City of STEM Festival Offers Families Breath of Fresh Air and Hands-On Activities
As drones buzzed energetically in the distance and masked families hopped happily from booth to booth, preschooler Erika Quevedo could hardly contain her excitement when a mascot of the celebrity mountain lion, P-22, walked next to her. Her mother, Evelin Martinez, said they arrived early to enjoy the entire day of festivities at the City of STEM Kickoff Festivalat the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey on Saturday, April 2.
"Todo muy bonito… Ya fuimos a probar todo," Martinez said. ("Everything was enjoyable… We already tried everything.”)
The outdoor event focused on science, technology, engineering and math for young learners. The day included dozens of hands-on activity stations, an esports tournament, food trucks, free giveaways and live performances and presentations. The day's keynote speaker was engineer and former NASA astronaut Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina to travel into space. Other guests included magician Jason Latimer, local teachers and Music Notes founders Jimmy Pascascio and LaMar Queen and Lil' Libros co-founder and Downey native Patty Rodriguez.
The festival is the first in a monthlong series of virtual and in-person STEM events across the greater Los Angeles area to inspire curiosity in learners of all ages. More than 100 partner organizations are contributing to the festival, pop-up events, access to museums, hands-on experiences and workshops throughout April.
In its first in-person family engagement event since 2020, PBS SoCal's Early Education team hosted a buzzing activity table, a 45-minute PBS KIDS ScratchJr coding workshop for 10 families and a surprise visit from a character from the PBS KIDS show "Let's Go Luna!"
Attendees of all ages stopped by the PBS SoCal table to collect bubbles and bookmarks, make shape mobiles and trade in their completed shape scavenger hunt booklets for books and other goodies.
PBS SoCal has participated in the annual festival for years, including last year's virtual event, when Senior Early Learning Coordinator Sandra Cruz presented one of the family activities on the Spanish livestream.
This year's festival offered an opportunity for families who have participated in the station's many virtual workshops during the pandemic to finally meet their favorite educators in person, such as Sandra Cruz, Khrystal Alas and Pablo Aguirre.
Martinez and her daughter Erika were fresh off a STEM workshop they attended the previous day over Zoom. The PBS SoCal STEM Parent Academy was a series of five workshops offered to local parents and caregivers in partnership with the USC School for Early Childhood Education. In the final session, families mixed household ingredients, hypothesized about outcomes and played with the colorful slime that resulted from their experiments, guided in English and Spanish by PBS SoCal facilitators.
“Me gusta mucho involucrarme mucho en la vida de ella,” Martinez said. “Gracias por toda la ayuda que nos dan. Que Dios me los bendiga.” (“I love being involved in her life,” Martinez said. “Thank you for all the help you give us. May God bless you.”)
Linda Lara and Jose Pedroza also stopped by with their son Jose. After receiving a link from Roosevelt Elementary, their son's school, the family joined the Family Math Parent Academy. The 5-week virtual series offers insights, tools and support so parents and caregivers can confidently, joyfully and authentically explore math with children ages 2 to 5. Jose's favorite activity at home was to build a tower out of construction paper and newspapers. He had a chance to practice some of his new skills at the festival.
"His main interest is math and engineering," Lara said. "Right now, we were in the robotics session, and he liked to control stuff."
Continue celebrating STEM with PBS SoCal by registering for a weekly workshop series for parents of children in grades Pre-K-2nd. PBS SoCal will use everyday household items and PBS KIDS content to model how caregivers can inspire children to explore and engage in science, technology, engineering and math.
- 4/21, 5 p.m. - Virtual StoryTime with KidTime StoryTime | Hora de Cuento
- 4/26, 5 p.m. - Outdoor Exploration/Observations | Observaciones y Exploración al Aire Libre
For more citywide kids STEM events happening the rest of April, visit City of STEM's event page.
