The Maryland STEM Festival is kicking off its fifth year of STEM events throughout the state. The month-long celebration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics takes place every fall with the goal to spark and interest in STEM careers for both children and adults.
This year, the festival is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon and the 60th Anniversary of the Goddard Space Flight Center by designating the Festival’s theme as “Space and Flight.”
Phil Rogofsky, the founder and Executive Director of the Festival, says there are hundreds of events to participate in, "It takes place in many locations over many days. We're trying to maximize the opportunity of Marylanders to embrace STEM and to have STEM experiences, so we don't want to make them travel far, we want to give them opportunities close because that's a big roadblock to a lot of people is getting to a STEM event, a STEM Festival, or a STEM activity."
Rogofsky says the idea to start the festival came to him at his son’s birthday party, "For his birthday, he wanted to go to USA Science and Engineering Festival in D.C. and we were talking on the way home and he said you know it was great, but I would have loved to have a few of my friends here and so we said let's try a small version at your school."
In its fifth year, the Festival has blossomed into a month-long program with hundreds of events.
A list of events can be found here.