Tag: Events

Rhonda & Craig Invade LA – NSTA 2017 Recap

We were thrilled to attend this year’s NSTA national conference in Los Angeles.

Our first destination was the exhibit hall where PASCO had a very lively booth with several interactive displays. By far the biggest hit was the ‘Match Graph’ challenge with a super-sized Smart Cart. Who knew that learning could be this much fun! Check out the video to see my less than stellar attempt.

PASCO’s booth was fun, however, the real action was in the teacher facilitated workshops. In total PASCO had 20 unique hands-on sessions that were over flowing with enthusiastic teachers. Time didn’t allow us to see all the sessions, but we did manage to squeeze our way into a very energetic session on the new Modular Circuit Kits. Teachers had a great time ignoring instructions and spent most of the session designing their own unique circuits – obviously investigative learning is not just for students.

We were also fortunate enough to get a seat at PASCO’s workshop session on climate change. The session featured several hands-on modeling activities, including an investigation where teachers used the Wireless pH sensor to monitor the mitigating effects of natural buffers on acid rain. The biggest hit of the session was seeing PASCO’s new Wireless Carbon Dioxide sensor in action. Teachers were excited to discover that a reliable, practical and affordable way to measure CO2 has finally arrived.

Over the next week we’ll share some more videos on our adventures at the conference.

AST 2016 – Nova Scotia goes with PASCO!

AYVA was proud to participate in the annual Nova Scotia Association of Science Teachers science conference (AST) again this year. The conference offered a broad range of sessions pertaining to the many disciplines of K-12 science. This is a particularly exciting year for science students in Nova Scotia since the Department of Education & Early Childhood Development provided nearly 300 local elementary schools with SPARKvue software and PASCO sensors for hands-on, inquiry-based learning.

Three PASCO workshops were offered over the course of the conference, enabling teachers to become acquainted with their new datalogging technology which pairs seamlessly with the Chromebooks and iPads. Probeware allows students to collect, manipulate and analyze data from various sources to support observations and help make inferences and conclusions about the world around them. Participants were able to observe how true open-ended inquiry becomes much easier when real world data is collected in a timely fashion. Teachers had a chance to demo the new line of wireless sensors and were given several streamlined curriculum activities to take back to their classrooms. Many instructors stopped at the AYVA booth to ask about the new equipment and to talk about the new materials that were sent out to grades 4-6 this year. Our special thanks go to all the attending teachers and our amazing team of presenters: Wes Leblanc (Chemistry Teacher, HRSB), Mark Richards (Consultant of Technology Integration-AVRSB) and Nancy Chisholm (IT Consultant).

Durham DSB – PASCO PD Session

Professional Development is a career-long endeavor and AYVA Educational is always happy to help. Quentin Dus and Jason Peng represented PASCO Scientific at the Durham District School Board on Friday October 7. The two hosted several information sessions to help teachers at the board familiarize themselves with PASCO’s newest wireless sensors. The sessions also engaged teachers with demonstrations and hands-on experience where teachers had a chance to perform the Ice and Road Salt Experiment using PASCO’s Wireless Temperature Sensor and SparkVue software.

Quentin and Jason also demonstrated the Smart Cart and performed the Alka-Seltzer in Fruit Juice Experiment with the PASCO Wireless pH and Temperature sensors. As always, the teachers successfully predicted the results for pH and temperature changes (we even tried throwing them a curve-ball with this endothermic reaction!). Among the most engaging demonstrations was a simple pressure activity where we had volunteers capture as much air as possible in a clear garbage bag. Then, the volunteers squeezed the bag and we were able to visualize the pressure change using the PASCO Wireless Pressure Sensor and SparkVue software. This simple activity is a fun example of thinking outside the box to implement some creative ways to take advantage of PASCO’s wireless sensors.

We would like to thank Beth at Pickering High School for organizing the successful event! It was a pleasure to meet all the teachers.

PASCO Launches New Wireless Sensors at BETT 2016 in the UK

AYVA had the pleasure of joining PASCO to take part in their exhibit at BETT 2016. The trip to London England featured PASCO’s new Wireless Sensor line including Temperature, pH, Pressure, Force and Smart Cart Sensors.

Check them out in action: PASCO Wireless

The biggest hit was by far the Wireless Smart Cart. Chris Butlin from Physics Education wrote; “We liked your new range of wifi sensors, particularly the Smart Cart which we feel will be a best seller for you.”

Alberta Teachers Association Conference

On November 12^th our Western Canada Territory Manager, Stacey Metz traveled to beautiful Banff Alberta and experienced the breath taking Rocky Mountains. This wasn’t a ski trip however, Stacey was representing AYVA as we exhibited at the Alberta Teachers Association annual Science Conference.

Teachers ranging from elementary to post-secondary were excited to connect with each other at this three day conference. The days were packed with outstanding workshops and fantastic speakers. Teachers appreciated the range of workshop topics with lots of ideas to engage their students.

