Replay: How A Dad Turned A Birthday Field Trip Into A Statewide STEM Movement (Middle+)

In this replay we revisit our episode with the one and only Phil Rogofsky.

Is STEM only for scientists and engineers? Join us as we unravel this myth with our special guest, Phil Rogofsky, the visionary behind the Maryland STEM Festival (October 18th to November 17th). Phil’s journey into the world of STEM started with childhood dreams inspired by the Apollo program and Jacques Cousteau, coupled with his parents' influence. He passionately shares how these early experiences shaped his belief that STEM is for everyone, not just a select few, and how this belief fueled the creation of a festival aimed at making STEM accessible and engaging for all.

Explore the innovative spirit of the Maryland STEM Festival, which ensures a variety of events within 30 minutes of every resident. Phil recounts the festival's humble beginnings, sparked by a visit to the USA Science and Engineering Festival, and its evolution into a statewide initiative that connects the public with the STEM community. From musical performances to nature walks, the festival offers family-friendly activities that ignite interest in STEM among children and adults. You'll be inspired by stories of meaningful collaborations and the festival's goal of fostering a curious and enthusiastic community.

Engage in a fun Tech Trivia game as we discuss the origins of STEM and the invention of the computer. Phil reflects on standout moments like the Sports and STEM event at Morgan State and the Middle School STEM Professional Match program, showcasing how STEM is woven into everyday life—from IT auditing at the Social Security Administration to the science behind sports. Discover practical ways for kids to engage in STEM, emphasizing its critical role in preparing them for a future filled with endless possibilities.

Transcript

Meet Phil And Early STEM Sparks

Amber Ivey 0:30

Hi everyone, welcome back to AI for kids. Today we have a wonderful guest. Please welcome Phil Rogoski, the founder and executive director of Maryland STEM Festival. Phil, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in creating the Maryland STEM Festival?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

A little bit about myself. The most important thing I like to think is that I am the father of two wonderful children, Noah and Shana, and a wonderful wife, Jennifer. I've always been interested in STEM, although my path has not been a straight STEM path. When I was growing up, I was a big fan of the Apollo program, which shows you how old I am. Also, I got in sort of the ground floor and interest in ecology through Jack Cousteau, who some of your listeners may or may not know of. But STEM has always been something I've been interested in. It wasn't the focus of my career, but it's the focus of my life now.

Amber Ivey 1:21

When you were growing up as a kid, like you mentioned being excited about the Apollo program, or Jack Cousteau, who is a famous discoverer. What were some of your favorite subjects when you were growing up?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Well, they weren't as much STEM as you might think, but they both came from my parents. My two favorite subjects, though I did like science, was math and history. And the history comes from my father because he was a history major and worked in libraries. So he was always reading books on history. We'd go to museums. So I inherited his love of history. And I also was a big math fan, and that came from my mother, who was a math teacher. It also came a bit from my father because he was a big baseball fan, and there's a lot of statistics and numbers in baseball. And that reinforced my love of math, which I developed from my mother.

Amber Ivey 2:08

That's a really cool mix of having both the math and the history, because they're both really great skills, especially when you're in a career like STEM. Did you always have an interest in science and technology and some of those pieces as well?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yes, I did. As I mentioned, the Apollo program, the ecology. But when I was growing up, there was more of a pigeon holding where science was thought of for only certain people, that you had to really excel in it. It had to come very naturally to you. Otherwise, you weren't really part of that world. And I didn't feel that I quite had that expertise or that natural inclination back then when I was growing up. Again, I focused on math and history, which math is part of STEM, but still, people who were going into science and engineering were people who really did a lot of building, who were very good with their hands. And a lot of them also got that from their parents. Often they had a father who was into engineering or who was a scientist. So my childhood didn't include as much practical science, but there's always been that interest there.

