APR 16-17: USA Science & Engineering Festival Promotes STEM with 3,000 Hands-on Activities, Shows and Science Celebs

February 3, 2016 | By Business Wire News

USA Science & Engineering Festival:

WHAT
Why did dinosaurs go extinct? Are aliens out there? What do magic tricks and hip hop have to with math? What will be the next medical breakthrough? What does baseball have to do with physics? Explore these questions and more at the 4th USA Science & Engineering Festival, with Founding and Presenting Host Lockheed Martin. Designed to inspire the next generation of inventors and innovators, the Festival is a free, family-friendly expo that allows kids and adults to participate in more than 3,000 hands-on exhibits, experiments, and incredible live performances by science celebrities, explorers, astronauts, athletes, physicists, musicians, authors, inventors, and experts in fields like cryogenics, robotics, genomics, paleontology, space exploration, 3D printing and more. The Festival also features a Career Pavilion hosted by Booz Allen Hamilton. The event kicks off on April 14th with the X-Stem Symposium, featuring “TED-style” talks for kids by science visionaries, presented by MedImmune.

WHEN
Festival Expo: April 16-17, 2016, 10am-6pm (closes at 4pm on Sunday)

X-Stem Symposium: April 14
MEDIA Expo Sneak Peek Day hosted by Chevron: April 15

WHO

Hundreds of leading scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and technologists, and science-related celebrities, including:
- Grammy Award winners They Might be Giants
- Actor Wil Wheaton, Big Bang Theory
- Sick Science’s Steve Spangler
- Helen Greiner, robotics engineer and Founder and CEO of CyPhy Works
- Doktor Kaboom, science comedian
- Tyraine Ragsdale (a.k.a. Grand Hank), presents the Superpowers of Hip Hop
- “Science Bob,” teacher appearing on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live and Dr. Oz
- Paleontologist Scott Sampson, host of PBS Kids’ Dinosaur Train
- Ellen Stofan, NASA chief scientist
- Science Cheerleaders
More than 350,000 attendees expected

WHERE
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt Vernon Place NW, D.C.

WHY
Founded to address the severe shortage in science and tech talent, the USA Science & Engineering Festival was developed to increase awareness of the importance of science and to encourage youth to pursue STEM careers by celebrating science in much the same way as society celebrates Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and pop stars.