How a partnership between Let's Talk Science and the Canadian Space Agency brought real-time environmental science and coding into classrooms across Canada.
When Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques launched to the International Space Station in December 2018, the Canadian Space Agency saw an opportunity: use his six-month mission to inspire a generation of Canadian students to engage with STEM.
The challenge was ambitious. The CSA needed a digital platform that could deliver a hands-on science and coding curriculum to thousands of classrooms simultaneously — one that would let students collect real environmental data, compare it with readings from the ISS, and see their contributions reflected in a live national dataset. It needed to work for Grade 6 students in rural Saskatchewan and Grade 12 students in downtown Toronto alike.
Let's Talk Science, with nearly 25 years of experience delivering STEM programs to Canadian youth, was the natural partner. As Web Projects Coordinator, I was responsible for building and scaling the web infrastructure that would make it all work.
Living Space asked a simple question: what keeps astronauts healthy in space, and how do those same environmental factors affect you in your classroom? Students investigated temperature, humidity, and CO₂ levels — the same variables monitored 24/7 aboard the ISS — and compared their findings with real station data.
Each participating classroom received a technology kit containing two BBC micro:bit microcontrollers and a COZIR environmental sensor board. Students wrote code using Microsoft MakeCode to program the sensors, collect readings, and transmit data. The platform offered two coding difficulty levels, so teachers could tailor the experience from introductory block-based coding to more advanced JavaScript implementations.
Once collected, classroom data was uploaded to the Living Space national database — a web platform I built and maintained — where students could visualize how their readings compared with classrooms across the country and with conditions aboard the International Space Station. The dashboard turned abstract science into something immediate and competitive: students could see in real time whether their classroom air quality was better or worse than a spacecraft orbiting 400 kilometers overhead.
The project gave educators the opportunity to integrate science and coding in a unique and engaging way — with students developing analytical thinking and digital skills while contributing real data to a national dataset.
— Canadian Space Agency, Living Space Program OverviewThe Living Space web platform had to handle data ingestion from thousands of classrooms, render real-time comparisons against ISS environmental data, and remain accessible to educators with varying levels of technical comfort. It also had to scale rapidly — registration surged after media coverage of David Saint-Jacques' live classroom connections from orbit.
My responsibilities spanned the full stack of the web experience:
Living Space reached over 63,000 Canadian students during the 2018–2020 program cycle. In April 2019, more than 700 students gathered at École Champs Vallée School for a live video connection with David Saint-Jacques aboard the ISS — presenting their science and coding work directly to a Canadian astronaut in orbit.
The program was recognized as a model for integrating coding and computational thinking into science curricula. Living Space exemplified the kind of return that government investment in LTS generates: an ISED evaluation found that every federal dollar invested in Let's Talk Science produced $3.74 in additional funding from other sources, with programs like Living Space attracting dedicated support from CanCode and SAP. The national dataset students built became a living resource, showing environmental conditions across Canadian classrooms and providing a real-world application of data science skills.
For me, Living Space was the project that crystallized my approach to technology leadership: build platforms that amplify human impact. The web infrastructure I created didn't just serve content — it connected students to each other, to working scientists, and to an astronaut 400 kilometers above Earth.