Breaking Stereotypes About Who Belongs In STEM

Amber Ivey 3:07

I love that. And I want to like double tap on something you said around when you were growing up, it was a certain type of person that had to go or felt like they had to go into the field. What made you over the years decide to embark upon STEM?

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Just observing the world around me. STEM, people may not think about STEM's always been the basis of society and of life. But as we've been growing, as the world has been advancing, it's becoming more and more an important component of life. Things are becoming more technically oriented, math is becoming more important to everyday life. And as I see that, it just seems natural that it should include everybody, that no one should be left out from the STEM world, whether it's actually doing a STEM job or just understanding STEM. It makes life a lot easier for people. If you understand STEM, if you can do STEM, and it should include everyone. It's not just for certain people, which was kind of the way I thought growing up. I see now and I've been seeing more so that it should include everyone.

Amber Ivey 4:03

Thank you for calling that out and literally saying exactly what I think we all need to hear is that even if you're not into the hardcore math and things like that, it is something you still need to understand and still need to be a part of because it's a part of all of our lives. I did want to ask you another question. So, when you were a kid, did you ever want to have a superpower of any sorts? And if so, what was it and why?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

As a kid, I mean, I was a big fan of superheroes.

Amber Ivey 4:27

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

So probably flying, especially because I'm afraid of heights. You know, I wish I could fly, and I would assume if I could fly, then I wouldn't be afraid of heights anymore.

Amber Ivey 4:37

I like that. I also am afraid of heights.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

As an adult, a superpower I'd like to have is to make people get along with each other.

Amber Ivey 4:44

I never heard that as a superpower, but I am here for it and I totally support it.

Why STEM Literacy Matters For Everyone

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Well, I mean, there are some superheroes who sort of can control or influence people's minds, and I would just like to be able to influence people to get along. You know, we all have DNA, RNA, and we all start out as the same gentle, unknowing little creature, and there's no reason we can't grow up to be getting along with all the other creatures, all the other people in this world.

Amber Ivey 5:07

Thank you so much for that, Bill. I'm gonna shift us a little bit away from your childhood to present day. So let's think about the Maryland STEM Festival. Can you explain what it is and what do you do there?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

So the Maryland STEM Festival is an annual event that we organize. It takes place for a full month each year, and it consists of hundreds of events that celebrate different areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It takes place all over Maryland. And one of the reasons we set it up this way is geography is frequently a barrier to STEM or has been a barrier to STEM. There are other events similar to ours, but they take place in one location, and usually they're one day or maybe two days. So if you're not near that location or it's on a day that's really bad for you, you're gonna miss out. So we try to have as many STEM events as we can and have them all over, so that's not necessarily an excuse. People can't say, oh, well, you know, I live on the Eastern Shore and to drive all the way to Baltimore would be a chore. Well, there are events on the eastern shore, there are events in Western Maryland, in southern Maryland, in what's called Northern Maryland. So they're all over, so you can't use the excuse that it's not near me. I can't get to them. We like to say that there is a STEM festival event within 30 minutes of every person in Maryland.

Amber Ivey 6:23

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

And the events take a wide range of formats. They can be anything from a musical performance to career discussions to demonstrations to nature walks to book readings. We've even had some STEM comedy shows in the past.

Amber Ivey 6:35

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Any sort of activity that we host can come up with that helps STEM or that is the way they want to promote an area of STEM. And also the topics vary from event to event. We look at STEM very broadly. It's science, technology, engineering, mathematics. There's some people who have a narrow vision of STEM where it might only be people who work with robots or create robots and people who do biotech research.

Amber Ivey 6:57

Right.

