Thursday, May 19, 2016

5/19/16: TouchTomorrow at WPI FREE STEM Event

Family fun is pretty expensive these days so when I see a free event I jump at the chance.  TouchTomorrow at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is totally free and a great STEM event for kids!  It is happening on June 11th from 10-4 on the WPI Campus.  I went last year and the whole family loved it plus it was nice for my husband and I to go back to our Alma mater.
Here is some more information about this years event:
This is TouchTomorrow's fifth year at WPI.  The family can explore Space and Robots with NASA educators.  There will be NASA exhibits including the famous MARCBot IV Rover and the Mark III Suit.  Try on a wearable NASA Space suit! 

Check out two new Virtual Reality chairs with monitors and Oculus glasses that will take you on a planetary tour!  Watch what happens to Peeps inside a real vacuum chamber.  Get run over by the Roll-Over-Rover like Lauren did last year.  This lightweight rover has 8 wheels and rolls right over kids and makes them giggle the whole time.

Little kids will also have a blast with “Quack” from Peep and the Big Wide World and Curious George. 
Plus there are faculty and students sharing their work with you and your family.  Last year we got to see the lab I spent a lot of time in with a Wind Tunnel.

There will also be lots of speakers including NASA Astronauts.  When we went last year we saw Astronaut Cady Coleman.  She spoke about her experiences and showed some really cool pictures from her missions.  She will be back again this year to speak.  You can see the schedule here

There is even an event app this year that you can download from the app store by searching for “WPI TouchTomorrow”.  The event will also feature the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge.  The NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge program has three objectives: 1 - Discover innovative new technologies to advance robot navigation and sample collection without human control. 




2 - Demonstrate robotic transportation over varied terrain without the aid of GPS or other Earth-based systems. 


3 - Empower educators and people of all ages, by introducing robotics and how they work, where they work, and real-world applications of how robots will be used the future. 







This event drew more than 10,000 people!  

The whole family had so much fun and it got the kids exited about science and engineering.  Here they are with Gompei the Goat who is our school's mascot!

There was so much to do and see.  I recommend looking at the schedule online and decide what you really want to go to.  There were many food options, ample parking and by using the campus map you were able to figure out where you wanted to go. 
For more information on TouchTomorrow visit them online:
www.touchtomorrow.wpi.edu
@touchtomorrowpi #touchtomorrow
https://www.facebook.com/TouchTomorrowWPI
https://instagram.com/wpi_touchtomorrow/
So much fun for the whole family!
Disclosure:  I was provided compensation for this post.  As always all opinions are my own.

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