COLUMBIA, S.C. — A free event in Columbia on Thursday brought hundreds of kids together to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math.
“I learned about respiratory system, and that our left lung is smaller than our right because we have to have room for our heart,” said participant Madison Williams.
Williams was one of 120 students from Richland County schools spending the day learning about STEM concepts and careers at the Irly Bird Kids STEM Expo.
“It helps me grow and understand,” Williams said. “Like, if I wanna become what they’re teaching me about, I can learn about that career more.”
Event staff said this is one of the largest STEM expos in the state, and it teaches students about engineering, health science, robotics, computer-aided design, programming, and more.
“It kinda helps me experience it on a smaller scale, to wrap my head around it, so that when I see it, I don’t get nervous and not know,” said participant Sebastian Walters, another student.
Instead of getting nervous, the kids got excited, walking up to various exhibits and asking the staff questions.
“We got to learn about tons of different things, like the bacteria, to sea turtles, to these racing pipe crawlers,” Walters said.
For students like Walters, the expo helps them get more comfortable with concepts they’ll study during the school year.
“These are really cool because … they’re usually a lot bigger than this … but they go in pipes, and they go down the pipes using controls like this, so that regular people don’t have to,” Walters said, gesturing to the racing pipe crawlers.
Eric Davis, CEO of Irly Bird Kids, says events like this help inspire kids to have future careers in STEM industries.
“I hope that out of this experience today that the next doctor, the next engineer, the next architect,” Davis said. “The next child that ordinarily wouldn’t have thought of going in those directions and would’ve been fearful because of the science and the math, that those doors are open now.”
Davis is a former engineer and says he wants to ensure kids are encouraged to pursue STEM careers early on in their lives.
“One of the things that I saw as one of the few African American males in that career,” Davis said. “...It opened up opportunities and a world for me that I wanted to bring back to our community.”
Event staff said they’re trying to make this STEM expo an annual event to let new groups of kids participate as they enter elementary school.