Superpowers And Empathy In Tech

SPEAKER_00 6:57

But we see it as everything involving STEM. We like to say the festival is agriculture to zoology and everything in between. And there are a wide range of topics for the different events. As much as possible, we encourage them to be family-oriented because we feel that STEM, as I said, is for everyone. And when the whole family goes, it sort of permeates through to the children. When they see that their parents are also interested in STEM, they often absorb that. But of course, not every host wants to teach a topic in a way that's appropriate for all ages. So there are still many events that may be geared for high school or middle school or elementary school or even pre-K. And what I do is I spend the year recruiting different hosts to run these events. Now, the other key component of the festival is we like to see that we are trying to create a connective tissue throughout the state of Maryland. So we're trying to first connect the public to the STEM community, but then we're also trying to connect within the STEM community. And you're a perfect example of that. You participated in our Girls' STEM Empowerment event last year at Andorona Community College, and you met a young lady, Archie, who you recently had in your podcast.

Amber Ivey 8:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

And she is an amazing young woman. We've been working with her for years. You know, this is one of the reasons of these events is to connect the people in STEM so that they know about each other and they can work together.

Amber Ivey 8:10

One of the things I admire about some of the work you've done, and I didn't realize it until you actually said it right now, because sometimes you got to hear it a few times before it lands. But I always ask that, I'm like, oh wait, they have these STEM events all over Maryland. I didn't realize how intentional that was to ensure that no matter where you lived, you can literally find STEM where you are. I really appreciated that about all the things that you're doing with the STEM festival. How did you get started on creating this idea? Especially since you said your background wasn't in this. How did you get here?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I fortunately instilled some of my interest in STEM in my son.

unknown 8:43

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

We used to build Legos, we'd go to the Maryland Science Center, I'd help him with his math a bit. And in 2010, the first USA Science and Engineering Festival took place on the DC Mall. And I heard about it and was thinking of going, and he heard about it separately. And it actually fell on his birthday.

Amber Ivey 9:01

So cool.

What The Maryland STEM Festival Is

SPEAKER_00 9:02

And he said, This is something I'd like to do. Can we go and do it? And then we were having a party with some of his friends later in the day. And I said, Absolutely. So we went down to the mall and it was an amazing event. I mean, they had everything you can imagine involving STEM. One of the coolest things was they had some race cars there, and they had people talking about the STEM behind race cars. Another cool thing was there was some people who had done research in Antarctica and they talked about that. And they actually even brought some ice from Antarctica. But there were literally hundreds of different STEM activities. You couldn't really get to all of them, but we got to a lot of them. And so when my son and I were leaving that event, we started thinking, you know, this is really cool. I wish my friends could be here. And they said, well, you know, sometimes it's hard to get everybody coordinated. And so we talked about trying to do something much smaller scale in his middle school. And we talked to his principal, and he loved the idea, and we picked a Friday night. And I just talked to a lot of different STEM organizations, and they came to his middle school and we ran this event, and it went very well.

Amber Ivey 10:00

I appreciate you sharing the story of how it started from like this one idea because you and your son were doing a STEM activity together, and how that grew into now a program that is across the entire state of Maryland, impacting thousands of people across the state. Like that's just so amazing. And I thank you for doing that because I know you've had such an amazing impact. I do want to ask a specific question about Maryland's STEM Festival. How does AI show up at the festival?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

It has started to show up more and more. There are more events where the hosts describe or talk about how to get into AI, and I'll give you a great example. There's a wonderful company in Baltimore called MindGrow. They do a lot of different technology, web design, and other related things. And they had an event last year where they brought in students from Patterson High School in Baltimore City. And at their headquarters, they ran three workshops for all the students. One was on robotics, one was on the meta world, and then the third one was on AI. And some of their STEM professional work on AI sat and they talked about how AI is developed, what AI can do, showed them a little bit of what they did to create AI. So that was a great example of how AI is in the festival. And we're seeing more and more of events where AI is mentioned. We hope to see a lot this year.

