ERIE, Pa. — For more than a decade, Penn State Behrend’s STEAM Fair has shown that learning can be fun. New experiences can tickle the imagination, and even the tastebuds.
At this year’s fair, held again in Behrend’s Junker Center, Ada Rehig, 10, sampled homemade ice cream, which was made by members of the Behrend Chemistry Club.
“That tastes good,” she said. “My lips stuck together.”
The students scooped some more. The club was demonstrating the properties of liquid nitrogen; as they handed out the cups of ice cream, which was shaped like Dippin’ Dots, they warned Ada and others: “Let your ice cream warm up a little first.”
“It’s cool to see what happens when you mix two things together,” Ada said. "It’s cool to see if it does something.”
The ice cream station was one of about 100 activities at this year’s STEAM Fair. More than 1,400 people attended this year’s event, which offered a variety of hands-on, engaging lessons in science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
At the Shearer’s Food booth, visitors combined seasonings to make custom-flavored potato chips. They also learned how the business sorts the chips that don’t make it into a bag.
“Whatever the kids want to create, they can try,” said Sara Piano, a senior operations manager at the company. “They can see how creative they can be.”
The fair is designed for young visitors, and for the curious of all ages, but it also gives local companies and community organizations an opportunity to share their resources and expertise.
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions partnered with the Inner City Neighborhood Art House to host a spin-art station. The company’s engineers, including several Behrend alumni, taught inertia and centrifugal force while children played with paint.
“Art is all around us, whether we know it or not,” said Britney Shaw, one of the volunteers.
“You can’t have engineering without creativity,” said her colleague, Catherine DiLuzio. “I don’t think art has to be separated from it.”
The Zurn engineers and others at tables throughout the gymnasium look forward to the STEAM Fair, said Melanie Ford, director of Youth Education Outreach at Behrend. Every year brings new and creative activities.
“They want to engage the kids more and more every year,” Ford said. “It’s great to see adults get the kids excited about what they do.”
WQLN Public Media, a longtime sponsor of the fair, brought a green screen and put youth into scenes with characters like Daniel Striped Tiger, from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
“This is part of our community mission — to enrich, educate and entertain through this medium,” said Bill Moon, a production manager for the PBS station.
Across the gym, at stations featuring CPR mannequins, state-park wildlife, and a virtual-locomotive simulation, youth were learning without realizing it. That was by design, Ford said.
Delaney Bartlett, 7, punched at the air while wearing virtual-reality goggles at a booth staffed by students from the Virtual Augmented Reality and Interactive Art lab at Behrend.
“It felt like a whole different world,” she said, still testing her new kung-fu moves. “It was a world with blocks, and I had to stab them and cut them and knock them down. It was amazing.”