For the fourth year running, volunteers from the SoCal Local Network partnered with OC Vital Link (@vitallinkoc) to particpate in their three day STEM and Arts Career Showcase as part of the 2017 OC Fair Imaginology event held at the OC Fair & Event Center, Costa Mesa, April 21 - 23, 2017. OC Vital Link is a California based not-for-profit whose vision is that all students will graduate with an understanding of their career potential, and through interactive programs, expand their resources to select their future career, and their mission is to be the link between industry professionals and educational organizations to prepare students for the successful transition to a meaningful career and help them explore, discover, and connect to their future career.

 





The OC Fair & Event Center, OC Fair Imaginology event invited students and their families to go “Full S.T.E.A.M. Ahead” for three days of competitions, exhibits and hands-on activities, all designed to explore the fun of S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.) Exciting workshops, build-your-own contests, scavenger hunts, hands-on activities and more fueled many imaginations. Orange County students, grades pre-Kindergarten to high school, were able to showcase their talents in a variety of individual and group project competitions in a variety of subjects including *Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math, and woodworking, digital media, gardening, photography and many more.  OC Fair Imaginology is the 38th annual education and entertainment event underwritten by the OC Fair & Event Center.


Our dedicated volunteers handled the large crowds of students, teachers and parents – there were hundreds of them!  The SoCal IET booth featured a van de Graaff generator to stimulate excitment, a Tesla coil to induce interest, and an opportunity for children to assemble their own IET Faraday LED flashlight.  All three activities were great successes and, no doubt, helped  inspire, inform, and influence the next generation of engineers.

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A new idea we tried out his year was our Micro:bit computer give away. All particpants had to do was send their #SoCalSelfie with our IET booth banners in the background to our @IET_SoCal Twitter account for a chance to win one of five Micro:bits!  Congratulations to our winners @nacrealtors1, @curlygirlca, @FunnyFrances, and @lucmom who are our #SoCalSelfie winners!