Amber Ivey 11:16

Oh, yeah, I'm sure you definitely will. So we're gonna switch and we're gonna play a quick game called Tech Trivia. I'm gonna ask you some fun questions about technology, and you're gonna try to answer as quickly as you can. And kids at home, you're also gonna try to answer as quickly as you can. What does STEM stand for?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Amber Ivey 11:39

Bingo. All right, the next one. I actually didn't know the answer to this one, but let's see if you know the answer. Who invented the computer? Not who created the first one, but who invented the original concept and idea of a computer?

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Well, Charles Babbage is usually credited with building the first electronic computer. He was an English engineer and he designed the first one in about I think it was 1832 and revised it four times in his lifetime. So he's generally considered the father of the physical computer.

Statewide Access And Event Variety

Amber Ivey 12:41

Yes, the answer is Charles Babbage. He's considered the father of the computer. Last question: Who is credited with using the term STEM first? Let's see if we have the same answer.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

So the concept of STEM or using it as a term began in the 1990s. The woman that I was always told was the first person to use it was Judith Rameley. She was the director of the National Science Foundation, and she's credited with using that term in 2001. She was a biologist and an administrator, an educator, and she's given credit for using the word first.

Amber Ivey 13:21

Oh, yeah. And I was struggling to find the answer too, because I guess originally it was science, math, engineering, technology. She didn't like the way the acronym was set up, so she actually changed it to STEM. But totally cool, and you got them all right. Thank you so much for playing with us. And kids, hopefully at home you learned something new and hopefully you were able to also answer some of those questions. You all are coming up on your 10th anniversary. Can you tell us about some of the highlights that you've experienced over the past decade?

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Sure. We did an event, we called it Sports and STEM. We did that at Morgan State and we brought in an elementary school nearby and we ran through different activities of sports and showed how they were connected, how they use STEM. The subtitle for the event was Sports, Applied STEM, because you can't have almost anything without STEM, but you certainly can't have sports without STEM. So we brought in these students, we went through these different activities, they learned a lot about how STEM was integrated, sports were dependent on it. When they got back to their classroom, they told their teacher that we want to be part of STEM, we want to be part of something big.

Amber Ivey 14:24

Ah, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

You know, that was amazing to hear. Another event that I'm very proud of that is going on, we call it the Middle School STEM Professional Match. And we started that two years ago. And what we do is recruit STEM professionals to talk to students in middle schools. And they go in and tell about what they do. We've done it at about a dozen schools. We hope to grow it. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the students, the teachers, and the professionals as well. They all really get a lot out of it and really enjoy doing it. That event has been going very well. We're really looking forward to expanding it.

Amber Ivey 14:56

That is amazing. You actually had brought me on to do one of those, but the timing didn't work out. So I end up going another week to one of the schools. And it was just so cool to talk about that. And one of the things we actually talked about relates to your topic around the sports in STEM. So I was talking to kids about STEM in general. So I was asking them a similar question like, where do you think STEM does not show up in your everyday lives? And some folks brought up sports. And then there was a young kid in the room who was like, all in. He was like, no, they use AI to predict what's happening or to capture different things. And he was like literally talking about how STEM was so involved in just the sports he loved and how that's something he really appreciated and admired. And I, as a person who's participated in that, can truly say that the kids learn a lot, the professionals learn a lot. It's just an amazing program to bring the two worlds together. And these kids just made me feel like wow, how they're thinking was just so amazing. So thank you for doing that program.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yes, I just spoke with someone who participated this year. He's a traffic engineer, and he was telling me how he couldn't believe some of the questions the kids were asking. One even asked about internships. And he said, Well, you know, just wait till you at least get to high school before you get into internships. But he said the questions just lew him away.

Origins: From DC Mall To Middle School

Amber Ivey 16:07

I know times change, of course, but the questions for me too, it was like, You're thinking about this now? I'm like, y'all are way ahead of where I was at that age, they're way ahead of where I was in college, darn near. Having curiosity and asking questions and learning more literally helps you to open doors that you may not have been able to open before. So I did want to ask you another question about AI and the STEM festival. And I know you kind of start talking about it with some of the new things you've seen with AI popping up. How has AI's visibility grown? Not even just in the STEM festival you've seen, but in general, how have you seen AI change over the last 10 years?

