Larry Langellier, professor of Information Management Systems, helps seventh graders during the inaugural Moraine Valley Community College STEM Expo.
More than 600 seventh graders explored science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through hands-on learning on May 5 at the inaugural Moraine Valley Community College STEM Expo.
Moraine Valley faculty, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermilab, the Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn, the Flying M Academy, Moraine Valley Engineering Pathways students, and students from Reavis High School and Community High School District 218 presented a collective 32 sessions ranging from cybersecurity, drone flying and marine biology to LEGO stop motion moviemaking, creating a meme, biological explorations, Minecraft HTML, and interactions with animals.
Moraine Valley has offered STEM programming for years, but not at this scale. An innovation grant from the college’s Foundation helped fund this free event, which also included over 20 faculty and staff as well as over 50 Moraine Valley student volunteers.
“We wanted to provide STEM career exploration opportunities to students who otherwise may never consider them,” said Panos Hadjimitsos, assistant dean of Science, Business and Computer Technology. “This was a very successful event from talking with presenters and students and from thank you notes we received. We plan to repeat and expand for next year.”
