Science Literacy Week, an annual nationwide festival of science, takes place this September 18-24, 2017, throughout the University of Toronto and across Canada. Fun demos, insightful talks, special displays, and many other exciting events are taking place all week long at participating libraries from St. George, UTM, and UTSC campuses.
This year’s theme is Science in a Post-Truth Era. As recent political events have brought the problems of fake news and the trustworthiness of digital information to the world’s attention, the very relevance of facts has been called into question. This year’s science literacy week considers the place of science in a world where the importance of truth itself is contested.
The display on the ground floor of the library, Indigenous Contributions to STEM, invites viewers to think about current debates about our post-truth era in light of the history of the marginalization of Indigenous knowledges, and seeks to highlight the ways that Indigenous knowledges incorporate and express STEM principles.
On Tuesday, September 19th from 12-1pm, Thursday, September 21st from 4-6pm, the OISE Library will be hosting two makerspace pop-ups on the ground floor of the library. Makerspaces are increasingly becoming part of the teaching landscape, and hands-on experimentation is a great way to incorporate scientific literacy into teaching. Come and explore resources from the OISE Library collection that encourage tinkering, problem-solving, group work and exploration. We will be highlighting activity kits and resources like Makey Makey, Snap Circuits Jr., and littleBits. For additional maker resources, check out Makers & Tinkers and Technology in Education.
