Science Rendezvous volunteer Olivia Adamczyk and a child

Science Rendezvous in Mississauga

Carla DeMarco
Patrons of Mississauga’s Central Library had the opportunity to check out more than just books last weekend.

With rocket launches, chemical reactions, and space-travelling minions among the activities available to try out or examine, it’s safe to say the participants had a blast – all under carful supervision, of course.

These science-related activities were all part of the annual Science Rendezvous held this year on Saturday, May 7 in various locations across Canada. At the Mississauga library’s main branch, 15 stations included 24 activities in total, staffed by more than 60 students and Let’s Talk Science (LTS) volunteers from UTM, as well as volunteers from the library.

For the 712 participants who came out for the celebration of science, they had the opportunity to try pH testing, fossil examinations, and Lego® robotics assembling. There were also graduate and undergraduate students dubbed “wandering scientists,”, and people were encouraged to ask them about their research. Each Science Rendezvous participant was given an info card, which served as a passport that they could get stamped at every station.

For lead organizer Arjan Banerjee, who coordinated the event with Firyal Ramzan and the LTS crew of six, one of the highlights for this year was the high-altitude balloon experiment, which was a collaboration with UTM, McMaster University, and the University of Guelph. It resulted in a seven-and-a-half minute video available for viewing on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMAMShKYRU4, and the time-lapse video was played on a continuous loop on a large screen in the library.

“We launched 'Bob', our minion, into the upper atmosphere on April 28, and it went 27 to 30 kilometers up in the air,” says Banerjee. “It’s all part of a global effort to better understand the atmosphere.”

Banerjee said the balloon took one hour and 54 minutes to travel as high as it could, then the balloon burst, triggering a parachute to open, and with a GPS tracker, the research team was able to track Bob down in a field, about 50 kilometers from where they expected it to fall. They were able to measure things like atmospheric conditions, ozone, temperature, and the speed of the ascent and descent, etc.

Mr. MinkowskiThe other high point of Science Rendezvous for Banerjee was the delight of participants, whom he regarded as equal partners in the science exploration, and the infectious enthusiasm and dedication for the event on the part of the volunteers.

“We started planning for this in November, but we had this theory that come 11 a.m. on Science Rendezvous day, we would stop stressing and start having fun – and it actually happened!” says Banerjee.

“The people who came out for the event were having fun, and the volunteers were having so much fun they didn’t want to take a break. I can honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, if we had to do this next week, most, if not all of these volunteers would do it again.”