San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
STEM EXPO HIGHLIGHTS SCIENCE, ENGINEERING WITH FOCUS ON WOMEN
Weeks before the start of another baseball season, Petco Park was the site of a different kind of highenergy affair. The 12th annual San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering Expo Day not only highlights the region’s science and tech companies but also seeks to inspire young people about math and science learning and future careers.
The expo is the kickoff event for a whole week of more than 90 events focusing on STEM — science, technology, engineering and math. Events are held at private science and tech companies, libraries and high schools around the county that are open to students, adults and families. Last year some 17,000 people came to the expo, and organizers were expecting at least as many this year.
The coronavirus scare did not appear to hold back crowds. The expo area clustered around the Park in the Park was full of 130 exhibitors and throngs of people by lunch time.
In a nod to the health crisis, organizers had placed hand sanitizer stations throughout the grounds.
While the overall goal of the event is to expose all students to science, engineering and math, a special emphasis is made on highlighting the work of women and minorities in the field — this year in part because the expo came one day before International Women’s Day, said Sara Pagano, managing director for the festival.
The 130 companies that set up booths and exhibits at the festival were encouraged to staff them with women and people of color to show a career path in sciences, technology and engineering are open to all. Pagano said young girls seeing women in what has historically been a male-dominated field and talking about their experiences is valuable.
“They can relate to them,” she said. “They can see someone who is close to them in age who are starting out and excited about their career.”
The festival was not all about math and science. It was billed as the STEAM Expo, with the “A” in STEAM standing for arts. To that end participants could help paint a unique mural that underscored women in the STEM field from the past, present and future.
The Plexiglas mural was designed by artist Amy Burkman. It featured on one side portraits of Grace Hopper, a computer scientist who was one of the first women computer programmers, and Katie Bouman, who in 2019 helped photograph the first image of a super massive black hole.
On the other side of the Plexiglas, expo attendees could dip their hands in paint and fill in the background parts of the image. The finished mural will be placed in the company headquarters of Carlsbad-based Viasat, which sponsored the mural, said Burkman. The artist said she welcomed the opportunity to design an interactive art piece that she hoped would get the creative juices flowing for students. “And I hope they get inspired by the lives of the people who we are painting,” she said.
It was not only companies that were exhibiting at the expo. A group of students from Castle Park High School in Chula Vista had a display showing the process of making biodiesel fuel — non-petroleum fuel made from a range of fats, liquids and oils. The Castle Park students use algae oil to make their fuel, said senior Ruth Reveles.
The 18-year-old Reveles said she got interested in the fuel through an after-school program led by biology teacher Robert Manroe. “I fell in love with the program,” she said. By her sophomore year she was helping show incoming students how the process worked, and has continued on from there. She said she likes the expo because it is an opportunity to get other younger students interested in the science and engineering subjects and show them what opportunities are available.
“It has opened so many doors for me,” she said. She plans to attend Montana State University next year. Her plan: study and get a degree to become a biology teacher.