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Well, it just has more and more capabilities. It's become more and more visible partly through the media. You can't turn on a TV or look at a website or watch a movie where it's not mentioned, where it's not discussed, where the benefits are not preached. Students may not know, but the concept of AI actually started back in 1956. It started at Dartmouth College. That's where they first came with the idea. So it's been around for quite a while, but it's just exploding. And one of the main reasons it's exploding is because of computing power. Back when the idea first came up, they just didn't have the capabilities of processing the AI functions or applications. But as we keep getting more and more powerful computers and develop more computing powers, we're able to do more with AI. I just read about a great application in medicine where they collected data for some disease, I forget which one, but the amount of data they collect, no way a human or even a group of humans could go through it in a reasonable time. So they plugged it into AI to identify the patterns and potential ways to address this disease.

Amber Ivey 17:42

And that to me is just the life-changing things that can happen with AI. Like you said, I'm glad you pointed out these concepts have been around forever. Always quote Dr. Rama Stopella at JSU actually, AI is old enough to be on Social Security because a lot of people are nervous of it. But as a reminder, it's been here for a while. But to your point, our computers are now able to handle the capacity of that. Like I think back to the first smartphone that came out and how many megabytes it held or how many gigs it held. I can't remember at the time how low it was. Now you look at we're at terabyte of data being held on your phone, just seeing how even on our own devices that has changed drastically. I do want to shift the conversation a bit because I know one of the things you talked about was that your history or your job and career feel is actually not in STEM, but in auditing, which is still interesting because I still think very STEM adjacent, if not aligned in so many ways. But you were an auditor for various government agencies. Talk a little bit about what that meant, as well as how that influenced your work uh with the STEM festival.

AI’s Growing Role At The Festival

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Well, it influenced it or affected in a couple ways. What an auditor does is they go in and they review the work or the records of people to make sure they're doing the best they can and also to make sure they're complying with regulations and guidelines and laws that they have to. Through that, it helped develop my management skills, which is very important to running the STEM festival. It helped me run projects and also run multiple projects and work with people who are running projects. So it helped me in that way. Towards the end of my career, I was IT auditor. I was at the Social Security Administration, which is an agency that provides money to a lot of people around the country. And I was looking at their information systems, their computers, to see that their computers were secure mostly, to see that they were doing the best to keep the bad guys out of their computers because their computers had a lot of very important information. I got to see one aspect of how STEM was benefiting people. It benefited people by insuring them and processing all the information so they get their money, but it also had to be protected. So I saw how STEM affected people that way.

Amber Ivey 19:45

That's so cool. And I didn't realize with the reference I made to Social Security earlier, that's one of the places you audited. After you get a job, you'll pay into something called Social Security. And after you get to a certain age, you're able to draw or pull money out of that fund in retirement after you work for many years and you've had a job. So making sure I wanted to detail that because I just realized we said it and I did not explain it.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

There's another key aspect with Social Security is they also pay if you're disabled. Certain people are not able to work. Sometimes it's for their entire life, sometimes it's only for a certain period of time. And depending on the severity of your condition and how long it will take before it's resolved, you may be able to declare disabled by Social Security and receive payments for that.

Amber Ivey 20:30

Thank you for that, Phil. I definitely forgot to add that part. There's a social security insurance for folks living with disabilities, and that is a good point. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

You're welcome.

