NASA traveling exhibit to be at COD's STEM-CON event

Visitors can explore the technology behind space travel when NASA's Journey to Tomorrow traveling exhibit stops at College of DuPage's second annual STEM-CON from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at COD's Glen Ellyn campus, 425 Fawell Blvd.

The exhibit, housed in a 53-foot, air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible trailer, is packed with hands-on, educational activities and digital learning stations. Visitors can use a video game console to practice their moon-landing skills, view moon rocks and receive a free souvenir photo from the "Picture Yourself in Space" photo booth.

COD's STEM-CON, a free, interactive event celebrating science, technology, engineering and math, will start at 9 a.m. with a keynote talk, "Mathematics Can Be Tasty" by Eugenia Cheng, scientist in residence at Chicago's School of the Art Institute and author of "How to Bake Pi."

During her talk, Cheng will use unexpected examples from music, juggling and baking to show that math can be fun and intriguing for all.

Interactive booths, including the NASA exhibit, will open at 10 a.m., following the keynote presentation. Additional speakers will include Andre Jefferson, known for his YouTube videos of "stick bombs," and Fermilab's "Mr. Freeze" with a cryogenics demonstration.

STEM-CON will feature numerous opportunities for hands-on, interactive experiences through demonstrations and experiments designed to inform, entertain and spark interest in a variety of STEM topics, including exclusive video game coding classes, aerospace dynamics, crime scene investigation, 3-D Printing, Lego skyscraper design, nanotechnology, prairie ecology and restoration, the physics of flight with a real airplane on hand, river system development, robotics demonstrations, a weather balloon launch with real-time flight monitoring.

Representatives from COD, as well as a wide range of STEM-based organizations and institutions, including American Surplus and Science, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermilab and SciTech Museum, will be on hand to provide information and answer questions about education, innovations and careers in the STEM fields.

While registration for STEM-CON is not required, some activities require participants to sign up upon arrival.