SoapBoxDerbySTEMfair

AASBD STEM Fair

The Soap Box Derby held a STEM Fair at their race day July 23rd. Participating companies included FirstEnergy, Rockwell International, University of Akron Sports/STEM and robotics, Ellet Library, American Winds, Akron Fossils and Science Center, Rubber Division of American Chemical Society (ACS), Soap Box Derby, Derby historian Ron Reed, Props & Pistons, STEMSports, Skyhawks Sports Academy, and NEOStem…and me.

I loaded up my 2 cases and brought many ideas to share, but really focused on two. The main one was “build a car with stuff”. The “stuff” included cardboard, wood, pop bottles, straws, coffee stirrers, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, buttons, cardboard circles, bottle tops, and beads. Luckily one company didnt need two tables, so they gaveit to me to put all those materials on. “My” table had some hot glue guns and my other challenge.

The second challenge was “battery & bulb”. Light up an LED with one CR2032 battery. Then we could issue challenges like how many lights can you do on one battery, how many colors can you get on one battery, what colors work together. On this table I also had a microbit running an LED strip that was rolling through rainbow colors. A couple of kids asked about it. 
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It was a fun day of watching and building. It was a little breezy most of the day then around 1 p.m.  a storm started coming in and things really started blowing around, so we had to pack up a little early (supposed to go til 2 p.m.), but most everybody was heading for cover anyways.