As a family of smart cookies, we are constantly looking for ways to expand Charlotte-Ann’s knowledge- especially in the STEM fields. So we were thrilled to learn about the Charleston STEM Festival.
When we first moved to Texas, we spent every weekend road tripping in Houston. It is how we learned to love the area. After moving to South Carolina (following approximately two weeks of driving and/or living out of our car), I never wanted to go on a rod trip again. Heck, the drive from Summerville to North Charleston was too much for me. But I eventually found myself bored with the same set of stores downtown and the same handful of playgrounds, so my travel big has bitten again and I am ready to take the Low Country by storm and discover the area.
First up- the Charleston STEM Festival. Unfortunately Charlotte-Ann came down with a virus the day before and was a miserable troll. But we made it work.
Charleston STEM Fest
This was the 6th annual Charleston STEM festival, which is geared towards celebrating science, technology, engineering, and math for kids and families across the low country. Over 80 exhibitors, including Nucor (where Jonathan works) came out to open the eyes of the community to the joys of STEM with demonstrations and activities. The money raised through sponsorships funds a scholarship for local kids looking to get into STEM related fields.
Travel
The festival was at the Exchange Park, in Ladson SC, which is actually a quicker drive than the heart of Charleston. Charlotte-Ann was so excited the whole ride there.
Of course, since we arrived an hour after opening, we ended up parking all the way in the back. Thankfully we packed the stroller because shortly after we arrived Charlotte-Ann checked out for the rest of the day.
Exhibits
There were nearly 100 exhibits with various activities and demonstrations. There were remote control cars, lots of Legos, Boeing had paper airplanes. One exhibit dipped candy into liquid nitrogen then let the kids shatter them with hammers.
This company made a cornstarch slurry to let the kids run across (if they went too slow they would sink in!)
This specifically made me laugh, since there are so many memes with this concept. Participants guessed with cup filled up first, then used water to actually see which one filled up first.
After a few hours asleep in the stroller, Charlotte-Ann woke up and asked if she could go pet the Hissing Madagascar Cockroach. I know if she felt better she would have asked to hold it completely. Now she wants to hold the palmetto bugs in our bathroom- yuck.
Simultaneously during the festival was the First robotics jubilee competition. Jonathan is an award winning First alumni, and we cannot wait until Charlotte-Ann is old enough to participate. There were three delegate age groups of competitions going on during the event, and watching these kids build robots is inspirational and mind blowing.
Nucor, the event’s gold sponsor, had steel melting demonstrations. They also used candy to explain materials science (lifesavers are hard, like ceramic. Gummy worms are soft, like plastic. But caramel is hard until you warm it up, like metal. Metal, or steel, is the best material for building.)
They also had a selfie booth, which seemed to be a hit. So many kids put on their Nucor PPE hardhats and vests and safety glasses and took pictures with signs that said things like “Future Engineer”.
Food
Since we are deep in our body transformation competitions, we packed our lunches. And Nucor provides Panera Bread for their volunteers. However, I took a walk through the Food Truck alley. Holy moly, I’m so glad I didn’t need to buy anything because I wouldn’t know what to choose. There were so many choices and I know we will find ourselves eating from a truck or two very soon.
Takeaway
The best part of the day- just before the ending I received an Instagram DM from the festival that I had won a free tee-shirt for posting on social media! I can’t wait until that arrives. All in all, even with Charlotte-Ann’s sickness, we had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Plus, it’s always nice to get out into the community!