The Del Norte Unified School District, in partnership with the Klamath Promise Neighborhood (KPN) and True North Organizing Network recently invited the community to discover the wonders of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) at the very first Community Science Festival, on May 3rd at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds. 

The fairground’s main building hosted the main science experiences, while the arts and crafts building hosted booths set up by community partners such as CalFresh Healthy Living, Del Norte Indian Education Center, and Tobacco Free Del Norte.

Puzzles provided by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) lined the tables in the main building, where families could challenge their brains and have fun in the process. OMSI also showcased hands-on experiments with a Van de Graaff generator and states of matter.

Optical illusions and chemical reactions were explained during The Magic of Science show, brought to the festival by Mobile Ed Productions and hosted by Karen Lorshbough. 

The Fractured Portal VR Lounge and Redwoods Wonder Forge brought their headsets and robotics to the festival as well, where kids could try out virtual reality and control robots on wheels. 

The centerpiece of the main building was the Earth Dome presentation, where a geography and history lesson on our planet was taught from the inside.

KPN and True North also worked with the school district and DNATL Community Food Council to offer free healthy snacks during the festival. 

Community partners in the arts and crafts building conducted their own STEAM related activities along with sharing resources. Breastfeeding and toddler areas were also available for parents.

Days prior to the Community Science Festival, every school in the Del Norte area was invited to experience these wonders through field trips funded by the KPN grant and facilitated by True North, according to Community Organizer Andromeda Lopez.

The KPN and True North collaborated with the eight schools within the district and their respective leadership teams to distribute participatory budgets for the field trip opportunities, according to Lopez. Schools outside the district who didn’t receive a budget were also welcomed to attend. The schools visited the festival during the week before it opened to the public on Saturday May 3. 

“We were noticing that we were having a hard time getting our schools and our students out to field trips outside of town, so we thought this was a great way to get our students involved in educational learning and a fun field trip here locally,” Lopez told Redwood Voice. “It was just an opportunity to give back to our school sites and to make it inclusive, so that all of our schools felt like they had something that they could participate in and nobody was excluded from it.” 

“And we also wanted to make sure that kids had access to STEAM fun, so that way it might open up doorways to other possible career pathways or education that they might want to pursue,“ said Rachel Fosdick, K-12 Coordinator for the KPN and co-leader with Lopez.

According to Sequoia Commins, Community Navigator for True North, Lopez worked with her leadership team in Smith River Elementary to bring these science experiences, like OMSI, here to the kids of Del Norte. And Fosdick has been the backbone in funding the event with the KPN, and creating the “community science” aspect of the festival.

“[OMSI] decided that we could reach out and they could come here and perform in our schools,” Commins said. “And it kind of just continued to grow from there…For the past three days, we’ve been having buses come in from different schools to also enjoy OMSI and science.” 

On Wednesday April 30, the Science Festival hosted Del Norte High School, Smith River Elementary and Redwood Elementary Schools, who were given a private assembly by OMSI. On Thursday and Friday, the other schools, including Uncharted Shores Academy and Castle Rock, were invited to attend.  

This event was also free of cost to the schools, as transportation and snacks were paid for, according to Lopez.

The Redwoods Wonder Forge, one of the only STEAM-centered organizations for youth in the area, came to the festival to present their student-made robotics and share information about their programs. According to co-founder Ciri Orozco, the Redwoods Wonder Forge has only been established in Del Norte for about a year, and their three rookie robotics teams have already competed in leagues in Oregon. One of their first Lego League teams has also made it to the Oregon State Championships. 

Redwoods Wonder Forge also has a weekly STEAM club and will be offering Lego robotics summer camps, where kids can learn in a “boot camp” setting, Orozco said. 

According to Orozco, one way the Redwoods Wonder Forge encourages STEAM-related learning is by showing kids the technological possibilities in Del Norte. 

“One of the really interesting things that I’ve learned in founding this was when we had our Lego robotics teams doing their program, we brought in the [marine biologist] from the Tolowa Dee-Ni’ Nation and she brought in her drone operator,” Orozco said. “And she showed us how they operate underwater drones…to do research and to conduct actual, real live technology right here in Del Norte. So not only is it important to show kids what’s possible here, it’s also really important to give kids something to do that’s outside of school or sports, or even something they can do inside when the weather’s not that great out here. That’s really what our big focus is.”

Finding what the kids themselves wonder about is her “biggest driver” towards encouragement.

“Our whole thing is about igniting wonder,” Orozco said. “Whether that’s robotics, whether that’s art, whether that’s math, it’s just letting them follow what that interest is and showing them what that world of possibilities looks like. When we have kids, I always encourage them to lead the trajectory of whatever we’re doing.”

For Fosdick and Lopez, to encourage STEAM is to make the resources for them accessible, especially for the festival. 

“It’s important because they don’t have a lot of opportunity,” Fosdick said. “Part of the reason that the Klamath Promise Neighborhood was given to the Yurok Tribe is because we’re a tribal nation. We’re surrounded by 3-ish reservations, give or take…And so a lot of our youth do not get access or have resources to have this kind of fun or this kind of opportunity. So we wanted to bring it home for them.”

“And also just making everything free and accessible, too, ” Lopez added. “Del Norte Fairgrounds is an easy location centered in Crescent City, so folks from Klamath, folks from Smith River, and even across the border into Brookings, we’re seeing people come in just curious and just to have fun. We wanted to make it a big, fun family event where you’re learning and experiencing all of these amazing different aspects of science together as a family.”

Even if they’re not hosted by the KPN or True North, Fosdick and Lopez hope to see more of a collaborative and community approach to making events like the Community Science Fair happen in the future. 

“We’re hoping that this motivates our community partners, our organizations and institutions to see how fun and amazing and impactful something like this could be,” Lopez said. “With the hopes that if we move forward, that there is more of a collaborative approach, especially when it comes to funding and just executing it. I think Del Norte County needs more of these opportunities to just come out and enjoy things as a family and not have it be a burden for them financially.”