STEM Saturday sessions help students think outside of the box

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Youth Outreach in STEM is making learning fun with its cool science demos on Saturdays. 

The Knoxville nonprofit’s STEM Saturday sessions help kids think outside of the box. 

Most recently, kids got to dive into the world of color-changing slime. They watched the goo turn pink, teal and purple with temperature change, like the heat of your hands. 

“If they are doing it and actually working with the pigment and they are touching it and getting to see it in different forms, that kind of knowledge sticks with them,” said Dana Schumpert, the YO-STEM Program Director. Schumpert explained how the slime gets its color-changing superpowers from thermochromic pigment. 
She says slimy science is proving to be a winning experiment and teaching kids to succeed in STEM education. 

“We empower them to be confident by asking questions. We empower them to expand their mind. We just empower them to just know more about what is going on in the world. So again, hopefully someday they will want to be the STEM professionals teaching things like this later on in life,” said Schumpert. 

Schumpert also believes representation matters because you can’t be what you don’t see. 

“We try to bring in volunteers in that look like the majority of our students so that they can see hey here is a person that looks like me, they were once a kid like me, maybe they had a life like me and now they are doing something so big in the realm of STEM and I can do that too because I see someone that’s like me thriving in this field,” said Schumpert. 

There are several more STEM Saturdays planned for November. Visit the link here to register your child for a session and learn more.