Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Ian Zagrocki | Jesse Prater, right, and his step-son Joey experiment with a hydraulic arm during the...... read more read more
Subscribe
More than 400 people from around the greater Kitsap region attended the 25th annual Discover “E” Day held at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum, April 1.
Discover “E” Day is a free annual community outreach event featuring hands-on activities and demonstrations designed to help teach practical applications of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This year’s event was the first to be held in person since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Valerie Johnson, director of education for the museum, said she was happy with the turnout.
“I'm glad that we get to start this back up in its traditional format,” said Johnson. “It's really wonderful to see everybody come out, especially after three years of virtual programming.”
Though primarily geared toward K-12th grade learners, the event was open to all. Attendees included, among others, children, parents, Sailors, engineers and military reservists from nearby bases. More than 50 subject matter experts volunteered to host the stations and share their knowledge of the various engineering principles demonstrated in this year’s activities.
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, a longtime partner with the museum on STEM-related programs and events, hosted four stations this year. Visitors to these stations built and tested straw rockets to learn about propulsion and created buoyancy systems out of potatoes, plastic baggies, packing peanuts, washers and other materials. They also worked with miniature hydraulic cranes and tested their engineering skills by using KEVA Planks to create towers, bridges and other structures.
"We really want to get kids’ engagement," said PSNS & IMF STEM Outreach Coordinator Erin Guizzetti. "There are a lot of things that kids can be doing, and there are a lot of really interesting jobs out there, and we want to make sure that we can reach out to kids and inspire them to have a pathway forward so they feel like they can do things, too."
At other stations, event-goers made circuits, paper periscopes and signal flags, and immersed plastic cups into tubs of water to simulate the way air pressure displaces water in diving bells and submarine rescue chambers. They also assembled and operated modular robots provided by the Puget Sound Navy Museum.
There was also a museum trivia scavenger hunt, a table for cribbage—a popular game among submariners that promotes math skills, according to volunteer Sarah Steffen of Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport—and an outdoor station where Sailors from Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Squadron One Flotilla One showed visitors UUVs.
Among the new partners this year were Gold Star Families and the Exceptional Family Member Program, two organizations that provide services for military families. Their station featured an echolocation activity intended to teach kids how dolphins communicate underwater and how submarines gauge their distance from the bottom of the ocean. It also included a drawing activity meant to educate people about synesthesia, the ability to “see” sounds.
The University of Washington, also new this year, was represented by museology graduate student Nicole Zitto. Zitto was there to share and solicit feedback on her thesis project, which she said aims to help service members who are moving, deploying or dealing with the loss of a family member find the resources they need.
There were about a dozen and a half stations at this year’s Discover “E” Day, which Johnson said is a significant increase from years past. She credited the event’s welcoming spirit for this increase and said she looks forward to seeing continued growth in years to come.
-KPT-
About Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport
NUWC Keyport provides advanced technical capabilities for test and evaluation, in-service engineering, maintenance and industrial base support, fleet material readiness, and obsolescence management for undersea warfare to expand America’s undersea dominance.
| Date Taken: | 04.04.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2023 15:57 |
| Story ID: | 441959 |
| Location: | KEYPORT, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 207 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Naval Undersea Museum Hosts 25th Annual Discover “E” Day, by Frank Kaminski, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT