by Dot Cannon

On Saturday afternoon, April 27th, Irvine’s Orange County Great Park was full of music, challenges, creativity and fun.

It also hosted a few animals.

Some were living…

…some had lived thousands of years ago.

 

And all of the above were part of the sixth annual OC STEAM Fest!   The goal: to give students and their families a hands-on opportunity to explore science, technology, engineering, art and math.

With that objective in mind, the 2019 edition of OC STEAM Fest, sponsored by Irvine Public Schools Foundation, featured more than fifty exhibits.

New this year were “Dino Dig”, as well as the “Esports Tournament” and the Wyland Foundation Mobile Learning Center.

Walking through Orange County Great Park after OC STEAM Fest opened at 2, visitors saw a showcase of opportunities for young guests.   They also saw talent of all kinds on display.

The performance stage hosted four shows throughout the day, starting with a “Musical Mashup” by some very gifted students from Alderwood, Greentree and Westpark schools.

Roaming among the exhibits, we had the best kind of challenge. 

The tents were so mobbed with future scientists, designers, mathematicians and technologists that we could barely get through to see what they had!

Exploring the exhibit tents

But, several highlights were:

• The RSM Irvine booth.    Students were playing with shapes, figuring out how to construct figures.  And they had no idea that they were doing math!

As is anyone who’s ever been addicted to the puzzle game Tetris® , one staffer explained.

“You’re figuring out how many blocks (on each shape) will work to make a rectangle,” she said.

• Play-Well TEKnologies.  Seeing them again was like greeting an old friend.

We had the pleasure of featuring Los Angeles Regional Manager Michael Luong and senior Los Angeles instructor James Castellanos (along with amazing maker/STEAM enthusiast               Mitchell Malpartida), as guests in our 2018 Valentine STEAM special.

Judging from the activity at the booth, constructing robots, we suspect that quite a few of the young visitors will consider them an “old friend” in the future, as well.

• And, of course, the “Inside the Outdoors” tent.  Visitors had the opportunity to pet “Rosie”, the rose-haired tarantula.

New to the Festival

Among this year’s new additions to OC Steam Fest was the “Esports Zone.”

Participants were having a good time competing in their favorite video games.

Meanwhile, a prize drawing was in progress, as they played.   Each guest had received a prize ticket upon admission, and some nice gifts were at stake.

(So was a $100 check from IPSF, for the winning E-sports team!)

Another new feature was the Wyland Clean Water Mobile Learning Experience.

Inside, exhibits showed visitors the route of water, from cloud to river to sea…

…and offered them some opportunities for interaction.

Now appearing onstage

Throughout the day, the performance stage was a highlight of OC STEAM Fest 2019.

“Ice Age Encounters” was a major audience hit.   The puppeteer presenter discussed the lives and habits of four prehistoric mammals.

“Don’t worry, he’s had his lunch,” she said, just before bringing out the sabertooth.

The sabertooth, she continued, looked fierce–but his tusks could be deceiving.    His bite was actually weaker than that of a modern-day cat!

But the definite star turn, in this particular show, was saved for last.

“Amka”, the woolly mammoth, made an appearance, lumbering up for a photo opp!

Another high point was Discovery Cube‘s “Super Cool Science” show.

The presentation centered around a “mystery substance”.

“What do you think (it) is?” asked presenter “Ms. M” as she and her co-host “Mr. Santana” started the show.

They proceeded to show several things the “mystery substance” could do–including shrink a balloon until it could fit into a jar…

…and produce a huge cloud of steam when hot liquid was poured into it.

“Liquid nitrogen” turned out to be the correct identification!

Not far away from the stage, at the Bytes and Bots tent, combatants were facing off.

And  the  motto was, “May the best robot win!”

Far-reaching STEAM

Throughout the day, more visitors kept arriving.  The park was packed, with a lot of play and exploration going on.

OC STEAM Fest donates all proceeds to the Irvine Public Schools Foundation.  And IPSF, in turn, contributes over five millions dollars, annually, to Irvine Unified School District, according to one of the signs placed near the admission gate.   These funds are used for a variety of purposes, including adding teachers and aides to Irvine classrooms.

Meanwhile, as the community’s having fun, future designers, engineers and IT experts may very well be receiving the first glimmer of inspiration for their life’s work.

As 5:30 approached, OC STEAM Fest had already been a great day.  But one more treat was coming, onstage.

Jodaiko, a UCI student Japanese taiko drumming ensemble, took the stage.

Their expert rhythms made playing the traditional Japanese percussion instruments look easy.

Just before their final selection, “The Calm Before the Storm”, one musician told the audience the reason behind the group’s name.

“‘Jo’ in ‘Jodaiko’ means ‘passionately’,” she explained.

We wonder how many students have now discovered their passion–for science, technology, engineering, art, math or some combination of the above–courtesy of OC STEAM Fest 2019.