This past weekend Mecca the Great and I had the opportunity to attend the annual Atlanta Cares Mentoring Moments STEM Fest founded by Susan Taylor of Essence Magazine. It was held at the Georgia Tech student center. The event was free. Its purpose was to encourage an underserved community in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
They opened the event with a grand performance from the all woman African drum ensemble Giwayen Mata. They did a wonderful welcoming song and dance from West Africa.
After that they had opening remarks from the sponsors and organizer Brenda Coleman.
Then the children broke off into groups to attend there workshops. They had several tracks that the students had pre chosen. Mecca the Great chose the Medical Careers tract. There were other choices like engineering and such. I peek into one workshop room that had a presenter set up with 3D printers. It was awesome.
The first workshop was from a professor who teaches at a nursing school. She did a hands on lab on the respiratory system. She did a powerpoint presentation to discuss the anatomy and physiology of the lungs. She also touched on common health related issues in the lungs like tuberculosis and emphysema.
She gave them a quick quiz to see who could remember the anatomy of the lungs from the powerpoint. Mecca the Great did pretty good too. We are studying human anatomy and physiology this year but we have not done the respiratory system yet so this was a head start. I am glad she got a preview of it.
Here are some of her nursing student volunteers demonstrating how much tar is in the lungs of a person who smokes a pack a day after a year. Its was ugly.
The cool experiment they did was on lung capacity. Mecca the Great got to help with this one. She was quick to volunteer too. I was happy to see her get on out there.
The next workshop was on chemistry careers. I did not get a chance to sit in on this one because they had parent workshops going on as well. I went in to get some great information on other S.T.E.M opportunities here in my local area. But I did manage to get a shot of her in the lab coat and goggles looking like a professional scientist. I did find out later on that she was working on a group experiment with the other students. As a homeschool mom I was really appreciative of the opportunity for her to collaborate with her peers.
The final workshop of the was a sweet treat from the CDC(Center for Disease Control). The students got to hear about all of the various career opportunities available at the CDC. I mean things that one may not have considered. They spoke about how you could contribute to an organization such as theirs as a graphic designer, IT,public relation, educator, curator, interpreter, etc...
The students got an opportunity to try on a hazmat suit. The presenter was a microbiologist who specifically deals with white powder events or basically bioterrorist threats. She is the one that test things like anthrax and whatnot. Her presentation on this day though was on the hot button topic of ebola. She really thoroughly explained it to the students and the adults sitting in.
At the end of the presentation on ebola she asked for volunteers for a hands on experiment on how germs are spread. They had the students put on gloves and they were covered with some sort of powder They then shook hands with the one who did not have powder on there gloves. When they turned on the black light you could see the transference of the "germs".
I cannot wait till next years event. I will definitely take Kinetic Kid along with me next time.
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