Yeah, science: Largest hands-on science, engineering festival in Manitoba

Attendees participate in a booth for the University of Manitoba Science Rendezvous on May 9, 2026. (Harrison Shin/CTV News Winnipeg)

Polar bears, drones, robots and rockets – the University of Manitoba brought everyone with at least a smidge of curiosity in science and engineering, for a good time.

The University of Manitoba Science Rendezvous — the province’s largest hands-on science and engineering festival — brought more than 60 booths to its Fort Garry campus on Saturday, with thousands of attendees learning and experiencing.

“Science is for everybody,” said Kimia Shadkami, digital content and communications lead at the university’s faculty of science. “Anybody who has a passion, a curiosity for the world around them – there’s a space for them.”

Creating an accessible space for science in a language for young minds can spark the passion, she added.

“We are focusing on communicating science to the general public through games, storytelling, different visuals and formats that they can interact with.”

Some of the shows included Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre’s session featuring an owl and a question-and-answer segment, solar telescopes by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Winnipeg Centre, and ticketed physics, chemistry and planetarium shows.

More than 600 volunteers – most of whom are students, with faculty and staff members too – supported the event both front and back.

One of them was Mckenna Sharpe, a biology student who just finished her second year and volunteered for the first time.

“It’s definitely been a learning opportunity – not only meeting some of my fellow peers here at the U of M and some staff, but also learning and discovering new, different booths,” Sharpe told CTV News on Saturday.

“There was a math game I saw a couple of days ago when they were practicing and it was guessing this probability – at the end, they were able to find the number that I was thinking in my head and my mind was absolutely blown.”

Another learning from the event was the importance of science communication, Sharpe said.

“(It) has been super interesting to see all the team and how everyone kind of works together to not only get the message around to the students, but also to the public as well.”