Amber Ivey 20:39

As it relates to STEM, you've mentioned throughout the interview that it's part of our everyday life. Can you give some examples of how kids can see STEM in their daily activities?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Well, I want to go back to the sports analogy because that kid talked about sports and AI, but it's even more basic than that. Okay. I'm going to talk about basketball. So look at the different components of STEM. They all are involved in basketball. For example, there's a lot of physics and biology involved in basketball. How much force you use when you're dribbling the basketball, when you shoot the basketball, that's all a component of physics. How fast you run, how long you can run for, that's all biology. And what condition your body is in. Technology. The basketball that you dribble today is much different from the basketball that was first used over 100 years ago. It's got different components, it's constructed differently. There's a lot of technology that goes into that, as well as other parts of the game. The hoops are designed better, they're more resilient, they last longer. Same with the net. What about your shoes? Shoes involve a lot of technology to make them as comfortable and to help you as much as they can. And then those items have to be engineered. Someone has to design the shoes, someone has to design the basketball. And finally, it's all math in all sports. It's a lot of geometry. You have to figure out where you want to be on the court to take that shot. You have to figure out what angle, what arch you want to put on the ball when you're shooting. If you're playing defense, you want to figure out how to cut off the man you're covering. So you have to figure out the angle to get to him. So sports is very, very much dependent upon and integrate and uses STEM. And that's again why we call that event sports applied STEM. So that's one way.

Tech Trivia: STEM, Babbage, And The Term

Amber Ivey 22:17

Glad you literally walked us through every letter of STEM to explain how something that people often think about, oh, I want to play basketball, or I'm doing it after school or what have you, or I want to do sports as a career. And then saying I don't like math, but literally that is a feel that you have to have some understanding. The folks who are best at that game understand those components that you're talking about from what it means to shoot correctly to make sure they have the best shoes, the best equipment that goes along with it, and the best training, and it all revolves around STEM. So thank you for sharing that. What about AI and daily activities?

SPEAKER_00 22:50

The most basic way, and the way that it's been used for a long time that people don't think about is gathering information. For years, people have been typing into Google a question how far is It from Washington to Baltimore. The AI engine went out and searched it and came back with the answer. But now there's even more and more AI uses. I mean, I mentioned the one in medical research where it's used to look at large volumes of data. It can be used to create things such as documents. You tell it, I want to write a letter inviting Amber to participate in the STEM festival. And it will come up with a letter and you'll look at that and you say, it's a little long. And then you type in make it shorter. And then it comes back with a shorter letter, and then you tweak a little bit and you send it to Amber, and hopefully she'll be in the STEM festival. It can now be used to create images and sound. A lot of what your phone does is generated by AI. So its uses are just increasing and growing. As they say, the sky's the limit. If you can think it, you can probably figure out a way to have it done with or by AI.

Amber Ivey 23:50

Well, some people have been talking about Sora or OpenAI's text to video creator, but another AI came out quicker than Sora. I think it's called Luma AI. I forgot the name of their actual AI technology, but I'll drop it in the show notes. But I was playing around with it to basically create videos using tech. So it's just so cool to see all the things that are happening around these technologies and around STEM in general. Why do you think it's so important for all kids to have access to STEM education, considering what you just said, it's everywhere, it's all around us.

Ten Years Of Highlights And Impact

SPEAKER_00 24:22

There's a high probability that they're going to work in a STEM-related job, or even if they don't see it as STEM related, it's going to use STEM. They may end up being a writer, but they could be writing about STEM. They could be a psychologist, a psychiatrist. So they need to do it because there's a high probability that whatever career, whatever job they follow, it's either going to be dependent on STEM or it's going to be connected with STEM. Also, just to navigate everyday life, to learn how and know how to use the computer, to learn and know how to use your smartphone. We talk about smartphones, but so many devices are becoming smart now. You have your smart refrigerators, your smart toasters. Many of us have heard about that they're working on developing driverless cars. And so to be part of this world, the more you understand STEM, the more you can use it properly, the easier and better your life is going to be. Over 50% of the jobs that people have in five years haven't been invented yet. So part of learning STEM is adaptability and, as you mentioned, curiosity. So by being involved with STEM, you'll be more adaptable and you'll be able to adapt to the future that is being created with STEM.

