In the 2016-2017 academic year,  S.P.A.C.E. hosted and participated in a number of events with over 900 students attending the events and more than an additional 675 students and faculty actively engaged in one or more S.P.A.C.E. projects.

Direct Student Involvement and Engagement
S.PA.C.E. continued to expand activities involving student projects wherein students proposed projects based on their interests and then explored, researched and created these projects while receiving feedback from the SPACE coordinators, various faculty, mentors and their peers. The projects involved sustained regular yearlong collaborations and mentorship, and led toward participation in the GL.TCH exhibition as well as participation in student conferences such as ScienceFest, and contributions to the S.P.A.C.E. website.

Student Groups
Two core groups of students worked continuously on projects throughout the year.
Joel Trudeau led the SPACEcorp group in which regular meetings were held throughout the year: the group met every 2nd week during the Fall semester and every Friday afternoon during the Winter semester. Sixty students worked on self-directed projects and received mentorship from various faculty, members from the greater College community and alumni—six alumni returned to the SPACEcorp group to provide mentorship to the student groups. Twelve students from these groups completed their CE’s through SPACE. Rectifiers, a 37 x 60-inch light box which integrated elements of ongoing investigations by students of the SPACEcorp collective was displayed in the GL.TCH exhibition.
In 2016-2017, SPACE received a grant to continue work on Labstories, a virtual platform for the SPACEcorp projects. Fifteen to twenty videos were created and will be mounted online. Below are links to two examples of the projects completed in the SPACEcorp groups:
• https://vimeo.com/215470961
• https://vimeo.com/216844816

An internship model is underway in the SPACEcorp group this year with 4 summer interns working on Research and Development during the summer of 2017. This group of committed students will work with mentorship throughout the summer and become leaders next year and mentor other students.

Andrew Katz led the artSPACE group, a group of 20-24 students from various disciplines who met throughout the year on a regular basis brainstorming, designing and developing independent ideas either on their own or in collaboration with other students. The outcomes of these projects were displayed in the exhibition and/or on the SPACE website. Two students in the artSPACE group presented work in the exhibition related to the Mosaics of Canada project. The Mosaics of Canada project was initiated this year and is in its development stage. The long-term goal of the project is to create a living platform for a multi-year project in which students, faculty and others from within the Dawson Community can engage.

In addition to the above, students from different disciplines submitted articles to be published on the S.P.A.C.E. website including students from psychology, theatre, and prep arts. S.P.A.C.E. published 22 new articles on its webzine this academic year, with 10 additional articles ready for publishing once the final editing is completed. The work of over 120 students from across the disciplines, who were directly involved in individual and/or group projects, was displayed in this year’s annual exhibition, GL.TCH. Twenty faculty and six alumni were also involved in the exhibition. A print and a virtual catalogue accompanied the exhibition. Approximately 200 people attended the vernissage, and 300 students from nine classes toured the exhibition.

SPACE Sponsored Events
The following S.P.A.C.E. sponsored events also took place during the academic year:
• On behalf of S.P.A.C.E., SPACEcorp student Julien Otis-Laperrière presented to Minister Hélène David, the minister responsible for Higher Education. 35-40 people were present including the Director General and various Deans.
• Seven students attended a workshop at DHC/ART.
• Twenty-five students attended a movie night and watched the movie The Matrix.
• SPACE hosted three events during Social Science Week.
o Nadia O’Brien presented a talk “We live with HIV now”. 240 students from seven classes attended the talk.
o A student panel of seven students shared their research findings. Eighty students attended the presentation.
o 70 students attended the screening of GunRunners. A video recording by the writer and director, and a Q&A with the producer of the film followed the screening.
• As a part of Indigenous Awareness Days, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, writer and director of the documentary Angry Inuk, spoke at Dawson by way of video conference from Iqaluit, Nunavut. Forty students attended the video conference.
• A group of 7 students participated in a Social Media Challenge whereby they gave up social media for a period of two weeks. An article about the challenge is being written and will be published in The Walrus magazine, a Canadian general interest magazine.
• 42 people participated in a Pop-Up Choir directed by choir leader Kathy Kennedy in the Warren G. Flowers Gallery during the GL.TCH exhibition
• SPACEcorp student, Clara Scattolin, read from the children’s book that she wrote and illustrated to a group of children from the Dawson Daycare.
• Seventeen students gave talks during S.P.A.C.E. related events during ScienceFest.

Photograph by Don Corman, Director, Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery