Where else can you see prehistoric creatures and the latest scientific discoveries in the same place? The Ontario Science Centre has been amazing audiences both young and old since 1969 with its diverse array of exhibits that make science fun for everyone — even if you don’t know the difference between an atom and an axon.

Mary Jane Conboy, director of science content and design, is one of many brains behind the exhibits. Working with an interdisciplinary team of researchers, writers, graphic designers and carpenters, she has helped coordinate hundreds of displays.

Every exhibit at the Science Centre starts with a brainstorming session to come up with ideas that can be told as a story. “Then we have to figure out what is the most interesting part about it,” says Conboy, PhD ’99. After developing approaches to the topic, followed by a budget and timeline, all of the exhibits are built on-site.

The exhibits cater to visitors of all ages and backgrounds, and to different learning styles and abilities. “We know that people learn in many different ways,” says Conboy. “There are different parts of each exhibit that medical facilities that are doing appeal to different people.”

Some exhibits create an immersive environment that transports visitors to another place. “In an exhibit hall, there could be something that is tactile, something that is auditory or something that triggers the olfactory sense. It’s about trying to engage all of the senses,” she says.

Her favourite exhibits include a mock rainforest that feels as hot and humid as the real thing. “You learn so much from all of your senses in that particular location,” she says. Another exhibit is not for the faint of stomach, causing visitors to feel as though they’re standing on the edge of a bottomless pit.

The Science Centre has 10 themed halls with hundreds of engaging experiences in each. Conboy recently led an 18-month-long renovation to the AstraZeneca Human Edge hall involving a 10,000-square-foot exhibit with more than 80 experiences related to the human body.

“We try to capture emerging science as much as possible,” she says. “We reach out a lot to the research community. If it’s something about the human body, we reach out to hospitals and medical facilities that are doing cutting-edge work.”

But how does the Science Centre stay relevant in a digital age? While many museums make their collections available online, Conboy says nothing beats seeing them in person.

“I don’t see Google as a direct competitor to museums. When you have little kids come in and say, ‘Wow, that’s real,’ that’s very powerful.”

Her first experience conveying information to the public was during her PhD at the University of Guelph, where she studied land resource science. She did her thesis on bacterial contamination of rural drinking water wells in Ontario and Zimbabwe. Translating complex research for the public paved the way for her career at the Science Centre, where she helps visitors filter fact from fiction.

“The Science Centre brings credible information to the public but does it in a way that is engaging and social,” says Conboy, of broadening visitors’ understanding and experience of science. “By bringing science to the public in a fun way, you’re able to let them discover the phenomenon, and share it with their friends and family.” –SUSAN BUBAK

Photo: Adam Pulicicchio Photography

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Who: Allison Day, BA ’10
Job: Blogger, food stylist and photographer, and cookbook author

Beets are an often overlooked vegetable, but Allison Day, BA ’10, is trying to change that with her Yummy Beet food blog. Aside from beets, you’ll find almost every type of produce presented in a rainbow of colours along with “vegetable forward” recipes to prepare them yourself.

Now living in Hamilton, Ont., Day studied sociology at U of G and then completed a postgraduate program to become a registered holistic nutritionist, specializing in natural foods. “That inspired me to get in the kitchen and start experimenting,” she says. “I grew up in the country surrounded by farms and tons of produce, and that really inspired me to learn more about where my food came from and pay more attention to what I was eating.” She admits that beets aren’t her favourite vegetable, but decided to name her blog after them as a pun on a news beat.

When her younger sister was diagnosed with celiac disease and lactose intolerance, Day began experimenting with recipes that were gluten- and dairy-free. “It helped me understand there are people who can’t eat certain foods, and they still want to have foods that they enjoy and love,” she says. “It shows people with food allergies or intolerance that they can still eat really tasty food, and it doesn’t need to be expensive or from a box.”

Aside from her blog, Day has published two cookbooks: Whole Bowls features gluten-free and vegetarian recipes; and Purely Pumpkin features recipes using the gourd in everything from pies to pizza. She is also a regular contributor to Food Network Canada and has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Prevention and SHAPE.

Preparation can make or break a vegetable dish, she says. Despite her background as a nutritionist, “it took me a long time to learn how to prepare things properly.” Roasting vegetables, she adds, brings out their flavour more than boiling or steaming them.

