STEM Fair welcomes 1,500 local students
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 8, 2016 1:46 PM
News-Argus/ALAN CAMPBELL
Dillard Middle School seventh-grader Kheirstun Turnage, 12, left, looks at a slide of her cheek cells through a compound microscope Wednesday while talking with University of Mount Olive student Caitlin Ewers. ï¿¿
Barrett Howell and A.J. Brown were more than happy to discuss their science project, aptly entitled "Frog Experiment."
"They have no teeth and no tongue," Barrett said of the 10 African dwarf frogs housed in a plastic container. "They have glucose in their body, which is antifreeze so they don't freeze."
"They mostly estivate," A.J. added.
The fourth-grader's classmate volunteered a definition of the reference.
"It's when they sleep because of the heat," Barrett said.
Put more simply, it's the opposite of hibernation, they explained.
The Northeast Elementary School students were so proud of their science project, they didn't necessarily want it to end.
"Fed Ex got them from Africa and I adopted two, a male and a female, and I will probably adopt more because we have extra," Barrett said.
The students were among participants at the second annual STEM Fair, held Wednesday at the YMCA. Hosted by the Chamber's Wayne Education Network, Wayne County Public Schools and Wayne Community College, the emphasis was on helping students better understand potential in the areas of STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math.
An estimated 1,500 seventh-graders from public, private and home-school settings attended the event.
Originally scheduled for Feb. 24, it was postponed due to inclement weather that day, forcing cancellation of classes.
Karen Burnette, one of the organizers, was relieved and excited that the make-up day went off without a hitch.
"For the second one, this is fantastic," she said.
This year's version offered some different nuances, she said.
"As each school comes in, we're sending six students from each school to participate in one of three STEM-related competitions. There are students that are showing their science fair projects and some of the things they have worked on with STEM. And we also have businesses and colleges that are showcasing their STEM schools and what they have to offer," she said.
Four colleges were represented, she said, including the University of Mount Olive, Wayne Community College, Barton College and North Carolina A&T.
Angela Wall, industrial systems instructor in WCC's engineering and manufacturing technologies program, said she was excited to share with students about the potential for jobs in the field of automation.
"We have, every week, they're calling us wanting student graduates for jobs," she said. "We're talking about them starting out making more than $20 an hour.
"I was at Disney last week -- this is the stuff that controls roller coasters."
At a nearby booth, Bob Cagle was enjoying sharing about the importance of civil engineering.
"Did you brush your teeth this morning? Did you flush the toilet?" he asked several students. "You can thank a civil engineer."
Now retired, Cagle is Region 4 governor for the American Society of Civil Engineers and said it is his way of giving back to the profession and encouraging youth to consider pursuing a career in the field.
"It's a way to make a difference," he said. "It's a way to improve the quality of life but everywhere around you, if you haven't thought about it -- the cell phone towers, a civil engineer designed those. It's all around you."
Norwayne Middle School eighth-graders Sydney Edmundson and Ansleigh Boyd used their booths to answer some basic questions.
Sydney's experiment was to determine whether colored candles burn faster than white ones.
"Yes, the colored ones do," she said.
Ansleigh's effort was on how to remove copper oxide, something typically found on pennies.
"It's like the dirt on the pennies," she said, pointing to a chart that showed the time it took to soak the coins in lemon juice to remove the stain.
"I didn't know that lemon juice could clean things," she said.