UMD Hosts STEM Discovery Day

Duluth, Minn. — Students from area middle and high schools were on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth this afternoon. The Swenson College of Science and Engineering held a STEM Discovery Day.

128 students from schools around the area were learning various ways that STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are being used in a variety of different professional fields.

Some of the areas the students could learn about included science exploration, the chemical engineering of chocolate and Forensics.  Graduate students were on hand to help guide the inquisitive learners.

Emma Neidviecky and Nooreen Syed are two of the UMD Graduate Students who worked with the students.

Syed said, “I think they really enjoyed it, I’ve heard a couple of them say “I would like to do this as a career” and just to see what we do in Lab at UMD.”  Neidviecky added, “It just feels very rewarding to hear back from them because that’s the entire purpose of this activity.”

These two grad students are part of the integrated Bio Science Graduate program. They were also enjoying the demonstrations as they got to know some of the younger students and see and hear their enthusiasm for STEM.

“I loved it” said Syed. “Like I didn’t think that it would be so much fun and it’s just something else to teach people and make them aware of how things work in a lab and i mean that it’s very important for general audiences and even whether its non- scientific or scientific people to know what’s going on.”

The students were also able to visit the planetarium and the greenhouse while they were on campus and they even got to eat lunch at the university.