By Dominic Arthur, Staff Reporter.
On Friday, Sept. 25 and Saturday, Sept. 26, Delta College held the third annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Festival for area middle school students and the interested public. Throughout the college and in the courtyard, over 145 tables were set featuring numerous hands-on activities designed to engage and educate students about STEM related fields.
According to Cynthia Drake, associate professor of science and festival organizer, the event hosted 29 school groups. Out of the school groups, 3,325 were area middle school students while another 342 were wandering chaperones and parents. In total, the Friday event saw about 3,667 visitors.
Students were thrilled with the Oobleck station, where a mixture of cornstarch and water mixture created a non-Newtonian fluid that has the properties of both solids and liquids.
They also enjoyed the driving simulator, pressurizing aluminum cans, playing piano with bananas, bending light and watching the creation of a fire tornado.
In the courtyard, students were able to watch water be blown 40 feet in the air from a trash can.
The fun and excitement didn’t stop on Friday as an estimated 3,000 visitors showed up on Saturday morning to learn about STEM and to find out about careers in those fields.
43 Mind Trekker volunteers came down from Michigan Tech while over 250 volunteers represented Delta College – both groups of volunteers assisting tables and activities on both days of the festival.
The festival was sponsored by local companies such as Nexteer, Dow Chemical Co. and the Saginaw and Bay Area Community Foundation. The festival was also sponsored by Michigan Tech Mind Trekkers, GM, MDOT, and Delta College.
For more information about the 2015 STEM Festival and to see photos from this year’s event, visit www.delta.edu/science/sciencefestival