Sandy Springs Education Force (SSEF) held its 9th Annual STEAM Showcase at North Springs Charter High School on March 13th. SSEF hosted over 1700 high school and middle school students during the day and over 900 community members and elementary school students at the public evening event. The event featured engaging, interactive exhibits from local business and educational leaders, as well as the opportunity to learn about how science, technology and the arts affect our everyday lives today, and what to expect in the future. The popular annual showcase is part of Sandy Springs Education Force’s multi-faceted outreach program designed to educate, inspire and prepare public school students in Sandy Springs for a competitive world.
This year’s event included annual favorite and brand new exhibits, as well as exhibits from top sponsors AT&T, Mercedes-Benz USA and State Farm.
- Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital brought and invited attendees to use their da Vinci surgical robotic system.
- STEM@GTRI’s LaserFEST invited attendees to create their own laser show.
- AT&T’s HACEMOS employee resource group, and State Farm, offered participants opportunities to use microcontrollers, such as micro:bit and Arduino, to engage with small robots and to code robotic devices.
- Mercedes-Benz USA showcased the technology that powers their vehicles and taught participants about features such as speed radar, instrument clusters and active lane assist.
- Other company exhibits included an array of engaging opportunities, including Virtual Reality activities, 3D laser scanning, aerial drone imaging, and the chance to crack Watson’s password code.
In addition, the event showcased all 11 public schools in Sandy Springs. Students presented work that Sandy Springs Education Force supports via their annual STEAM Legacy Grants. For example, Riverwood High School impressed attendees with technology from their MakerSpace, Sandy Springs Charter Middle School displayed their award-winning drones and Ison Springs Elementary showcased their coding skills and robots.
Four participants who donated to SSEF’s STEAM Showcase campaign won a Bamboo Folio or Intuos tablet donated by Wacom. Winners were Don Barbour, Angie Gonzalez, Elizabeth Hasler and Sunny Neely.
In addition, Spalding Drive Elementary School, which won the evening’s attendance prize with over 20% of their school’s population present, won $1000 to use for STEAM programming or materials.
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