[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/all-science-challenge-07.jpg” caption=”Grade 8 students from Mount Albion Public School in Stoney Creek build electromagnets at the All Science Challenge. Photo by Susan Bubak.”]Building a balloon-powered vehicle may seem like child's play, but it was one of many activities designed to get kids hooked on science as part of the All Science Challenge hosted at McMaster last Friday. The event was attended by more than 250 students in Grades 6 to 8.

“We wanted to do something interactive to show kids that science is fun,” said Diana Dregoesc, a graduate student in biology who helped organize the event along with 60 undergraduate and graduate science students who volunteered with Let's Talk Science. “We also wanted to break the stereotypes that all scientists are grey-haired with a beard. They're men and women of all races. Science is for everyone.”

The All Science Challenge featured hands-on, interactive projects that helped kids learn by doing rather than by memorizing facts and figures.

Several universities, including McMaster, prepared a handbook for participating schools with chapters on a variety of scientific disciplines, such as biology, chemistry, earth and environmental science, math, psychology, physics and astronomy. At the All Science Challenge, students were asked questions based on the handbook.

Students from 13 schools in Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas and Stoney Creek formed 44 teams that competed against each other. In one challenge, students built electromagnets and tried to pick up as many paperclips as possible. The winners of each challenge progressed to the next round until the champions were declared.

“Our country depends on innovation from these children,” said Sara Steers, director, external relations at the Let's Talk Science National Office. “The most important courses they take are in science. When they drop these courses, so many career doors close.”