Gila County Students Lead at 2016 STEMFest

Sow and her Destiny classmate Jonas Schwenk ran the popular reptiles booth at Saturday’s STEMFest. They made games to help kids identify snakes by name and learn which ones are poisonous. Schwenk explained that he and Sow divided up the work to prepare for STEMFest. “We kind of had to split up the work so we could do it at home,” said Schwenk. “There are 12 different animals on there. We split it up so I had to write about six and she had to write about six."

Schwenk credited Sow with having the idea for the reptile booth and STEMFest. According to Sow, it was a no-brainer. “I just thought, ‘it’s a reptile booth and we both have snakes, so why not bring them,’” she says. Both Sow and Schwenk liked teaching other kids and said they would want to try it again in the future.

Superior High School Freshman Bruno Godinez spent the day sharing his passion for robotics. Godinez was active in robotics in junior high and is now a driver for the Superior High School robotics team. “It has been been pretty cool because you get to show them what robotics is,” says Godinez.  “It’s not just about nerds. It’s about playing with metal and driving robots.”

In its fifth year, Saturday’s STEMFest featured over 40 exhibitors. The festival celebrates science, technology, engineering, and math education by providing tangible opportunities for Gila County students to both learn and showcase their expertise. Upwards of 600 people came out to take advantage of the hands-on activities and demonstrations, including grinding corn with a stone tool called a metate, playing chess, learning about quicksand, and making electricity. In the long run, STEMFest is an important piece of raising awareness for STEM education in Gila County.

The complete list of STEMFest exhibitors includes:

APS

Arizona’s Children Association

Arizona SciTech Festival

Arizona Water Company

Az Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association

Bullion Plaza Museum

Capstone Mining

Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center

Copper Vista Dental

First Things First

Freeport Labs

Freeport - Pollinators

Friends of the Library

GCC – Biology

Gila County Gem & Mineral Society

Gila County Recorder’s Office

Gila County Sheriff’s Office

Globe Fire Dept.

Globe & Miami Head Starts

Globe Library

Globe Police Dept.

Health Choice

Miami Library

Read On

Reptiles

San Carlos Robotics Team

Sound of STEM

Southwest Gas

SRP

Superior Robotics Team

Taliesin

TigeRobotics

Tonto National Mon.

TOPS

UA Coop./ 4-H

UA Coop. Ext.

UA Health Sciences Library

US Forest Service

USDA-NRCS

Young Public School

Gila County Health Dept.