STEAM Carnival 2015 at The Market Place

Jul 22, 2015

More than 1,000 people turned out for Irvine Public Schools Foundation’s inaugural STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Carnival at The Market Place in Irvine on July 18, 2015.

Children enjoyed hands-on learning activities from a variety of booths at the event, from a 3D printing demo to a Lego robotics station to crafting binary code bracelets.

Hollywood the Tegu Lizard

Over at Cal State Long Beach’s Mobile Science Museum, families and children got to pet live marine animals such as sea urchins, sea anemones and starfish in a large, 20-gallon touch tank. At the Inside the Outdoors booths, children were entranced by a few creepy crawly creatures: a tarantula from Brazil, a Rosy Boa snake and a Tegu lizard named “Hollywood” since he was found in the Hollywood Hills. At the Minecraft booth, little faces peered intently at a row of laptop monitors as the children were seemingly playing video games.

“Minecraft is actually a 3D game design program that teaches kids how to make their own levels – there’s actual structure and they’re learning about the history of civilizations but they’re having fun, that’s how we sneak the learning in,” said a staffer at the booth.

Marshmallow Tower Challenge

One of the highlights of the event came courtesy of the Marshmallow Tower Challenge presented by University High School. Three teams competed against each other to see who could build the tallest tower out of dried spaghetti, tape and marshmallows – which resulted in a lot of broken spaghetti, groans of defeat and bouts of laughter.

STEAM Carnival at The Market Place in Irvine

The event raised an estimated $27,000 with proceeds benefiting IPSF, which supports a number of educational programs throughout the Irvine Unified School District.

(Visited 427 time, 2 visit today)