USA Science and Engineering Festival has sponsored this post.
The world went virtual in 2020—not just workplaces, but events and education, too.
The changes this past year have helped show that science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are more important than ever. It is through STEM that the world will move forward into the future, and ensuring STEM education is accessible to the world’s future engineers and scientists is vital.
We’re moving in the right direction, with an abundance of virtual events that have provided opportunities for many more youths and teens to engage in STEM learning.
The USA Science and Engineering Festival is one of the events that pivoted to a fully-virtual format in 2020 and 2021 with virtual versions of its usual festival: X-STEM All Access, which most recently took place in September 2021, and SciFest All Access, taking place October 2021.
As accessible as online events can be, it is still impossible to be two places at once, even virtually. But if you missed the live event, or couldn’t see everything that caught your interest, you’re still in luck – USASEF’s events are available on-demand after the live dates, so you can catch anything you missed.
What is X-STEM All Access
X-STEM is the USASEF’s STEM speaker series, presented this year in a virtual four-day format featuring a variety of STEM professionals speaking on topics ranging from aerospace to zoology.
Aimed at students in grades 6 – 12, the X-STEM speakers showcase their expertise in order to introduce students to different STEM careers and encourage the development of a passion for STEM subjects. The STEM role models featured in X-STEM cover a broad range of topic areas and represent top life science universities, high tech and life science corporations, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies.
The speaker series also aims to highlight the diversity of STEM professionals, to help bridge the gender and diversity gaps that exist in many STEM fields.
The Fall 2021 X-STEM event ran live from September 21 to 24th, 2021 as a daily interactive livestream. All the content from the event is currently available to watch on-demand at the X-STEM All Access 2021 page on the USA Science and Engineering Festival’s website.
The event was hosted by Justin Shaifer, known as Mr. Fascinate. A science communicator and STEM advocate, Shaifer dedicates his time to promoting inclusivity and diversity in STEM education.
“I first attended USASEF in-person in 2018 and was captivated by the amazing opportunities and technology that students were exposed to! After being completely mind-blown, I reached out to the X-STEM organizers and spoke with them about lending my skillset to the organization to perform keynote at the 2019 X-STEM. We had a blast!” Shaifer shared. When the event had to shift digital in 2020, X-STEM reached out to see if he would host the virtual X-STEM 2020. “The rest was history!”
Hosting a virtual STEM event isn’t quite the same as a live event. “While hosting in front of an audience can be anxiety-inducing for some, in-person hosts often have the benefit of feeding from the energy from the crowd. As a virtual host, you must keep your energy high even when you're in a room alone performing in front of a camera. It's hard to tell when the audience will think something is funny, serious, or makes them want to cheer,” Shaifer shared.
“Of course, nothing's better than being able to host an event for 50,000+ people in your pajamas! It's a fun role for sure!”
“I love being able to transfer my love for science & innovation to young people who may have not otherwise considered the careers ‘cool,’” Shaifer said. “Specifically, seeing the look on kid's faces when they realize how cool a marine scientist's job is, or how their smartphone, hair product, or favorite sneaker was literally engineered by a team of diverse, multifaceted people.”
“However, this work would lack depth for me if I weren't setting diverse students up for having key opportunities to succeed in our STEM-driven future. Granting students scholarships, writing recommendation letters, job opportunities, internships, and seeing them go on to study at MIT, get full scholarships or high-profile jobs is infinitely rewarding. I've just started doing this work long enough that there are some students who I initially exposed to STEM careers as freshmen in high school, who have now decided to major in a STEM field in college! These stories motivate me to keep going.”
“You cannot be what you cannot see,” Shaifer added.
“While kids’ brains are still young and neuroplastic, it's important to stretch their imaginations via exposure to diverse role models across STEM careers that look like them. There are many prominent jobs in entertainment, music and athletic fields that show kids how cool these jobs can be, but STEM jobs—the highest paying jobs per-capita in the U.S.—aren't often glamorized. It's important that kids and teens recognize that they can succeed in a STEM field regardless of their baseline talents and skill sets.”
“Emerging fields such as wearable tech, UX design, LIDAR, 3D Printing, AI and genomics demand people who are creative, have fashion-sense, interpersonal skills and strong emotional intelligence. The traditional "analytical" types that we often view as STEM-career archetypes actively collaborate with all of these types to build our future!”
X-STEM Fall 2021 Speakers
Wild About Animals
Tropical biologist Phil Torres of Discovery Channel’s Expedition X, and zookeeper and wildlife educator Jordan Veasley, share exciting stories about their animal-filled careers. Torres shares stories of his travels around the world for science, investigating mysterious creatures and exploring nature. Veasley makes learning about the animal world fun, and speaks about his role at the Cougar Mountain Zoo.
Real Life Robotics
Easton LaChappelle, founder and CEO of Unlimited Tomorrow, discusses using robotics to create innovative prosthetics using technology such as 3D printing, 3D scanning and 3D modeling. He also shares his ideas of what the future of prosthetics might be.
Robotics product manager Jasmine Lawrence shares her journey into robotics and entrepreneurship. She talks about her experiences working on robotics projects at Google’s Moonshot Factory, aiming to solve challenging problems with breakthrough technology. Her current project is building a new type of learning robot that will one day help people.
Next-Gen STEM
Catherine Kim is a recent high school grad who was awarded the 2021 Regeneron Young Scientist Award for her research into alleviating the severity of adverse drug reactions and paving the way for safer drug design and distribution.
Dasia Taylor is an acclaimed teen researcher who received national recognition when she developed color-changing sutures that can detect infection. Her future career focus is to incorporate equity into science, making life-saving medical technologies that are accessible to everyone.
Returning to the Moon
Hear from astronaut Zena Cardman, a marine biologist-turned-astronaut who takes her passion for science from the deep sea into outer space! Learn about NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon, preparing the way for human missions to Mars.
Dr. Moogega Cooper, NASA planetary protection engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, talks about her job protecting the universe from Earth’s contaminants, and protecting the Earth from the universe—with a focus on the upcoming Artemis mission to the Moon.
Brain Breaks and Sponsor Spotlights
Each livestream also included Brain Breaks featuring entertaining and informative (and sometimes musical) appearances from Dr. Tracy Fanara and the Inspector Planet team; “Hip Hop M.D.” Maynard Okereke; Roy Moye III and STEMusic; as well as special guests Collins and Devan Key from YouTube. Sponsor spotlights included Major Adrian Law of the U.S. Space Force and Dr. Susan Galbraith of AstraZeneca.
Continue the STEM Learning Journey
USASEF and X-STEM also offer a Partner Resources page with additional materials that students can use to continue their STEM journey and enhance their experience with the X-STEM event. This includes science activities and demonstrations, informational presentations and other information related to the X-STEM speaker topics.
Education materials and worksheets are also available for download by parents and educators, to help incorporate the X-STEM content into classroom lessons and at-home activities.
No registration is required to access the on-demand content from the X-STEM Fall 2021 event—it is all available to watch online at usasciencefestival.org/x-stem-all-access-fall-21.
If X-STEM has you craving more, then check out SciFest All Access 2021, which happened live from October 18-24, 2021. All content is now available on-demand for a full month after the live event. For a rundown of what SciFest All Access has to offer, check out our earlier article The Ultimate STEM Event: The USASEF SciFest All Access 2021.