The Howard Bishop Middle School gym buzzed with hundreds of Gainesville students, their family members and staff on Thursday as they rotated through dozens of hands-on educational demonstrations at the annual Family Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) Night.
Representatives from 15 local outreach organizations such as the University of Florida Chemistry Club, Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo and Hands-On Gainesville set up over 35 interactive exhibits and activities engaging attendees in science phenomena and
Gina Pedro, a third-year graduate chemistry student at UF, said the No. 1 goal of the event for her was to teach kids that science is fun.
“Seeing [science] being done by people closer to their age [helps] it becomes more feasible for them,” she said. “Not only are they getting maybe their first taste of what science can be like, [they see] the things that it can engender in a way that’s important and meaningful to our society.”
Some of the STEAM Night activities included rock and fossil demonstrations, live snake petting, liquifying oxygen, using glass to make music, generating electricity from pedaling on a bike and the mixing of hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodine to make foaming “elephant toothpaste.”
Finn Staras said that while he enjoyed learning about everything at the event he came to with his brother, one area especially stuck out.
“That science thing over there, chemistry,” he said.
Students also spent their “Hawk Bucks” to buy balls to throw at the dunk tank to dunk one lucky Howard Bishop Middle School teacher, demonstrating the laws of physics. The school’s robotics coach, Karen Murray, said that’s all it took to pique kids’ interests in the event more this year than in previous years.
“We kept trying to tell the kids it’s like a carnival for middle school and I think it finally sunk in when we said, ‘dunk tank,’” said Murray.
All proceeds from the event’s potluck food and 50 pizzas sold went towards funding new software for the school’s robotics program.
