Multimedia Performance
Keynotes & Lectures
Workshops & Seminars
Participant Showcases
Professional Development
Community Conversations
Media & Public Engagement
Understanding science through authentic engagement, storytelling and performance
Science literacy matters more than ever.
In the current era of misinformation, communities need creative and engaging ways to interact with science.
From environmental respect to social care, medical decisions, and the products we choose for our homes and families, science is around us all the time. However, communities often lack creative and engaging ways to interact with it.
With the expertise of a biologist, the communication skills of a seasoned broadcaster, the insight of an educator, and the artistry of a professional performer, Dr. Carin Bondar offers a unique opportunity to combine public conversation with science education, entertainment, and empowerment.
More than a keynote or workshop, the residency creates a shared science literacy experience that lives on after the event is over.
At the heart of the residency is Dr. Bondar’s acclaimed multimedia theatrical performance, which weaves together biology, personal storytelling, music, dance, and science communication.
Surrounding this signature event are workshops, lectures, professional development opportunities, community conversations, and engagement activities tailored to the goals of each host organization.
More than a standalone performance or workshop, the residency provides a transformative experience for audiences and practitioners.
It provides institutions with purposeful opportunities to reframe science through a greater understanding of ourselves, our communities and the natural world.
Tailored for your institution.
The Science Literacy Residency Program can be adapted for universities, school districts, museums, science centres, and community-serving organizations.
Universities
For universities, the residency creates opportunities for students, graduate researchers, faculty, and the wider public to engage with science in new ways.
A university residency may include student seminars, graduate research storytelling, faculty workshops, public science communication training, panel discussions, networking events, keynote lectures, and a signature evening performance.
Inquire for pricing.
School Districts
Designed for students, teachers, families, and district communities.
A school district residency may include student assemblies, advanced student workshops, classroom demonstration lessons, teacher professional development, parent and community events, student leadership sessions, student presentations, and a teacher demo showcase.
Starting at $10,000 + travel for a three-day residency package.
Museums & Centres
Designed for public audiences, staff, educators, interpreters, volunteers, members, donors, and community participants.
A museum or science centre residency may include staff training, educator workshops, family science literacy programming, VIP, member or donor talks, public keynotes, media interviews, receptions, community dialogues, and a signature public performance.
Starting at $12,500 + travel for a three-day residency package.
Built around your goals.
Residency packages are tailored to each host organization’s audience, schedule, strategic priorities, and community needs.
Day 1
Community Engagement
Morning:
Opening assembly, seminar, staff session, or audience-specific workshop.
Afternoon:
Interactive workshop, small-group coaching, VIP/member/donor session, classroom demonstration, or project-based learning session.
Evening:
Public keynote, parent and community event, or public conversation.
Day 2
Skills & Storytelling
Morning:
Professional development workshop for teachers, faculty, staff, educators, interpreters, or outreach teams.
Afternoon:
Media interviews, community Q&A, sponsored reception, classroom demo lessons, panel discussion, or continued project work.
Evening:
Signature performance. Event can be ticketed or free, for the public or private!
Day 3
Legacy & Leadership
Morning:
Student leadership workshop, research storytelling masterclass, educator session, or community dialogue.
Afternoon:
Student idea presentations, participant showcase, teacher demo showcase, community networking event, or final reflection session.
Final Moment:
Nature of Curiosity Award presentation and closing reflections.
Additional flex days, meetings, talks, workshops, receptions, media opportunities, or customized programming can be added based on the needs of the host institution.
Designed to leave something behind.
Each residency can include final deliverables designed to extend the impact, celebrate participants, and leave your institution with a lasting legacy.
Science Literacy Legacy Collection
The legacy collection may include community reflections, participant quotes, images and artwork, local science stories, and a locally developed science literacy manifesto.
This collection becomes a record of the residency and a reminder of the host institution’s commitment to curiosity, learning, science communication, and community connection.
Nature of Curiosity Award in Science Literacy
Dr. Bondar’s Nature of Curiosity Award in Science Literacy is a $500 award bestowed upon one outstanding participant, class, or group from each residency.
