Saturday, yesterday, STEAM Tech Teams spent from 11 – 5 at the second annual iMAGINE Festival. For new readers, STEAM Tech Teams is a group of volunteers in the Upstate of SC who are helping promote STEAM. Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math. http://www.steamtechteams.com/
We had over 25 volunteers working with us in our two locations. One group was along the tent line and show off our hands, 3D printing and other things. The weather was really very nice, not to hot or to cold, however it was windy and that really made it hard to demonstrate 3D printing. I haven’t heard how many people yet but 10,000 – 15,000 would not be out of line. This is a very family friendly event. A big thank you to our business volunteer from Computer Source who sells 3D printers and more. If you need a 3D printer, repair on a computer or a computer please check him out. https://computersourcesc.com/
Fay and Bob and the majority of the volunteers will at the ZEN building with two big exhibits. The focus of all the activities in and around this building was on drones. We had one area where we had three flight simulators and our volunteers helped people, mostly kids, try there hand at flying drones. The flight simulator can get very sophisticated and costs $130. We figure we had 1500 – 2000 people come through.
In another large room we had three tables set up and people could fly small quadcopters, fit in the palm of your hand. We had them tied to string so they flew in about a 5 ft radius and didn’t go all over the place. We had a few challenges but overall it worked pretty well and let people get a safe, not too frustrating experience. The three boys that Bob worked with at Dorman High School were there all day and were the “lead instructors”. Most of the other volunteers were over 60 and came from the OLLI at Furman program or were neighbors of one of our volunteers.
We were very pleased with how things went but were tired when we got home about 6 p.m. Not much energy today, Sunday!
Our next event is this Thursday when we will be sponsoring with one of our business partners a training for teachers on 3D printing at Greenville Technical School. After that we have a small science fair at a local private k-5 school and what we hope will be a big science fair at Williston SC, near Aiken. This is three hours away so we are making a weekend out of it and will see the area. That’s just April!
Life Part Two 