By: Angela Mennecke
STEMCON, College of DuPage’s annual exploration of science, technology, engineering and math, returned to COD April 27 with a record-breaking crowd of nearly 4,000 community members.
Visitors experienced hands-on activities at a variety of indoor and outdoor interactive exhibits including model rockets, composting activities, welding simulators, fossil exploration, telescopes, chromatography and more. In addition, more than 650 students ranging from preschool to eighth grade participated in hands-on workshops featuring a variety of COD programs. Students built robots, produced products using a 3D printer, planted in the greenhouse and experienced the magic of virtual reality in COD’s new Immersive Visualization lab.
STEMCON also featured a keynote discussion from Emily Calandrelli, host of Netflix’s “Emily’s Wonder Lab” and FOX’s “Xploration Outer Space,” as well as a demonstration from Mr. Freeze of Fermilab highlighting the entertaining properties of cryogenics and extreme cold using Liquid Nitrogen.