As environmental groups prepare to celebrate Earth Day, and others concerned with science and research funding plan Marches for Science, Michigan Technological University’s Mind Trekkers are doing what they always do: putting on flamboyant science and engineering shows to spark young people’s interest in science.
And major corporations whose names you know are asking them to do it.
Wednesday through Saturday, April 19-22, Mind Trekkers will be performing at the FIRST Robotics World Championships in Houston, Texas, in partnership with 3M. Thursday through Saturday, April 20-22, another Mind Trekkers team composed of Michigan Tech alumni will be making liquid nitrogen ice cream and skewering balloons without popping them at Lockheed Martin’s Family Day at their world headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.
On Saturday, April 22, a third Mind Trekkers team will be partnering with the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in STEAM Punk. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.
The following week, sponsored by Dow Chemical Company, Mind Trekkers travels to the Philadelphia Science Festival.
Science and Engineering Sparks
“We are actively engaging with science, intentionally and altruistically, nationally and locally,” says Cody Kangas, director of Michigan Tech’s Center for Educational Outreach. “Our focus is on creating sparks, literally and figuratively. We know how to do that and do it well. And major companies like 3M and Lockheed Martin are seeking us out to help them do it.”
Mind Trekkers was established in 2009. Teams of trained and dedicated undergraduate and graduare students bring their STEM road shows to the hands and minds of K-12 students across the nation. They’ve revealed the science behind the mystery to hundreds of thousands of students and families across the nation, performing at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC; the Boy Scout Jamboree; the international science competition Destination ImagiNation and Dow Chemical’s Great Lakes Bay Science and Engineering Festival, to name just a few.
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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