TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple Independent School District is inviting the community to get a first-hand look at the district’s STEM programs in action with an upcoming special event. TISD will be hosting its third annual Spring Into STEM event at the Texas Railroad and Heritage Museum (315 West Avenue B, Temple, Texas 76501) on Saturday, April 12th, from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
The Spring Into STEM event is free and open to the public and will feature 25 booths with a variety of STEM related activities. Meta returns as the event’s title sponsor and will be providing equipment and devices for stations including robotics, virtual reality, and coding. Other stations will include augmented reality with Meta Quest and Merge Cube, Lego Robotics, Sphero Robotics, Virtual Habitats with Rug Alive for younger learners, Strawbees, the Travis Science Academy Robotics Club, and the Lamar Middle School Astronomy Club. The Theme of this year’s event is “A Greener Future” and will focus on technology enhanced programs highlighting sustainability and STEM. Spring Into STEM will also give parents an opportunity to get a glimpse at the programs and opportunities available district wide. Families will also have a chance to engage with community partners. Booths will be staffed by volunteers from Temple ISD, ranging from teachers to digital learning staff, to librarians and principals, along with student volunteers who are directly involved with the programs and activities represented. Community partners will also be on hand to showcase career connections and build on links between career and community partners. There will be stations geared to students of all ages from pre-K through 12th grade and Temple ISD staff will also be sharing information on other upcoming district STEM opportunities.
“This is an opportunity for students to see themselves in the future and take away that there are multiple things that they can do and accomplish,” said Ashley Jones, director of digital learning for Temple ISD. “We want families to see that there are more opportunities than what we think of in a normal day-to-day classroom. We have students that have graduated and gone on to use these skills on the college level who come back. We have students who have gone from elementary school into middle school who are excited to show how they apply the skills that they have learned. My hope is that this event will open some doors for families to see what their students have learned and what they love and are doing in school, and it excites them to be involved with this technology and knowledge. It makes a huge impact, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. I am also so thankful for our partners because they have been a big part of making it possible for us to share this with our students, families, and community.”
The Spring Into STEM event will also feature Temple Public Library’s Bookmobile, the Temple College STEM Bus, STARS & Science Austin’s mobile Planetarium, and multiple booths from the Un-Included Club highlighting agricultural related projects. Local construction and roofing companies will highlight 3D shape building and drone displays, there will be an Education Station booth with animals and a Life of Bees booth, and Railroad and Heritage Museum staff will staff two transportation focused stations. This year’s event will also feature giveaways, with the first 100 in attendance receiving free t-shirts. There will also be Lego, robotics, and STEM-related book giveaways throughout the morning.