2015 Bezos Scholar Julie Fukunaga and educator Sandi Starr founded the NorCal Science and Tech Festival after combining a shared passion for science with a community ask for increased science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) opportunities in the community.

The festival features hands-on STEAM activities from a banana keyboard, to Snap Circuit UFOs, robotics, live chemistry demonstrations, a rideable hovercraft, Makers crafts, environmental science displays, health center booths run by local pharmacies and hospitals, solar oven demonstrations, 3D printing, a Hitachi Electron Microscope lab, a coding workshop, and panels from local speakers, just to name a few of the hundreds of activities! Watch a video from the first NorCal Science Festival and hear from participants.

“I think there has been an increased awareness in how fun science can be,” shares Ms. Starr. “The event helped to let the school district know that the community supports science education and let the community know that we want to head in that direction.”

The NorCal Science and Tech Festival welcomed more than 5,000 people in its first two years, alone! Look forward to this year’s Festival and check out: http://www.norcalsciencefestival.org/