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The Colorado Rockies and Steve Spangler Team Up to Host the 12th Annual STEM Day Celebration at Coors Field – May 4, 2023
DENVER, COLORADO – Over 13,000 students and teachers attended the 12th annual STEM Day event at Coors Field on May 4, 2023. The event was hosted by the Colorado Rockies and Steve Spangler with help from Juniper Unmanned, Edge of Space Science and Estes Rockets.
“STEM Day is a wonderful opportunity to bring students, parents, and teachers together to celebrate all things STEM,” says Steve Spangler, STEM educator and television host of DIY Sci. “Our number one goal for the event is to plant seeds in the minds of these young learners about future opportunities in all kinds of STEM-related fields and careers.”
During the program, Steve Spangler featured some of his largest and loudest science experiments to get the audience fired up and ready to explore all things STEM. Liquid nitrogen mixed with hot water to produce enormous clouds that engulfed the stage. To demonstrate the power of the sun, teachers and parents from Ford Elementary in Littleton, Colorado, joined the Spangler team on the field to inflate what looked like 50 foot long, black trash bags by running around the field to scoop up air. The black plastic bags absorbed heat energy from the sun and caused the bags to float in the air. The team members were careful not to let the bags float away for fear of these unknown flying objects being shot down.
Rob Wright led his team of scientists from Edge of Space Sciences as they launched a weather balloon from Coors Field. That’s right… the FAA granted these scientists and the Colorado Rockies organization permission to launch a weather balloon and its payload from the middle of Coors Field. That means the FAA in collaboration with Denver Air Traffic Controller routed airplanes around Coors Field for 10 minutes in order for the balloon to climb to a safe altitude. The goal of the mission was to gather live data from several high altitude experiments. High-resolution cameras captured the details as the balloon reached an altitude of 84,412 feet. Professional trackers recovered the payload and the sensors carry all of that data in Prospect Valley, Colorado, just a few miles east of Keenesburg.
The educational outreach team from Estes Rockets conducted a high-flying lesson in rocketry as the audience made predictions about the altitude and trajectory of more than a dozen rockets launched from the main stage. Nicole Freyschlag, Education Content Specialist from Estes Rockets, treated everyone to an original rap song about the science of model rocketry… and the crowd went wild!
Professional drone pilots from Juniper Unmanned demonstrated how search and rescue teams use high-tech thermal imaging cameras to locate missing persons and investigate hard-to-reach areas. The expert pilots from Juniper Unmanned amazed the audience with some cool drone racing and gave everyone a true behind-the-scenes look at seldom-seen parts of the ballpark.
A Rube Goldberg-style contraption captivated the audience as the Rockies’ mascot, Dinger, worked hard to make his own snow cone. Big Wheel Beverages is a newcomer to our STEM Day event, and the audience loved seeing Dinger run in the 7-foot tall hamster wheel to grind and crush the ice, smash it in the cup, and add grape flavoring (Dinger’s favorite flavor is grape, of course). Katrin from Big Wheel Beverages did a wonderful job building connections between clever engineering and over-the-top creativity.
The Colorado Rockies share Steve Spangler’s vision for inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers by hosting this event for the past 12 years. “It’s great to be able to use the popularity of baseball and the Colorado Rockies to draw science enthusiasts of all ages to the ball park and to focus their attention for a few minutes on the wonders of science,” says Ryan Tapp, Manager of Group Sales for the Rockies.
This year’s STEM Day broke all previous records with attendance topping 13,000 students, parents, and teachers from Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
For additional information, call 303-ROCKIES or [email protected] or visit https://www.mlb.com/rockies/tickets/specials/themes/stem
