by Dot Cannon
“Ooh, I want to go play some music!” exclaimed one elementary-school student entering “Imaginology” at the Orange County Fairgrounds on Friday morning.
He would get that opportunity.
He would also have the chance to program LED lights, play math games, make clay, fabric or paper art…
…and even handle a snake.
The thirty-eighth edition of the Orange County Fair’s Imaginology had kicked off at nine that morning.
Opening day of “Imaginology” is “Field Trip Day”. A bevy of school buses had delivered students from all over Orange County. They’d be exploring, learning–and imagining the ways they could use STEAM to create their futures.
But most of all, they’d be having fun.
And this was just the first day of the OC Fair’s free three-day family-oriented STEAM event.
Throughout the Fairgrounds were all kinds of areas of interest in science, technology, engineering, art and math. But these weren’t just displays.
Workstations stood ready to help participants get a hands-on taste of Arduino, Raspberry Pi, printmaking, and whatever else captured their imagination.
“Face time” with animals and agriculture
One of the biggest crowd-pleasers was the “Jurassic Party” area–with its tortoise and two pythons visitors could hold.
Young “Imaginology” attendees even had the opportunity to play at being farm kids for a day.
Two 4-H clubs were exhibiting in the livestock area. The sheep shearing seemed to be popular with Imaginology attendees…
–although not necessarily with the customer.
And “Anabelle” the Jersey cow had a capacity-crowd audience for the afternoon milking demonstration.
All this, and “Imaginology” has barely begun! They’ll be open this Saturday and Sunday, April 22nd and 23rd, from 10 am to 5 pm.
Saturday’s scheduled events include the “Fashion + Art LIVE” fashion show and VEX Robotics Awards. On Sunday, Imaginology will host Digital Media Arts and My Dream Career Photo Awards presentations. Both days, there will be a “MiniMAKEathon”, with an awards ceremony at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon.
And twenty years from now, a rocket scientist, web designer, sculptor, musician, agricultural technologist or other STEAM professional may look back and say, “For me, it all started with ‘Imaginology’.”