STEM FAIR

The teen adventurers had a small sojourn this past Saturday. Just a hop, skip and a jump away from the South East Consortium offices the Hommocks School was holding their 2nd annual STEM Alliance Fair. With a picnic lunch behind us and an adventure ahead  the teens piled into the SEC bus and headed over to the familiar stomping grounds.

STEM (Science. Technology. Environment. Math) is a grassroots organization working out of communities throughout the nation with the goal of inspiring young people to innovate, initiate and imagine through science and technology. One of the many programs the STEM Alliance offers are community fairs where demonstrations are held, students present science projects, classes are offered and fun is always had.

More than just your run of the mill “science fair” the STEM fair is more of a festival, a celebration of science and innovation for young people. Saturday’s event saw architecture, physics, fire trucks and operational hoses, a green house, robots, cannons, an a real life astronaut, hover boards and much much more! Best of all was this was all accessible and hands on for children and the kids in all of us.

Amare Stephens had a captivated crowd as he built an impressive tower of thin blocks over 8 feet high. Natalie, Ryan and Lukas took a spin on a hover craft while Alec inspected to the two fire engines parked outside. Liam and Rafael took turn on a fire hose blasting some water into the parking lot.

The fun and learning was not just contained to the first floor of the school. The group ventured upstairs to see what the library had to offer. There the teens found a hover craft building station where they were instructed to build a structure that would float in an air vent. Ryan was thrilled when his craft was successful.

Amare and Lukas hunkered down across the library and got hard at work on their robotics. Participants were instructed to build a miniature Ferris wheel via tablet consisting of gears and rods. No easy task! But our teen adventurers were successful and we had a working Ferris wheel for our Lego riders in no time.

It was a day of problem solving, learning and fun! Our teens are looking forward to their final adventure for the spring season next month!