College of Western Idaho (CWI) hosted its annual STEM Out! event on Saturday (Oct. 22) bringing 140 kids ages 10-15 to CWI’s Micron Center for Professional Technical Education in Nampa. The event, which is sponsored by CWI’s Center for New Directions and Career and Technical Education, featured 20 unique, hands-on workshops presented by CWI faculty and students. Each participant attended six workshops throughout the day.
Workshops included welding together parts of a take-home clock project, working with state-of-the-industry machine tool technology to create small metal tops, performing surgery on a synthetic surgical dummy, creating and manipulating electrical circuits in mechatronics and heavy equipment, and more.
The goal of the STEM Out! event is to expose young people to occupations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and careers that are non-traditional by gender. Thank you to all the individuals, programs, and departments that volunteered to help make this event a success. After the event, one parent stated: “Thank you for a GREAT event! My two kiddos had a great time and learned a lot!”