Tennessee to Hold Statewide STEAM Festival

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 10/03/2017

The first ever Tennessee STEAM Festival will be held this month with nearly 70 events planned across the state. Founded by the Discovery Center at Murfree Spring, the event will include the participation of a wide range of schools, museums, community centers and other institutions.

Events, most of which are free, include a "Fastball Physics" clinic with Vanderbilt University's baseball team, a lecture on the science of fear on Friday the 13th paired with a midnight screening of the Friday the 13th movie, robot challenges, art classes, virtual reality demonstrations, the physics of pumpkin chucking and more.

"In addition to the various events, the Tennessee STEAM Festival will provide outreach opportunities like Sounds of Science: Be Brilliant, Be Sharp," according to a news release. "This hands-on set of science activities promote[s] intergenerational explorations of sound. The Discovery Center, in partnership with the United Way of Rutherford and Cannon County's Afterschool Network, has developed hands-on activity kits that will be facilitated by science and education students from Middle Tennessee State University's MTeach program and held at afterschool and community sites around Rutherford and Cannon counties."

"The Tennessee STEAM Festival aspires to build interest and excitement in science, technology, engineering, art and math. Our goal is to help cultivate the next generation of citizen and professional science advocates and practitioners. We hope that many thousands of Tennesseans will be able to participate and, perhaps, learn something new or be inspired," Said Tara MacDougall, CEO at the Discovery Center, in a prepared statement. "And we're so grateful to our sponsors and partners who have supported this vital effort in communities throughout the state. We couldn't have launched this Festival without them."

For more information visit tennesseesteamfestival.org.