Students Experience STEM Through Hands-on Activities at Utah’s Second Annual STEM Fest

Pete CodellaNews

Utah’s Second Annual STEM Fest will take place Feb.2-4, 2016, with , engineering and math (STEM) through interactive experiences.more than 17,000 seventh through 10th grade students who will engage with science, technology

STEM Fest will be held at the South Towne Expo Center. Gov. Gary R. Herbert will kick the event off on Tuesday, February 2, at 7:30 a.m. at STEM Fest’s Industry Networking Breakfast. Students will attend Tuesday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will be free and open to the public from 2-8 p.m. on Tuesday.

“The Utah STEM Fest is a unique and engaging opportunity for Utah students to discover the exciting work in technology and innovation that is happening in their own backyard,” said Dr. Tamara Goetz, Utah STEM Action Center executive director “They will not only get a chance to play, tinker and learn with the showcased technologies, but they will also meet the scientists and engineers behind the innovation.”

There will be more than 70 exhibitors including Utah companies, STEM departments from Utah’s major universities and science centers such as the Museum of Natural Curiosity, Hogle Zoo, Clark Planetarium and the Living Planet Aquarium. Each exhibit will engage with students through interactive experiences.

This year, the STEM Action Center is also partnering with the Governor’s Office of Energy Development (OED) to launch Utah Energy and Mineral Days at the 2016 STEM Fest, offering students a unique opportunity to ‘dig in’ and discover the state’s vast natural energy resources. Attendees will get to drive robots designed to mine asteroids, circle oil fields through interactive cameras, and peer deep into the molecular makeup of rocks with microscopes and 3-D glasses (and much more). Utah Energy and Mineral Days was created to demonstrate OED’s ongoing dedication to education, under Gov. Herbert’s objectives, to foster technological innovation by educating youth about energy resources and their economic impact on the state.

“STEM Fest is inspiring,” said Brad Norton, SVP at Utah Community Credit Union. “Let’s face it: STEM academic disciplines can seem unimportant to teens but STEM Fest makes them fun and can inspire exciting career opportunities.”

STEM Fest’s partners include Utah Community Credit Union, US Synthetic, the Utah STEM Action Center, IM Flash, Utah Governor’s Office of Energy Development and Salt Lake County.

For more information on Utah STEM Fest visit utahstemfest.com