Image credits: https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/science-and-the-environment/topics/horticulture-and-nature/gardening/ Garden-grown vegetables are among the healthiest foods you can eat, but the benefits of gardening extend beyond the foods that are grown and consumed. All passionate home gardeners know that getting your hands in the soil improves your state of mind and deepens a personal connection to the earth. While there is a clear relationship between doing something that you are passionate about and your level of happiness, there are several other aspects of mental health benefits to ..read more

While summer may be months away, right now is the perfect time to start preparing for your summer garden, whether in your backyard, on your balcony, or in your community! Here are some tips and techniques you should consider as you jumpstart your summer garden.  The first thing you want to consider is selecting your seeds. There are a few different types of seeds that have different ‘properties’ that certain gardeners may prefer. Some of the types of seeds are referred to as Heirloom, Organic, Hybrid, and Coated. Many home gardeners prefer using heirloom seeds – these seeds have been sav ..read more

We are excited to launch a series of new Agri Tech related Blogs in 2024. Here is what to expect. These blogs will be launched by 3rd week of every month. Jump Start your Summer Garden: Tips and Techniques (Feb) Mental Health and Gardening (Mar) Composting and Food Waste (Apr) Sustainable Gardening (May) Gardening Tools and Gizmos (June) All About Mushrooms (July) Innovation in Agri Tech (Aug) All about Hydroponics (Sept) Harvesting for Fall (Oct) Microgreens and Sprouts (Nov) All about LED Grow Lights (Dec) The post New Agri Tech Blog Series appeared first on STEM MINDS ..read more

An educational concept that has been heavily talked about nowadays is the idea of 21st century skills. But what does this actually mean? Let’s break it down with an example. In 2020, the world was faced with an extreme crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic took the whole world by storm and forced everyone to adapt to a new way of living, from the way we shop for groceries to the way we learn in school. This change in our everyday lives created many challenges that we as a society were not prepared for and had to adjust to quickly. People had to learn new communication and technology ski ..read more

As you may recall in my other blog I talked about avoiding warming of 2 degrees large amounts of fossil fuels would have to remain in the ground.  As such, that means fossil fuel companies will not be able to burn much of their reserves. In theory, carbon capture would allow for the burning of a bit more fossil fuels for some time, but as of now the technology still needs development. Morso this would only apply to energy plants, carbon capture is not practical once the carbon is already in the atmosphere. So things like cars, still could not use gas. As of now, these unusable reserves ar ..read more

Carbon dioxide is perhaps, the most infamous of the greenhouse gases.  They all are bad, in the excessive quantities that they are being emitted right in now, but Carbon dioxide seems to be focused on the most. Why? This is because carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas, out of them all. Methane may be far more potent than carbon dioxide, but is less abundant and only stays in the atmosphere for about a decade. Carbon dioxide does not have a constant time, some will disappear relatively quickly (like being absorbed by the ocean), however in some cases it will stay in the atmos ..read more

The First Robotics Competition is an international robotics community educating youth on future technological and societal advances. Teams of high school students are challenged each year to construct industrial-sized robots to compete in a challenging field game in cooperation with other teams.   STEM Minds has been proud to have sponsored the First Robotics team at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School in Aurora, Ontario,  for many years in order to promote science and technology within youth. At this year’s Aurora Street Festival, we invited the First Robotics team to present ..read more

On July 1, 2022 STEM Minds took part in Canada Day communities festivities at Lambert Wilson Park in Aurora, Ontario. Our team brought exciting technologies for both children and parents to experiment with and provided information on how they could start their own #fearlesslearning journey.    Our youngest learners were able to learn to code with BeeBots. They were thrilled to watch these adorable robots move based on their commands This was an exciting activity which sparked curiosity and innovative thinking within young children. Parents were happy to learn that STEM Minds is still ..read more

In my last blog, I talked about the issue of air pollution and mentioned that fossil fuels are a source of many different types of air pollution. So it should come as no surprise that the best way to get rid of air pollution is to cut out fossil fuels.  The way to do this is to electrify society and decarbonize the grid. While, unlike previous blogs which focused on one to a few different technologies, this one will focus on these two broad topics.  Electrification simply means taking something that was powered by one fuel source and replacing that source with electricity. Decarboniz ..read more

The Canada World Youth Leadership Summit is an event where youth across Canada ages 18-25  can come together to build a community of ambitious learners and look towards the future.   At this year’s conference in Saskatoon, STEM Minds led tech and entrepreneurship workshops to provide insight on STEM careers and how youth can transition their everyday tech activities from a hobby to a job. Our team spoke on job opportunities in eSports and game development that require skills beyond just coding in different areas such as arts and music.    STEM Minds’ Chief Executive Officer ..read more