Sixth annual STEAM Expo invades USU Eastern-Blanding campus Friday

If riding bulls, flying drones, solving crimes, racing a pinewood derby, enjoying a magic show, and seeing elephant toothpaste sounds like a fun day to you, make sure you don’t miss the sixth annual USU Eastern-Blanding STEAM Expo.
It runs from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. this Friday, April 12 on the college’s campus at the intersection of 200 South and 700 West and will feature those activities and many more.
USU Programs Coordinator Bayley Hedglin is heading up the 2019 Expo. She explained that it’s a vibrant event designed to enliven and increase excitement for learning in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.
Thousands of people from the Four Corners area have attended the annual event, which personifies everything USU does, since it began at the college in 2014.
It will be crammed full of fun for the whole family again this year, including activities, events, and demonstrations like a CSI crime scene, chemistry of slime, 3D printing, and 800 pounds of clay for ceramics.
The 2019 expo will feature a custom car/vehicle show, exhibits, vendors, and food trucks. Hedglin said it will be a street fair atmosphere with cotton candy and face painting.
Cultural experiences and exhibit space is available, giving area inventors and creators an opportunity to demonstrate their creations and ideas.
The Encounter Zone in the Blanding Arts and Events Center will feature hands-on activities like paper boat races, roller coaster stations, an engineering table, microscopes, air vortex tubes, speech jammers, and earthquake tables.
The Utah National Guard is providing a rock climbing wall. The USU Academics & Instructional Services department will conduct a Virtual Reality lab.
STEM Magician Paul Brewer will entertain audiences with two performances at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
If you think you can outrace your opponent, sign up for the all-ages Pinewood Derby. It begins at 7 p.m and features Stock, Lego, and Unlimited categories.
USU will provide the car for the Stock category. “Anything goes” in the Unlimited category according to Hedglin, except for one rule: no open flames!
The USU College of Aviation & Technology will be on hand with drone flights and paper airplane creation stations.
San Juan School District art students will demonstrate their work at 10 a.m. followed by an art show that will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Attendees can build walls with mud and bricks. There will be science demonstrations throughout the day, including the crowd-pleasing elephant toothpaste demo.
The USU nursing program will provide hands-on breath sound and blood pressure activities. The Utah Highway Patrol, Blanding City Fire Department, and San Juan County EMS will have demonstrations.
And there will be plenty of competitions for attendees to join, including mechanical bull riding, a robotics competition with Lego and VEX Robotics, “transporting” an egg with an excavator, and more.
Hedglin emphasized that the 2019 STEAM Expo will provide fun and education for the whole family, not just students.
She said it’s a good way for the college to show people how they can get an education in an area they enjoy, show them companies that provide jobs in those areas, and eventually pursue those jobs.
She added that everything at the event is free of charge and “you’ll walk away with a lot of cool swag.”
The extensive list of activities and events in this article still doesn’t include everything you can see and do at the 2019 USU Eastern-Blanding STEAM Expo.
For full details, visit facebook.com/ususteamexpo online. You can call Bayley Hedglin at 435-587-3316 or email her at bayley.hedglin@usu.edu.