Keynote speaker and Olympic Gold Medalist, Adam Kreek was inspirational as he detailed his experience and the adventures he encountered while gathering scientific data from our oceans. He and his team continue to educate youth about the importance of conserving our ocean’s resources.

AYVA at the 2014 Association of Science Teachers (AST) Conference in Halifax

Nancy Chisholm, representing AYVA at the 2014 AST Conference in Halifax.

AYVA has been very busy exhibiting at trade shows across this great country of ours!

On October 24th, over six hundred teachers from across Nova Scotia met at the annual Association of Science Teachers (AST) Conference held at Halifax West High School.

Teachers had the opportunity to attend numerous seminars. AYVA’s representative, Nancy Chisholm’s PASCO seminars were well received. Nancy demonstrated PASCO SPARKvue and Capstone software. She explained improvements as well as the advancements of wireless and Bluetooth connections. Everyone appreciated that that the SPARKvue App for Apple, Android and and Chromebooks is FREE!

Nancy was also busy answering questions at AYVA’s booth. Attendees learned how to better use their current PASCO equipment and how easily PASCO’s new equipment can be incorporated with what they already have in their teaching labs.

AYVA représente PASCO au Congrès annuel 2014 de l’AESTQ

Quentin Dus, représentant pour le Québec, au kiosque PASCO/AYVA

Le 49^ème Congrès annuel de l’AESTQ (Association pour l’Enseignement de la Science et de la Technologie au Québec) s’est tenu les mercredi et jeudi 23 et 24 octobre 2014, sur le campus de l’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.

AYVA était présente pour représenter la marque PASCO. Une belle occasion de rencontrer les enseignants du secondaire et du collégial, venus en apprendre davantage sur les nouveautés et les dernières solutions technologiques PASCO, telles que le nouveau spectromètre sans-fil, ou le logiciel SparkVue compatible sur tous supports.

Global Education Partners Celebrate PASCO’s 50th Anniversary

50th

Four AYVA representatives along with AYVA’s President Dianne Beveridge escaped the long winter we have been experiencing here in Canada for warm and sunny Sacramento California last week. It was not all fun in the sun though.

In keeping with AYVA’s promise to offer educators resources and training support to help them excel and to help students learn, AYVA employees joined with all of PASCO’s global education partners to attend training courses on PASCO equipment. The week long course took place at PASCO Scientifics’ head office.

Our employees went back to the classroom to learn of PASCO’s new product releases.
The workshops were interactive and hands on and focussed on Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Engineering. AYVA employees enjoyed the full lab experiments with PASCO product experts on hand to help.

There was some time set aside in order to celebrate PASCO Scientifics’ 50th Anniversary including the annual Awards Dinner, and a Bar-B-Q complete with fireworks.

A cycle of free Educational Video-Conferences to discover the National Parks

The Canadian Wildlife Association and the Bateman Foundation in partnership with the Parks Canada Palisades Centre are offering a series of free educational video-conferences for students.

Four conferences available in both English and French will span over two weeks – from March 3-7 and from March 24-28 – and give the students a chance to discover the wildlife and natural diversity of Canada’s National Parks. The attendees will also be involved in several activities throughout the sessions, making it an interactive experience.

Each video-conference will be an hour long and articulate around the following themes: “Species at Risk”, “Jasper Inside and Out”, “Avalanche Safety” and “Wildlife Remote Camera”.

Click here to find out more about the event.

The Niagara Regional Science and Engineering Fair — YSIDC

The goal of the Youth Science Inquiry Development Camp (YSIDC) is to develop independent inquiry and problem solving skills in Niagara’s youth as well as increase the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) talent pool in Niagara by creating a community of STEM learners.

The YSIDC is a week-long day camp held at Brock University for students entering grades 4-9 in September. Forty-nine talented young people from across Niagara took part this year’s camps that ran the weeks of July 9th and 16th. These participants engaged in design challenges and inquiry experiences that were designed to challenge their current views about science and increase their abilities to conduct their own research. Groups of two or three collaborated on the final culminating task of designing, conducting and reporting an open inquiry using probeware. Participants directed their own research, but were supported by two qualified elementary science teachers and six secondary students. The high school students had all previously completed exemplary science fair projects. Two of them won gold medals and one silver at the latest Canada-Wide Science Fair in Charlottetown P.E.I..

Specifically students learned how to gather, organize and analyze their data to draw conclusions. Participants were also allowed to fail and encouraged to solve their own problems. Moreover, they reported (exit questionnaire at the end of the YSIDC) that they learned the non-linear nature of research and the necessity to reflect on their work and adapt methodologies to solve unforseen challenges. Through collaboration, participants also created new friendships. These connections will be supported with additional programming in the Fall and an on-line space devoted to nurturing the STEM community in Niagara.

This was the second year of the program. Last year, the N iagara REgion Science and Engineering Fair noticed the benefit of the program by seeing the highest level of science fair projects in its history. The Niagara Region also had its most successful showing at the Canada-Wide Fair by winning two gold medals, a silver and three bronzes.Youth Science Inquiry Development Camp