Seasonings, especially salt, are key ingredients in her recipes. “I use more salt than normal,” says Day. “I think salt is a good thing. It really brings out the natural sweetness and savouriness of vegetables.” She also uses acidic ingredients such as lemon, lime and vinegar to make flavours pop.

When she isn’t working on her own cookbooks, Day spends most of her time on her blog. She does her own food styling and photography, making each meal look like a work of art. She also works on sponsored content for various brands, which involves testing recipes, taking photos and promoting them on social media.

She says photographing inanimate objects like food can be challenging. “Setting the ‘scene’ for a shoot can take longer than the actual photography process,” says Day, who also photographed all the images in her cookbooks. “Styling dishes makes a mess. From start to finish, a photo shoot for one dish can take two hours before post-production.”

Presentation can make even the blandest foods look mouth-watering. People eat with their eyes first, she says, so she tries to make each photo “inviting and warm, so someone wants to reach into their screen or into the book and grab it.” –SUSAN BUBAK

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Who: Jake Reinhart, BA ’13
Job: Long snapper for the Toronto Argonauts

Guelph’s Jake Reinhart has the muscular frame of a construction worker or a pro athlete.

He’s actually both, playing in the Canadian Football League (CFL) from June to November and doing home renovation work in the off-season.

At six feet tall and 225 pounds, the third year Toronto Argonaut has thick arms and wrists, which make him one of the CFL’s best long snappers.

With his sunglasses perched atop his head, holding back his golden-brown hair, the 26-year-old has the look of a surfer, complete with glistening smile and easygoing charm.

But looks are deceiving. Surfers don’t heed the clock or routine. For Reinhart, life on the field and even at home is all about clockwork routine and simple rhythms.

As a long snapper, Reinhart spends hours perfecting the timing of snapping the ball back 15 yards to an exact point on the punter’s right hip, and seven yards back to the field-goal kicker with exactly 2.5 revolutions.

At home, life takes on a familiar rhythm, too. He and his two brothers, Job, 21, and Will, 24, live at home with parents, John and Ellen. When they aren’t with the girlfriends, the brothers are hopping on mountains bikes and riding the trails near their home.

John raised his family on the same street where he grew up in Guelph and the university has been the centre of the family’s life for decades.

John, 57, earned a horticulture diploma in 1985, and is U of G’s grounds department manager. He’s been working at the school for close to 40 years.

Jake graduated from the geography program in 2013, while Job is coming off a rookie-of-the-year campaign with the Gryphons.

Too light to be a regular centre, Jake is happy to be a specialist, even if there’s little glory in the job. But he’s doing his part to make the position cool.

In a series of popular CFL videos, Reinhart has performed a variety of “trick snaps,” including clanking the ball off the uprights from long range and snapping the ball through a small opening of a passing tractor into the arms of a receiver.

Jake and Job have followed similar paths on the field, both playing quarterback in high school before switching to linebacker in university.

In Jake’s third year at Guelph, defensive line coach Brian Cluff encouraged him to specialize as a long snapper. “He said I’d been a quarterback, so I’d be doing the same thing, only throwing it between my legs,” Reinhart recalls.

Reinhart catches the Gryphons games when he can. “He had a great first year,” he says of his brother’s team, which advanced to the Mitchell Bowl after a 7-1 regular-season record. “He’s definitely getting noticed. He’s really strong and fast.”

But brotherly love sometimes takes a back seat to sibling rivalry. “My brother is probably five pounds heavier, but I’m stronger and faster,” Reinhart says with a big laugh. “That’s what I tell him anyway.” – CURTIS RUSH

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Success for jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson depends on making split-second decisions while guiding a 540 kg horse as it races at speeds reaching 70 kilometres per hour.

“It’s not like a car where you have steering and brakes,” says Wilson, who in 2007 became the first woman to win Canada’s oldest and most prestigious race, the $1-million Queen’s Plate. “You have to persuade a large, powerful animal that has a mind of its own to do what you want.”

Riding lessons at age nine led to an accomplished decade-long career — although she may not be a household name, Wilson is one of the country’s most successful female athletes. She is Canada’s most winning female jockey with more than 1,200 career victories, and she has earned well over $60 million in purses for her mounts.

