Need a conversation starter at your next party? Here are some of the interesting findings…

The Top 10 Most Searched Canadian News:

1. Ottawa Senators
2. Gord Downie
3. Solar Eclipse
4. BC Election
5. The Weather
6. Ontario College Strike
7. BC Wildfires
8. Grey Cup
9. Invictus Games
10. Instant Pot

The Top 10 Most Searched “HOW…” questions:

1. How do they name hurricanes
2. How may teaspoons are in a tablespoon
3. How soon should you take a pregnancy test
4. How to make solar eclipse glasses
5. How to buy bitcoin in Canada
6. How to renew a Canadian passport
7. How to make slime
8. How often should you wash your hair
9. How much does it cost to build a house
10. How to help someone with depression

The Top 10 Most Searched “WHY…” Questions:

1. Why are NFL players protesting the national anthem
2. Why are flags in Canada at half mast
3. Why are there so many hurricanes
4. Why are women marching
5. why does Catalonia want independence
6. Why is the solar eclipse dangerous to look at
7. Why are fidget spinners so popular
8. Why doesn’t Caillou have hair
9. Why is everything so heavy
10. Why is Canadian thanksgiving different than US thanksgiving

The Top 10 Most Searched TV Shows:

1. 13 Reasons Why
2. Game of Thrones
3. Riverdale
4. Iron Fist
5. Santa Clarity Diet
6. Stranger Things
7. The OA
8. This Is Us
9. The Handmaid’s Tale
10. Big Mouth

The Top 10 Most Searched Musicians:

1. Neil Young
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Shania Twain
4. Ariana Grande
5. Lil Pump
6. Cardi B
7. Luis Fonsi
8. Jason Aldean
9. Aaron Carter
10. Sam Smith

The Top 10 Most Searched Diets:

1. Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
2. Plant Based Diet
3. Ketogenic Diet
4. Tom Brady Diet
5. Snake Diet
6. Emily Ratajkowski Diet
7. Boiled Egg Diet
8. Low FODMAP Diet
9. Fatty Liver Diet
10. Chris Pratt Diet

The Top 10 Most Searched Consumer Tech:

1. iPhone 8
2. iPhone X
3. Nintendo Switch
4. Instant Pot
5. xBox One X
6. Google Home Mini
7. iOs 11
8. Samsung Galaxy 8
9. Google Pixel 2
10. Super NES Classic

The post Annual list released of what Canadians googled the most in 2017 appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

The program included spending a day learning and interacting with hands-on technology that celebrates science, technology, engineering and math, otherwise known as STEM.

Other partners of the event included Google Canada along with Actua, which is the country’s biggest STEM outreach charity.

Jennifer Flanagan, CEO of Actua talks about the National organization and how it has grown throughout the past two decades. “We have a network of 35 university and college-based member organizations…our member organizations are now delivering in 500 communities reaching in every province and territory and engaging about 250,000 kids each year,” she says.

Flanagan also talks about the different levels of implementation of the outreach program. “At the ground level, kids have always been excited about science and technology. That has not changed. They are curious and excited to try new things and eager to learn,” she says. “I think what has changed is the recognition of how important those early experiences are.”

“So when we first started at Actua, there weren’t science camps or coding camps like there are today, so we were really sort of leading a movement to recognise how important that engagement is.”

Focusing upon underrepresented minorities, Flanagan says that Actua has four major programs specifically designed for them. “One for girls and young women, one for indigenous youth called INSTEM, and we engage over 30,000 indigenous youth across the country every year. And we have a program that engages at-risk youth and the fourth is a program across the arctic.”

Dawn Britton is the director of the outreach office for the Engineering faculty at the University of Toronto. She explains how the university partnered with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) two years ago to teach teachers and students how to code.

“For the past year and a half, we’ve seen 700 teachers and sort of worked with them to get excited and continue to bring technology into their classroom,” she says.

Britton also focuses upon the importance of females and indigenous Canadians within STEM, “Just over 40 per cent of our first year students are female. Of course there’s a lot to celebrate there but that also acknowledges that there’s a lot more work that needs to be done.”

She goes on to say, “The one thing that we have started to see is that there’s people, men and women, all backgrounds increasingly interested in technology and the STEM field.”

The University of Toronto has been a member of Actua Canada for almost 20 years. Britton explains that the partnership with TDSB only encouraged the institution to reach out to Actua and ask if they would like to get involved in bringing coding into classrooms.

Nicole, a Google representative who has also partnered for the outreach program talks about the importance of learning to code. The focus is on “trying to give STEM programming to kids that don’t get it. So they’re either underrepresented in STEM education or underrepresented in STEM careers. So it’s a lot of focusing on girls, focusing on at-risk youth,” she says.

When it comes to the different kinds of workshops, she says that all of them are mainly hands-on and easy to understand.

Readers can learn more and get involved through Actua Canada and their various camps. They can also check out the website of the University of Toronto for more engineering outreach programs.

The post Students and the future of STEM at Go North event in Toronto appeared first on Toronto Guardian.