Meadow Glens Elementary School recently held its fourth annual “STEM Discovery Night.”
Hundreds of families came out to the event to learn about areas of science, technology, engineering and math.
This year 40 organizations including Argonne National Laboratory, the Morton Arboretum and the Naperville Police Department brought hands-on demonstrations to engage the kids.
“Industry and also research haven’t been able to get enough people to enter those fields, and part of it is because kids aren’t even aware of what’s available there,” said Lisa Kim, a STEM Discovery Night committee member.
The goal is to expose kids to STEM jobs and pique their interest early.
“Maybe they always see a small area of science. Maybe they’re working with rocks, and they’re like, ‘I don’t really like science because I don’t like rocks.’ Maybe they love astronomy or maybe they’ll get really passionate about robotics and find other areas that they didn’t realize existed and that it’s actually fun. To have them engaged is really cool,” said Kim.
And District 204 recently held its own STEM-focused event with Waubonsie Valley’s GEMs club hosting a science night for 204 middle school students.
Naperville News 17’s Beth Bria reports.