Award recipients can be celebrated by their home institutions as a reminder of the work created together and the ongoing value of curiosity, creativity, and science literacy.
Value your audience can feel, remember, and carry forward.
- → Increased attendance and new audiences
- → Elevated staff engagement, rapport, and relationships
- → Memorable, relatable programming
- → Media attention and community engagement
- → Direct connections between science and culture
- → Increased student engagement and inspiration
- → Career awareness and community connection
- → Teacher and faculty professional development
- → Outside-the-box science achievement
- → A lasting Science Literacy Legacy Collection
- → A Nature of Curiosity Award recipient from your community
A residency does what a single event cannot: it weaves science into the life of an institution through performance, conversation, learning, and legacy.
Bring Dr. Carin Bondar’s Science Literacy Residency to your institution.
Currently booking Spring/Fall 2027 and Spring 2028.
Email: info@carinbondar.ca
Frequently Asked Questions
It can include all of these. The Science Literacy Residency is designed as a multi-day institutional experience. At the heart of the residency is Dr. Bondar’s multimedia theatrical performance, surrounded by workshops, lectures, professional development, community conversations, and tailored engagement activities.
Yes. Workshop topics, projects, seminars, public events, and professional development opportunities are tailor-fit to the host organization’s specific strategic goals.
Depending on the host institution, participants may include students, teachers, faculty, staff, researchers, families, members, donors, volunteers, public audiences, community partners, or local professionals.
It can. Residencies may include public keynotes, ticketed performances, community Q&As, panel discussions, family workshops, receptions, or media opportunities.
Each residency can include a Science Literacy Legacy Collection and a Nature of Curiosity Award in Science Literacy. These help preserve the ideas, stories, reflections, and local impact created through the residency.
Who is Dr. Carin Bondar?
Author, Scientist & Storyteller
Carin is first and foremost a biologist who fell in love with the story of life itself: its complexity, its creativity, its absurdity. Her scientific and popular writing center on making biology accessible and captivating, especially the parts most people blush to talk about. Many of society’s current divisive issues result from peoples’ lack of understanding of basic biology.
Through her Wild Sex and Wild Moms books and TV series, Bondar reclaims the biological narratives of reproduction and parenting from a feminist lens, showing that female agency, adaptation, and choice are central forces in evolution—not footnotes. She’s made a career out of teaching people to see nature’s honesty without shame.
She approaches science communication like art: vibrant, sensual, funny, but grounded in real data. Her ability to translate complex evolutionary principles into human stories (without losing rigor) is what makes her internationally known and respected.
Community Leader
What sets her apart from many science communicators is her commitment to place.
She hasn’t chosen the easy route of leaving small-town BC for a national or U.S. media circuit. Instead, she’s doubled down on being a public educator at the local level, teaching at UFV, serving as Chair of the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve Society, and as an elected Chilliwack School Trustee.
That choice shows a deep sense of rootedness: believing science and democracy both depend on local trust and civic literacy. She brings a scientist’s precision to school governance and a storyteller’s empathy to the public arena.
Advocate & Survivor
Her lawsuit wasn’t just a personal defense. It became a symbolic stand for decency and truth in public office. Attacks against her were founded in personal bias and not the factual truth. Rather than shrinking back, she fought the defamation case—and won twice (in the BC Supreme Court and BC Court of Appeal).
That case sent a clear message: women in public life do not have to accept sexist slander as the price of participation.
It was also part of a broader cultural moment—where the intersection of science, feminism, and local politics reveals the lingering resistance to women who refuse to fit the box.
The Person Behind the Work
Carin’s life reads as an ongoing experiment in courageous curiosity.
She’s raising her kids, now 14, 16, 18 and 20 in Chilliwack. She is active in community-based environmental action, and works to build bridges between science, art and community—often under scrutiny, often with humour and grace.
Bondar embodies the idea that science is not separate from society. To study life is to revere it, to preserve its immense diversity and to coexist alongside of our own.
