Science Teacher Provides Online Expertise

May 5, 2022

Academics

GNS

Ms. Anne-Marie Simard has been a fan of the Science Fair Foundation since she participated in her first fair over 20 years ago. After taking on many roles within the foundation, the GNS Science Teacher was recently asked to be an expert speaker at some of their online workshops.

The workshops, which cover a wide variety of topics, are free and were open to students, teachers and parents. Ms. Simard joined host Michael Unger to speak on “Why to How: Understanding the Scientific Method” and “Analyzing Your Results.”

In the past, she has been on other regional committees in Quebec and Ontario, while also being involved in the Vancouver committee where she acted as a vice-chair for two years. Once Ms. Simard moved to Victoria, she joined the Vancouver Island Science Fair committee, but wasn’t able to help set up the signature event over the last two years. However, she wanted to lend her expertise in any way she could.

“I wanted a way I could get involved that was meaningful,” she said. “I was like ‘how can I help this year?’ and they were looking for some experts for the different workshops. Also, we are working on building some documentation for regions that need help starting or running their science fairs, because unfortunately with COVID-19 a lot of the regional committees run by volunteers have died down because it became too much.”

Back in 2002, Ms. Simard attended her first science fair where her brother was participating and since was immediately hooked. She went on to do projects three years in a row and then became a volunteer. She has been involved with science fairs in some way ever since.

“For me as a student it was a really good way to meet other people that shared the same interests in science,” she said. “I met a lot of people through the Science Fair, and it was neat to find people who were as interested in science and sharing their interests and passion about it. When I became a judge and a mentor, I loved seeing the progression of the students with their ideas.”

Ms. Simard has been able to make connections from all over Canada and the world during the time she has been involved with the Science Fair Foundation. She chaperoned four Canada-Wide Science Fairs and two BC students to Taiwan in 2019 for the International Science Fair.

“It’s a big community,” she added.