Robot cars trying to pick up balls and boxes, and just generally smashing into one another.
Today in Sandy, the Second annual STEM fest took off in full swing as kids piled in from nearby counties to interact with the various booths and experiments set up around the Expo Center. There were booths with Robotic cars which picked up and moved balls and various other pieces of equipment, which the kids could of course play with. There was a “vortex cannon” which was simply a trash can, with plastic taped over the top and a hole cut in the bottom.
Logan with his snazzy hat, pictured above
“Stem is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and I think it’s pretty cool because it helps you get into careers that need those [skills] to help you excel in what you can," said Logan, a 13 year old boy, who had just finished testing out the vortex cannon, which is a cannon that can produce smoke rings which are capable of knocking cups off of tables, or in this case, human heads.
Seen Above: Logan getting ready to test out the Vortex Cannon.
He described how being at STEM FEST had influenced his decision on which way he wanted to go as far as a career path. Currently Logan is planning on becoming an engineer. And, upon talking with other children, I quickly found that they felt the same way. “It’s pretty neat,” said Thomas Waller, “Right now I could go and take a robotics class, I think would be kind of cool with C-Tec.” He described the experience of STEM fest as being “Ingenuitive.”
Scott Dilbert pictured center.
Scott Gilbert who works at IN-Flash, described the goal of
today’s events in a nutshell. “We’re trying to get kids excited about Math,
Science, and Technology because we’ve got great jobs in engineering and
technicians.” “It’s cool to get kids thinking about… if I’m interested in math,
science, or technology, I could actually apply it with what I do in my job
every day.” After the interview, they then let me try on a large “kid sized”
engineering suit. I have to say that I felt like I had to do yoga just to get
into the thing, but I won out in the end.
Pictured above, Aaron Endy in a Engineering getup
At the end of the day attending STEM fest was a lot of fun. I was able to interview several people, and learn a bunch of new things. Of course, as I said before, this is about the kids. So, I wanted to know what BYU students and faculty could do to help with the program.
Tamara Goetz, executive director of the STEM action center told me “BYU students could be involved in the program by being a mentor, and helping with after-school activities and to create a culture at the University of working with K-12 children.”
When talking about STEM fest, she said this:
"We want them to learn more about STEM, and we feel that the best way for them to do that, is to meet the companies in their own backyard, so to speak, that do STEM, because you can’t be what you can’t see,"
Pictured above, Aaron Endy in a Engineering getup
At the end of the day attending STEM fest was a lot of fun. I was able to interview several people, and learn a bunch of new things. Of course, as I said before, this is about the kids. So, I wanted to know what BYU students and faculty could do to help with the program.
Tamara Goetz, executive director of the STEM action center told me “BYU students could be involved in the program by being a mentor, and helping with after-school activities and to create a culture at the University of working with K-12 children.”
When talking about STEM fest, she said this:
"We want them to learn more about STEM, and we feel that the best way for them to do that, is to meet the companies in their own backyard, so to speak, that do STEM, because you can’t be what you can’t see,"
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