Super STEM Saturday Booths

Stop by and learn how to fulfill badge requirements from Daisies to Cadettes!

• Scouts - Bear & Wolf Merit Badges
  • Bear Cub Scout - Super Science Adventure
  • Wolf Cub Scout - Air of the Wolf Adventure
  • Scout Badge Booklet
• Girl Scouts - Daisy Badge Activities
  • Daisy Fun Patch - Food Chemistry
  • Daisy - Eco Learner
  • Daisy - STEM Career Exploration
• Girl Scouts - Brownie Badge Activities
  • Brownie Fun Patch - Chemistry In Your Life
  • Brownie Fun Patch - Food Chemistry
  • Brownie - Home Scientist
  • Brownie - My Best Self
  • Brownie - Senses
  • Brownie - Wonders of Water
• Girl Scouts - Junior Badge Activities
  • Junior Fun Patch - Chemistry In Your Life
  • Junior Fun Patch - Organic & Inorganic Chemistry
  • Junior - Animal Habitats
  • Junior - First Aid

   

• Girl Scouts - Cadette Badge Activities
  • Cadette Fun Patch - Biochemistry & Physical Chemistry
  • Cadette Fun Patch - Organic & Inorganic Chemistry
  • Cadette - Animal Helpers
  • Cadette - First Aid

   

• Girl Scouts - Senior Badge Activities
  • Senior Fun Patch - Biochemistry & Physical Chemistry

Did you learn something exciting during your visit with us?  Visit the University Bookstore and pick up fun hands-on science kits and activity-based science books to continue your love of STEM at home!

Learn more about The Classical Academies, an organizaiton of award winning, tuition free, public charter schools serving grades TK-12 in North County San Diego.

Are you ready for a STEM adventure?  Join a tour led by our student ambassadors and learn more about CSUSM!  This tour is designed to help current high school students prepare for taking those next steps with college applications but open to everyone who wants to learn more about the campus.  Tours start every 15 minutes and are 40 minutes in length.

"Feel" Electromagnetism, along with computer and flight technology in a fun, interactive environment.

General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation is a Cosmic Sponsor.

Create colorful, hands-on designs while learning how Mission Federal Bank uses smart planning, technology, and innovation to support financial systems that power everyday life.  Connect patterns, problem solving, and real world money skills in a fun and engaging way! 

Mission Federal Credit Union is a Photon Sponsor.

Join North City and the Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos in building the tallest structure possible - with straws or pasta!  Think that's good enough?  Add weight or shake the table to see if it remains intact.

North City is an Atomic Sponsor.

Link up with your family and friends to create a human circuit!  Learn about the components of a simple circuit and experiment with different materials to see which are conductors and insulators.

Burns & McDonnell Western Enterprises, Inc. is a Gravity Sponsor. 

Learn how to accurately measure, transfer, and dispense small volumes of liquids with this specialized tool used in research.

Bristol Myers Squibb is an Atomic Sponsor.

Experience water saving technology with irrigation controllers, flow sensors, and weather devices.  These are used by CSUSM to save tens of millions of gallons of water every year compared to traditional landscape irrigation!

CalSense is a Gravity Sponsor.

Busy Bees Magnets Exploration

 Work with magnets to better understand how to keep yourself and buildings safe.

Busy Bees Locks & Keys, Inc. is a Photon Sponsor.

What happens when red, green, and blue meet?  Mix lights to create interesting new colors!  Learn about mass by using a mini trebuchet to launch items at a target.

Hunter Industries is an Atomic Sponsor.

Create colorful art ins pired by microchip patterns and discover how ASML's machines use light to help make the tiny microchips that power modern technology.

ASML is an Atomic Sponsor. 

Gourmet vegan cookie company with classic and creative flavors, including wheat-free options.  Located in North City.

Offering snacks, drinks, and coffee.

