light-bulb kits! By exploring the places energy comes from and understanding the countless ways we use it, students gain a full appreciation for the power of energy and the need for its careful conservation.

Students are then charged with a task that brings all the learning together and puts it to the test: an audit of the energy consumption levels at their school. After a series of research activities, students then formulate suggestions and strategies to reduce their school’s energy consumption levels.

But wait, there’s more! For greater impact and to help spread the message of energy conservation, participating classes are also tasked with disseminating their lessons to other classes at the school. What better way to accomplish this then by shooting a short film? Students are involved in the filming of a Public Service Announcement on the topic of energy conservation, which can be played for the entire school and friends and family at home. With this incredible hands-on Media Literacy component, Earth Keepers reaches right across a variety of important curriculum strands and topics.

• Grade 5 Science: Conservation of Energy and Resources
• Grade 6 Science: Electricity and Electrical Devices
• Grade 7 Geography: Natural Resources
• Grade 6-8 Language: Media Literacy

Through our Earth Keepers program, Elephant Thoughts aims to produce a generation of young students who are keenly aware of the necessity of energy conservation in today’s world. At the same time, Earth Keepers helps students discover the tools and options they have to reduce their own energy consumption and, of equal importance, the consumption of those around them. Another major goal of Earth Keepers is to build upon the curriculum of previous grades by reinforcing lessons and, ultimately, by helping to foster long-term behavioral change.

Thanks to the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Elephant Thoughts has been able to deliver this incredible program, free of charge, to 34 schools across the Georgian Triangle Region. May the message of energy conservation take a firm hold in the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s leaders!

BEGINNER ROBOTICS

AND ADVANCED

ROBOTICS ENGINEERING

Students combine engineering, computer science, algebra and mathematics in this very exciting program. In the beginner robotics program, students will become familiar with the award winning Lego MindStorms Robotics Kit, a program featured in robotics and engineering competitions by groups ranging from elementary school students to university engineering departments around the world. MindStorms offers an excellent introduction for students of any age to explore the world of robotics and basic engineering applications. Working in groups of two to four, students will have the opportunity to complete exercises where they construct, program and test their robots. These exercises provide valuable team building and problem solving opportunities as they take their creation into our robot competition ring.

In the Advanced Robotics program students have an opportunity to assemble real, full-sized aluminum, state-of-the-art robots, then use lap top computers to program them. Their robots will be able to perform tasks like fetching a drink from another room, recognizing and greeting people, serving lunch—anything their ingenuity and imagination drives them to do.

ELECTRICITY AND

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Explore concepts related to electricity, its production and impact on the environment. Our most “hair-raising” workshop allows kids to build solar cars, solder lie detector circuit boards, and build working hydro dams that really produce electricity. From wind mills to hydrogen cars, this hands-on physics and engineering program will have students experimenting with electricity in ways that will not only make their hair stand on end but will also excite and educate them.

ASTRONOMY AND THE

STARLAB PLANETARIUM

Definitely one of our most effective premier programs available, this workshop lets students study outer space by building asteroids out of dry ice, making super flying comet balls, launching rockets, building real flying space shuttles, creating 3D multimedia presentations and lots more. The highlight of our space program is a visit inside our real, giant, inflatable planetarium dome. It is big enough to seat 30 people and project the universe on the ceiling.

ARCHEOLOGY AND

PALEONTOLOGY

Learn everything you need to know to become an archaeologist. Participate in a simulated archaeology dig. Dig up dinosaur bones and assemble replica dinosaurs, analyze and identify ancient fossils, and learn the techniques to uncovering the history of the earth.

BACHELOR OF WHACKY

SCIENCE WORKSHOPS

This program is a sampling of some of our coolest hands-on experiments and demonstrations, providing a ‘wacky’ introduction to the fundamentals of science. We get students hooked for life on how much fun studying science can be by teaching them to spin gyroscopes, handle liquid nitrogen, and the basics of experimentation and scientific method in the disciplines of chemistry, physics, and biology. If your organization has already hosted one of our Wacky Science Workshops before, no problem! We have an endless amount of exciting experiments and activities to ensure years of workshops without ever repeating an experiment.

ENVIRO-SCIENCE

Learn about relationships of living things and our relationship to nature in this very timely program. From experiments like dissecting owl pellets, to water and soil ecology, to learning about the rock cycle, crystals and how to pan for gold, the insect world, plants and vegetation and more, students will gain a new appreciation of the environment we live in.

Our ever-increasing list

of workshops also includes

but is not limited to:

• light and colour
• density and mixtures
• chemical and physical reactions
• properties of matter
• dry ice/liquid nitrogen
• properties of air
• chemical reactions
• film effects
• rocketry
• scientific method
• making observations
• structures and building
• pressure
• simple machines
• the sun and its effects
• polymer madness
• optical illusions
• flight
• rocks and minerals
• photography
• digital film making
• documentary film making
• heat
• optics
• physics of motion
• meteorology
• introduction to technology
• density
• mixtures and solutions

Don’t see a topic you want? Call our office, new workshops are being added almost every month and generally, if we don’t have the topic, our team of expert teachers will put it together for you!