A lifelong love of horses led Wilson to study equine management at U of G’s Kemptville campus. After graduating, she took a job working behind the scenes for a trainer. She got her start racing horses when agent Mike Luider spotted her exercising racehorses at Woodbine Racetrack. Wilson made her professional debut in 2004 and won two of her first three races. By the end of the year, the Jockey Club of Canada named her Outstanding Apprentice Jockey, and in 2005 she received the Eclipse Award for the top apprentice in North America.

Wilson, 34, still works out of Woodbine, and on race days she’s at the track by 6 a.m. to exercise horses under instruction from their trainers. She then heads to the jockey room to handicap the afternoon races.

At the height of the season, Wilson can compete in as many as 10 races a day, four days a week. Many of the horses are familiar to her, but some she will be mounting for the first time.

“Being able to read a horse, to know its personality and build a rapport quickly is the most important skill for any jockey,” she says. “Some horses are quieter and need coaxing, and others are more aggressive and need to be told what to do.”

Even with the best preparation, Wilson says being ready to adapt is crucial: you never know what will happen until the race is under way. She once suffered a badly lacerated liver after falling off her mount and landing under a horse running at full speed. “I would be lying if I said there was zero fear, but if I let it affect me negatively, I would hang up my tack.”

Jockeys work on one-race contracts — if you want to keep riding, you have to keep winning. And the more you win, the better horses you get to ride. Where some might feel pressure, Wilson feels motivation.

“It’s definitely not a ‘normal’ job,” laughs Wilson. “But I’ve earned the right to be here. It makes me want to continue to get better and achieve. It’s all about perspective.”

After 9,000 races, what Wilson still loves most is working with a horse to achieve a common goal.

“I wish I could bring people on board to experience it: the moment when I’m on a horse who’s just as determined and eager to win as I am, and we’re fighting down the lane, tooth and nail — there’s no better synergy. It’s indescribable. I think it’s the best job in the world.”

– TERESA PITMAN

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Who: Dave Pinel, M.Sc. ’98
Job: Managing owner and tour operator at West Coast Expeditions

Kayaking among the sea otters in Kyuquot Sound is just another day at the office for Dave Pinel.

As managing owner of West Coast Expeditions in Courtenay, B.C., he leads adventure tours that tread softly on the Earth, leaving the smallest possible environmental footprint. The Canadian Tourism Commission has named the company’s five-day sea otter kayak tour a “Canadian Signature Experience.”

“I’ve always been attracted to water-based activities and the coast,” says Pinel. His preferred mode of transportation is the kayak, “an ideal tool for exploring places with minimal impact.” Those places include isolated islands and inlets that give visitors a glimpse of wildlife.

While working at West Coast Expeditions, he decided to go back to school to earn a master’s degree at U of G’s School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. His thesis looked at community-based tourism planning, which aims to complement — not compete with — its surroundings.

“It’s how tourism best fits with the local ecology, social and cultural aspects, and the economic development opportunities without sacrificing the values that make it a special place,” says Pinel. He also teaches adventure guiding and aboriginal ecotourism at North Island College in Courtenay.

Respecting social and cultural values is important to Pinel, who partners with the local First Nations community to provide guests with cultural experiences, such as fresh salmon cooked over an open fire by an aboriginal family.

“It’s a timeless piece of Canadiana,” he says. “In many ways, the Kyuquot area struck me as a microcosm of Canada’s coastal places, rural places, remote places and a place where the First Nations story is actively evolving and moving forward as part of what shapes Canada,” he says.

Respecting the environment is paramount, but animals don’t always follow the rules. Pinel advises visitors to stay at least 100 metres away from sea otters, which is easier said than done when the otters want to get up close and personal. He recalls one otter that appeared near a tour group he was leading. As the visitors tried to retreat, the curious otter continued to follow until it was only a few metres away.

Those memorable experiences are what Pinel appreciates most about his job. “Each day is fresh with a different recipe of human relationships, wildlife interactions, weather and tides,” he says.

Although the tours are planned in advance, every day is an adventure filled with the unexpected. Intertidal walks often reveal new sea creatures he has never seen before, which prompts him to look them up in a reference book or contact an expert marine biologist.

“It’s almost like being in the Galapagos to have wildlife so close.”

– SUSAN BUBAK

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