Glen Ellyn, Ill., April 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Join College of DuPage for STEMCON, a free event celebrating science, technology, engineering and math Friday, April 23, to Sunday, April 25.
All exhibits will be available on the STEMCON On Demand webpage.
This year’s STEMCON features demonstrations, “Do It Yourself” STEM activities, workshops and virtual tours designed to inform, entertain and spark interest in a variety of STEM topics.
“We are thrilled to be able to provide a weekend of engaging, informative and educational activities, demonstrations and discussions for the community, while ensuring the health and safety of everyone who participates,” said COD STEM Outreach Coordinator Sara Spaniol. “We’ve worked hard to make sure the event covers a wide variety of disciplines that will be interesting for everyone, whether they are passionate about a specific STEM field or are merely curious about STEM in general.”
Demonstrations include Bokashi composting, the College’s honeybee hives, mimicry in nature, the Bed of Nails physics demo and a sumo-bot battle hosted by the COD Engineering and Technology Club. The event also will include speakers discussing the physics of flight, predicting tornadoes, stick bomb kinetics and a demonstration by Fermilab’s Mr. Freeze, as well as virtual tours of on-campus spaces including the College’s gaming lab and prairie restoration areas, and off-campus locations including the Nicor Technical Training Center. Organizations including the American Institute of Architects, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermilab and NASA will present DIY activities including basic catapult construction, candy science, designing mobile apps, graphing gravitational waves and a virtual escape room game.
The event also will feature a keynote presentation by STEM advocate Justin Shaifer, who will discuss real-life experiences of modern STEM professionals and STEM career prospects.
A LinkedIn Top Voice in Technology and STEM communicator known for his ability to connect with and inspire Gen Z, Shaifer’s nonprofit organization, Fascinate, Inc., partners with organizations such as Microsoft, Google and the MIT Media Lab to inspire underrepresented students to pursue STEM careers. He is host of the live science show Escape Lab, a part of PBS member station WGBH-TV Boston’s Emerging Platforms Initiative. He also is known for the Magic Cool Bus Project and his TEDx talk, “How to Speak Generation Z.” He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Marine and Environmental Science and is currently pursuing his doctorate in science education at Teachers College at Columbia University.
Throughout the event, participants also can compete for Cue and Dash Robots and a STEM swag bag by completing a scavenger hunt to find hidden code words in each video category.
STEMCON is partially funded through the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 and through a grant from the Illinois Community College Board.
Learn about STEM programs at College of DuPage.
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