Our Girl Scout council had a Super STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Expo. There were about 100 exhibitors and four stages with a special presentation each hour. I asked Katy what her favorite thing was and she couldn’t decide. She did make a beeline for the Space Camp booth as soon as we got there.
Space Camp brought an inflatable planetarium and at 11:30 the next available time slot was 4:30.
There was an HVAC company that had piles of PVC pipe, connectors and insulation and the challenge was to build a structure that would stay evenly heated. Katy teamed up with some Brownies. They built it with two open ends and blew a hair dryer through one end then checked the temperature at various points before starting the hair dryer, after one minute and after two minutes.
The girls didn’t do too bad. The air started out hot (118 degrees) but by the time it got to the other side of the structure it stayed consistent at 78 at the three check-points. Katy pointed out you don’t want your building at 118 degrees, anyway. The girls determined if they made a smaller structure it would be easier to keep at a consistent temperature.
This booth was a private school opening in Midtown this fall. They had craft sticks and binder clips and the challenge was to make the tallest structure. They had the current tallest structure on display and if you built something taller then that one was taken down and yours stayed up for someone else to try to beat. Katy built something taller than the current record-holder.
I don’t know what company this was but it was all about electricity. They had tubes that lit up when you held onto it and made a complete circuit. Heath and Katy had fun with those.
This display was at last year’s smaller STEM event. It’s Women in Engineering and Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineering. They had fiber optics and lasers to test out.
Katy and Heath both enjoyed talking to some of the engineers at this booth.
We spotted this guy from a distance.
He is covered in a year’s worth of plastic shopping bags for the average shopper.
In addition to all the booths there were 23 stage shows throughout the day. Katy and Heath watched one on static electricity.
We were there from 11:30-3 and could have stayed longer but we saw most of the booths. There were several water groups, the Chattahoochee Nature Center with some animal pelts and skeletons. One booth had owl pellets to dissect but it was a busy and Katy’s done that before. There were about three different robotics teams, a radio demonstration and origami with the Papermaking Museum.
These little Paleo dinosaurs were very popular. I’m not sure who sponsored this booth.
They were electronic and picked up a plastic leaf and then carried it around and dropped it.
It was long and tiring and crowded but a very well-done expo. And we were in the first 2,500 to register so Katy got a patch. I was hoping she would but didn’t know until we got there.