Amber Ivey 25:27

So speaking of getting involved, how can kids get involved, one, in STEM, and to make sure others who they know have access to the well I'm going to throw out an idea, and actually this relates it back to Archie is find an area of STEM you really like, learn about it, and then become a teacher.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Become someone who shares that knowledge with others. Archie, for example, really got interested in coding, which led to AI, and she's done a lot of teaching. She's run some events for the STEM Festival. And every year we have a number of events that are run by students, sometimes for students, sometimes even for adults, that talk about or demonstrate some area of STEM they're passionate about. I like to say that not every area of STEM is for everybody, but there is some area for each person. You just have to find it. It could be AI, it could be astronomy, it could be agriculture. It's going to be hard for a person not to find a particular area of STEM that they like. And when they do, take it and run with it.

Amber Ivey 26:20

I love that. Thank you so much. Can you tell us about a project or event at the Maryland STEM Festival that you're really excited about right now?

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Well, there's a lot, but I'll focus on one. We're calling it the DaVinci STEM Day.

Amber Ivey 26:31

Ah, I like the name.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

I don't know if you know Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker.

Amber Ivey 26:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

He's done a lot of things. He did a one on jazz and on the Civil War. He's actually got a two-part documentary that's going to be released in November on Da Vinci. So Maryland Public Television, which we'll be showing it, was able to get a grant. And the woman in charge of the grant says, you know, I want to do something STEM-oriented. So she reached out to me. There has been a great annual event run by the Italian Cultural Center called Da Vinci Bridge Building Competition that they've been running. And it's been part of the festival for three, four years. And what it involves is a team of students, and it can be high school or middle school, who get together with pieces of wood and they build this bridge based on the Da Vinci design. And there are no bolts or nails or anything. It's strictly using leverage and gravity and physics to build this bridge. And it's a really cool event. It's open to everyone, and that will be a large part of the Da Vinci Day. And then we'll have other tables and booths talking about different areas of STEM. We invite to the Baltimore Bolts. The robotics team is planning to be there. And so we expect to have like 15 other STEM tables and probably face painting. And it's gonna be a fun day. It's gonna be October 20th, and we're really looking forward to that.

Amber Ivey 27:39

And how can kids and their parents learn more and get involved?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Basically, they can go to our website, ww.marylandstemfestival.org, and it tells you all about the festival. And then there's a tab for events, and if you go into that, there's a separate page for the Da Vinci events as well as some of the other events that are in the works, and that will expand. Last year we had over 300 events, and we expect to have more than that this year.

Amber Ivey 28:04

Wow, that's just so amazing. Phil, thank you so much for talking about Maryland STEM Festival. Anything else you want to share about that?

SPEAKER_00 28:10

So the festival will start on October 18th and it will run through November 17th. It will take place all across Maryland. Each year we have a theme, and our theme this year is engineering ideas to reality, but there'll still be many events on other topics besides engineering. We'll have the astronomy and we'll have robotics and we'll have healthcare and we'll have AI and biotech. Please come check out our website and see where all the events are and come to as many events as you can. And one other thing I want to mention is we also have a podcast we'd love you to listen to. The way our podcast works is I interview one STEM professional such as yourself. You've been on our podcast, and then I interview a student who's very interested in STEM. And I combine the two interviews and we release it every Wednesday and love to have people listen to it.

Amber Ivey 28:52

Please check it out. I will definitely drop that in the show notes for folks who are interested. I really enjoyed being on there with you, and I'm so happy that you've returned the favor to join me today. So thank you so much for that, Phil. And thank you for all the great work that you're doing. And hopefully, for the folks who are not in Maryland who are like, man, I wish I had a STEM festival or something like that. Can they reach out to you to learn how to start something like that in their own state or county or city?

