Full steam ahead for Pasadena ISD students

San Jacinto College hosted more than 170 Pasadena ISD students and their family members at its South Campus for the annual Pasadena ISD STEAM Fair on Jan. 24.

The STEAM Fair — or science, technology, engineering, art, and math — featured science projects judged by San Jacinto College faculty and students and Pasadena ISD faculty, campus tours, and activities at the mobile Chevron Fab Lab.

One of the anticipated tours included a look at the College's health science labs, led by Dr. Kira Beal, South Campus department chair of health sciences, where students observed anatomy and physiology college students completing a dissection. In addition, students engaged with an interactive art gallery exhibit and learned about the early college high school programs available to them while visiting the library.

"I love seeing the interactions between our faculty and the Pasadena ISD students, and I really enjoy seeing how excited our San Jac student volunteers are about teaching these younger students," said Lambrini Nicopoulos, South Campus department chair of life sciences. "Our ISD partnerships allows the College to connect with future students and encourage them to pursue their interests in STEM occupations. We want to continue fostering a positive relationship with those students, faculty, and families by providing a rich scientific environment that encourages mentoring, critical thinking, exploration, and research."

In addition to the daytime activities, students and their families enjoyed some of the same activities and experiments that evening for a STEAM Expo prior to the STEAM Fair awards ceremony.

"Our annual STEAM Fair allows students to be engaged in STEM-based activities while also reminding the student and their parents that there is a highly acclaimed local college right in their backyard that can serve as an excellent starting point on that pathway to an exciting STEM career," said Holly Yoes, Pasadena ISD curriculum and instruction specialist for secondary science. "We believe the district's partnership with San Jacinto College allows us to have continued conversations aimed at ensuring that we are preparing our students to gain essential STEM-based skill sets that will set them up for STEM success at the college level and beyond."

For more information about the College's STEM programs, visit sanjac.edu/STEM.