The Big Hoopla’s annual STEM Challenge, held as part of NCAA First Four Tournament activities at the Dayton Convention Center, included demonstrations in science, technology, engineering, and math for students in kindergarten through eighth grades, as well as educational activities and a basketball “hot shot” contest.
The NCAA First Four Tournament returns to University of Dayton Arena Tuesday and is expected to draw tens of thousands of basketball fans and generate millions of dollars in economic impact for the Dayton area.
“It’s a Final Four experience for the First Four,” J.P. Nauseef, one of the founders of the Big Hoopla and who is also the president of JobsOhio, said about the Big Hoopla events being held this week.
Winners of each age group in the “hot shot” contest will take their final shots on the court of the First Four NCAA championship game Tuesday night, said chairman Terry Slaybaugh.
Approximately 700 kids pre-registered for Sunday’s STEM Challenge. Organizers said they expected another 500 kids would register on Sunday similar to previous years. More than 40 companies and organizations set up exhibits and interactive displays for those kids to learn about science and technology.
April Starbird and her five-year-old son, Silas, were among attendees to the STEM Challenge. Silas, who is in kindergarten, is just starting to learn about science.
Erika McWhorter of Springfield and her sister, Martia McWhorter, brought their two daughters, Solae and Skylarr, to the STEM Challenge on Sunday. Skylarr said she was particularly interested in math.
“I thought it was a nice activity to bring the kids to,” Erika said.
The STEM Challenge was one of the ways organizers of the Big Hoopla aimed to get more people in the community involved in excitement around the First Four.
“We wanted to be able to make something that was family friendly, that was beyond just the games, but that leveraged the excitement of the games and of the First Four to showcase what was great about Dayton,” Nauseef said.
Military personnel took part in the STEM Challenge events, hosting keynote speaker Lt. Gen. Donna Shipton, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“Ohio and Dayton value our military,” Nauseef said.
The Big Hoopla STEM Teacher Of The Year―Brittnee Lydy, a seventh-grade science teacher at the Dayton Regional STEM School ― was honored during the STEM Challenge’s opening ceremony. Lydy has been teaching for 25 years, including 14 years spent at the Dayton Regional STEM School.
The diversity of people in STEM, along with the range of careers in STEM fields, were among what Lydy was excited for kids to be exposed to at the STEM Challenge, she said.
“If they see it, they can be it,” Lydy said.
Eric Schwartzberg contributed to this story.
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