Arts and Entertainment

CanHist and McMaster Children and Youth University (MCYU) partner in support of students

May 7, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Question. Discover. Create.

These are the pillars upon which McMaster Children and Youth University (MCYU) bases its approach to education. Focussing on STEAM means art is added to science, technology, engineering and math as MCYU maintains art is of equal importance for a well-rounded education. Offered for free to children from seven to 14 years are on-campus lectures by university professors, as well as community outreach workshops. These are facilitated by McMaster University students who have been trained by the “MCYU in the City Program.”

Founded in 2011 by Dr. Sandeep Raha and Dr. Katrin Scheinemann, professors in McMaster’s Department of Pediatrics, MCYU was launched in 2011 as the first Children’s University in Canada. It features programming for interactive, family-based discovery.

The inspiration for this initiative was based on the children’s university model from Europe, which is now operating throughout the world.

As founder Sandeep Raha explains in one of the website’s videos, MCYU is an organization developed to give kids and their families the chance to experience master research both on and off the campus.

For the last 10 years, MCYU has also partnered with Dufferin County-based CanHist, working closely on some of Canada’s most significant Heritage commemorations, as Neil Orford, CanHist founder, told the Citizen.

The Centennial of insulin in 2021 and the Centennial of the Spanish Flu pandemic in 2018 were two of these projects.

Their collaboration was founded on the curatorial thinking model that Orford designed for the digital historian project they ran jointly between the Upper Grand District School Board and the Museum of Dufferin from 2014 to 2018.

“The digital historian project won the Government of Canada History Award in 2015 for our innovative approach to experiential learning which was a template for the Ontario Ministry of Education,” Orford said.

He added that MCYU has been using that curatorial framework in all of its programming since then. CanHist has partnered with MCYU in developing that programming.

With those tools to help in the goal of developing future leaders in our children, as well as to give them a true preview of what it is like to go to university, the lectures, master classes, hands-on lessons, and workshops taught on-site at MCYU are all presented and offered to youngsters and their families for free. Students must be registered individually.

The three pillars of question, discover and create are set as a journey for each child to understand their right to question their environment, understand the possibilities and create solutions using their own talent. This exercise develops inventiveness and self-confidence.

Engaging in this inquiry-based learning is important to gain a developing relationship between participants and knowledge that is not necessarily within their grasp. Inspiring curiosity and self-confidence is the essential path to long-term educational engagement.

Youngsters commenting on their participation in these lessons reported that they discovered things and resolved problems about them on their own. They each delivered this information with a considerable degree of satisfaction.

Enthusiasm is the word that best describes the stance of the teachers who instruct and lead their young students in learning about topics that “blows their hair back!”

In person at the university, students are brought into a place filled with colour, an abundance of new ideas, and fascinating challenges.

Once a month, from September to May, MCYU offers free lectures covering the STEAM subjects and are followed by hands-on post-lecture activities bringing the lectures to life.

Attending the lectures in person, students and their families at the McMaster campus, introduces a feel for the post-secondary scholastic environment, even to students for whom university is still several years into their future.

In fact, it is so important to MCYU that their programs are accessible to all children and youth that they are currently working to deepen their relationships with schools and organizations in neighbourhoods where high school completion rates are disproportionately low.

While Hamilton is some 100 kilometres from Orangeville, in keeping with its mission to include all children and their families with the excellent programs they produce, there is access to some of the material on the Teacher Toolbox link on the website, freely offered to all, in the hope that teachers and librarians everywhere will host activities from the MCYU for their own young students.

At the heart of the mission at MCYU is the long-term goal to encourage youth to become empowered and engaged citizens and to share in the discovery that comes through the understanding of science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM).

The Teacher Toolbox and lots of information can be found at https://mcyu.mcmaster.ca.

Readers Comments (0)