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SPEAKER_00 29:16

Absolutely. I'm happy to talk to people. And even though we're based in Maryland, we do draw from some of the neighboring jurisdictions. We're looking to expand this year to have a few events in DC. We know that some people from DC, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Delaware have come to our events. So while we are based in Maryland, we're growing into we are a bit of a regional event, and I'm always happy to talk to people about STEM.

Amber Ivey 29:36

Thank you so much for that. Now I want to shift over to our fun bio segment. So it's called Two Truths in a Dream. You'll tell us two true facts about your life and one dream job you had as a kid. And I'll guess as well as the kids who are listening, we'll take some time to think through your two troops and your dream, and we'll figure out which one is your actual dream job.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

I went to Johns Hopkins University.

Amber Ivey 29:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

I've been in a play.

Amber Ivey 30:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

And my dream job was to be a cartoonist.

Amber Ivey 30:07

Okay. So I don't remember what school you went to. So actually, I'm gonna have a harder time with this than I thought. You said went to Hopkins, you were in a play, and your dream job was to be a cartoonist. I imagine you could have gone to Hopkins just because of where you're located in Maryland. So that could be true. The second one that you were in a play. I think you could be in a play. I know a lot of times you seem more like structured and someone who may not be into acting and things like that, but you actually are pretty funny and very engaging. You bring that with your personality, so you could be a good actor. And then third, cartoonist. I imagine you may have dabbled in that. So I'm gonna actually say Hopkins, and I'm probably wrong. The Hopkins is a dream, and the other two are the truths.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Correct. I went to Prince George Community College, College Park, and Bowie State University.

Amber Ivey 30:59

There we go. I also went to College Park for my master's. So cool. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you for playing that activity. And before we go, I want to ask you do you have any advice for kids who want to learn more about STEM and get involved in STEM activities?

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Absolutely. My first suggestion is at home, talk to your parents, see if they have any involvement. Some of your parents may be working in STEM or maybe working with STEM people. Second, I would say look at what's going on in your schools. Some schools have STEM clubs, could be robotics, could be math teams, could be ecology clubs. So see if there's anything going on in your school and also talk to your science teachers, see what they know about what's in the area. My next recommendation is to check out your local library. The libraries in Maryland are a phenomenal STEM resource. They are the backbone of the festival. You'd be amazed at what goes on at the libraries, whether it's coding classes or nature walks or book discussions or math clubs. There is an amazing amount of STEM that's going on your library. Of course, always look on the internet, see what's in your area that maybe those first couple of ideas didn't generate. And lastly, attend some Maryland STEM festival events. And we also have an opportunity. We have for middle and high school students in Maryland an ambassador program where you get to help the festival, promote the festival, and there are other opportunities. And it's a great learning and leadership opportunity. So we're always looking for more ambassadors to help out with the festival. And you can find out about that by going to our website. There's a page about our student ambassador program.

Amber Ivey 32:29

And we'll make sure to drop that in the show notes. And I just want to say again that I agree with you so much around the libraries. I think people forget about libraries at times, no matter where you are. Libraries have so many things happening. They're such a big part of community, and they're great places to start. I remember being a kid going to the library and then also getting like the mobile library that would come to our neighborhood, looking up to see when it would come by, so I can get a book that I reserved. But there's just so many things to learn there. So thank you for calling that out. Is there anything else you want to share to me, our listeners?

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SPEAKER_00 33:00

Again, just remember that STEM is everyday. And STEM, as I think Archie mentioned, STEM is really curiosity. We're all born with an A curiosity, and don't let that disappear as you get older. Unfortunately, some people lose that and always be curious. Be curious about everything. Don't be afraid to try new things.

Amber Ivey 33:18

Phil, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you all for listening and tuning in once again. Don't forget to subscribe to AI for Kids and stay curious.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Thank you for having me.

Amber Ivey 33:29

Thank you for joining us as we explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. Don't keep this adventure to yourself. Download it, share it with your friends, and let everyone else in on the fun. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast or on YouTube. See you next time on AI for Kids.