It’s been a phenomenal four days for STEAMLabs since our Kickstarter began last week. Our amazing supporters have already pledged almost $3600, not to mention spreading the word about us across different social media networks. So THANK YOU to our 24 amazing backers who are helping us make our dream of a truly accessible, community makerspace come true!
This weekend we also had a fantastic time helping kids explore Mars at the NASA Youth Space Challenge. Over 120 participants came out to discover Mars and space in general. They operated Jade robots that look suspiciously like miniature Mars rovers provided by Mimetics, watching a video feed and using a joystick to move the robots around our miniature Mars set up.
The kids also tried out programming, many for the first time, using drag-and-drop blocks to program the rover so it would explore on its own. Watch out NASA – these kids are the explorers of the future!
Kids who approached the STEAMLabs table also got to try their hand at meteorite hunting. They had to find the one meteorite among a collection of “meteor-wrongs”. The kids even got to hold a vial containing grains from a real Martian meteorite. They didn’t just explore Mars, they also got to hold a piece of it in their hands, something most adults don’t even get to do!
Can you find the meteorite in this picture?
The NASA Youth Space Challenge is one of our favourite annual events and we hope to be back again next year.
For now, we would like to once again say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported our Kickstarter and all the participants at the NASA Youth Space Challenge. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Do you want to help us inspire kids to become inventors and build a brighter future? Support our Kickstarter today!