2016 CASCADE Awards Nominees

Best Program – Small Institution

In-Class Outdoor Education Program – London Children’s Museum

For over 35 years, the London Children’s Museum has been offering hands-on learning experiences to children and families. In 2013, they began offering In-Class Outdoor Education Programs to local schools, bringing the Children’s Museum experience directly into the classroom through the use of artifacts, hands-on activities and portable exhibit components.

Marine Education Program – Churchill Northern Studies Centre

The program focuses on Churchill’s position adjacent to Hudson Bay to provide marine biology programming for youth. It includes marine species collection and identification, and a saltwater holding tank to showcase aquatic species. Participants gain knowledge of the scientific method, field and laboratory experience, and acquire expertise with collection management.

Best Exhibit or Show – Large Institution

Dynamic Earth Underground Tour – Science North

‘In the Footsteps of Sudbury’s Miners’ is a guide-led underground tour at Dynamic Earth. The tour is a journey through time and space, in a special location, and leaves visitors with a sense of what it has meant to be a miner in Sudbury. ‘In the Footsteps of Sudbury’s Miners’ takes place 20 metres below surface and explores the origin of mining in Sudbury through to present day practices, complete with the sights, sounds and smells of life underground.

Fabrik – Montréal Science Centre

Fabrik, the new exhibit at the Montréal Science Centre, is unlike any other tinkering lab. With its challenges, its setting and the scenarios of its group visits, it offers an innovative and enriching visitor experience. Fabrik lays a milestone in the approach to tinkering labs, as well as their development and operation.

From Palaeo to Petroleum – Philp J. Currie Dinosaur Museum

The Philp J. Currie Dinosaur Museum uses the architectural design to leverage the exhibit experience in its permanent gallery taking visitors on a 360 million year journey.  The museum’s exhibit experience transports the visitor to Pipestone Creek bone-bed, devastation of the flood plain, through to Cretaceous and Devonian periods culminating in today’s oil-exploration in Alberta.  The gallery hairpins down two levels akin to a palaeontological dig experience and the lay out emulates a hunt or a chase scenario interspaced with animated dinosaur ecosystems.

TELUS World of Science Edmonton Hosts Dinosaurs Unearthed – TELUS World of Science Edmonton

Using a travelling exhibition as a foundation, TELUS World of Science Edmonton built a comprehensive 6-month integrated program that was localized to our community and resulted in increased engagement, customer satisfaction and revenue. This model of localizing a travelling exhibition provided a template for success for future exhibitions and science programming.

Best Program – Large Institution

Adopt-a-Class – Ontario Science centre

The Ontario Science Centre’s Adopt-a-Class program allows students from underserved Toronto neighborhoods to visit the Centre and enjoy curriculum-linked school program at no cost to them, their school or their families.  Since the program began in 2009, over 220,000 students and their teachers have visited through this program.

AquaVan – Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre 

The AquaVan is a mobile aquarium to give students a personal collection to marine life. Our hands-on AquaVan programs are designed to inspire the stewardship of all aquatic habitats and encourage the discovery of connections between animals, environments and ourselves. Educators bring live animals, artifacts and activities to schools and communities throughout Western Canada.