Nearly 5,000 Take Part in CEES Outreach Programs!
The 2018/2019 Academic Year has been a busy one for CEES! More than 4900 people participated in Center activities at 13 venues. CEES attended events both large and small – and every size in between – to educate the public on a variety of environmental science and energy-themed topics.
Smaller events (less than 100 participants) included STEM Night at SENSE Charter School, Summer Weather Camps at regional libraries with Kevin Gregory of RTV6, and the FFA trip to Starkey Farm.
Although total attendance at an event could be (and generally was) higher, an event was considered “mid-sized” if 100-500 people visited CEES’s area. Mid-sized events included STEM Night at Brooks School, Canal Night at the State Museum, and the IUPUI Regatta.
At “big” events, more than 500 people stopped by CEES’s area to engage in science. Big events included Bug Fest at Southeastway Park, Celebrate Science! Indiana (held at the Indianapolis Fairgrounds), and Girl Scout STEM at the State Museum.
CEES continued to delight (and educate) the public with the ever-popular Tornado-in-a-Box and Design-a-Drone Challenge, as well as Adventures in Pond Scum. These activities are taken from the Center’s Energy of Storms and Aquatic Biodiversity programs, which are part of Discovering the Science of the Environment, the Center’s signature education initiative. Additionally, CEES premiered activities focusing on energy/material cycling through ecosystems: Decomposition 101 featured fungus and other decomposers, rotting logs, food webs, and Katie’s Critters (a menagerie of adorable insects and related arthropods that play prominent roles in the decomposition process).
The Center and our community partners are looking forward to another splendid year of science education outreach. It is always a glorious day for science!