Learn about what makes a Mentos Fountain work and experience it on a small scale every 15 minutes.  Help count down to a full sized explosion at 10:30AM, 11:30AM, 12:30PM, 1:30PM, 2:30PM, and 3:30PM!

Drop raisins in graduated cylinders of soda water and watch them dance as the density changes.

Place a balloon over a soda bottle to mix a solid and liquid to create and catch the gas.

Explore glacier science with hot and cold water, salt water, and various objects.

Build an alien ocean!  Bubbles rise like they do near hydrothermal vents - places where life can thrive without sunlight!

Test out your vertical jump with the CSUSM Kinesiology Club!  Find out how much "power" you have in your punch with an accelerometer. How does your body work and process when doing this?  Learn how to be safe and healthy when you are doing these activities.

Explore different styles of volcanic eruptions and what the rocks tell us.  Match volcanic textures to their eruptive styles and watch a magma flow with baking soda and vinegar.

View interesting rocks, minerals, and fossils on display.

Join the Student Nurses Association for fun, hands-on activities that introduce you to basic patient safety concepts.  Learn with Mr. Cuddles and his friends how to match medication to the correct patient, wrap wounds, and learn the ABCs of nursing!

Grifols is a Cosmic Sponsor.

Build an artificial lung and learn about respiratory anatomy, partial pressure, and how lungs function.  How does disease impact lung function?  

Grifols is a Cosmic Sponsor.

Create a model smile and then learn how to floss properly and take care your dental health with the Pre-Dental Society.

Grifols is a Cosmic Sponsor.

Ever wonder what's in a blood sample?  Explore and assemble the different components that make up plasma, red and white blood cells, and platelets with MedLife students.

Grifols is a Cosmic Sponsor.  

Stop by and say hello to Super STEM's favorite monsters: Greg, Callie, Valentina and Galentina.  And then make your own!  Explore polyurethane polymers by making foam and decorating a monster face. 

*This booth is extremely popular so you may need to wait in line to participate.

Be a veterinarian and identify the animal based on their X-ray!

Learn about the natural history and ecosystems of the species studied in the CSUSM Sustaita Lab, including salt marsh harvest mice, Loggerhead Shrikes, and hummingbirds. Students will demonstrate what fieldwork looks like through interactive displays and games.

Determine how well you can identify a scent!  Learn about scent molecules and how sensitive some animals sense of smell can be.

Crunch it!  Stir it!  Magnetize it!  Watch real iron come out of cereal, then discover how your stomach acid helps break iron down so it can help your blood carry oxygen.

Be dazzled as chemistry takes center stage in this exciting show for all ages! Shows at 11:00AM, 1:00PM, and 3:00PM in ARTS 240. 

Bachem is a Photon Sponsor.

Experience an informative, bat-friendly experience in the midst of our elevator construction on the 1st floor landing and through the hallway into the Arts Lobby and back outside to Chavez Plaza.  Restrooms are located in this hallway.

Have some Pi(e) themed fun with the Center for Research & Engagement in STEM Education (CRESE) Mobile Making Program!

Blast off for a planet to explore and engage in a unique set of challenges along the way!  Can you survive the experience?  

View solar spots through a telescope with the Department of Physics (weather permitting).

Join the Quantum Physics Student Organization to discuss how black holes lose information in a way Einstein's theories don't account for and how quantum might fill those gaps.

A whole lot of joy and happiness in each bite!  Located in North City.

Drive Arduino-based Lunar Rovers through an obstacle course.

Can your bot win the battle? Build a mini motorized robot out of toothbrush heads with STEM Ambassadors from CRESE and test it out in our bot mazes.

Did you order some pi(e)?  Learn to code and drive Sphero robots, who are serving it up at this fictional restaurant!  

What makes yeast grow?  Combine ingredients and then throw in some rubbing alcohol to see what the effect is.

Make nylon and see just how far you can stretch it!

Join the Amateur Radio and New Energies Clubs to learn how to transmit FM signals to a boom box. See how spectrum analyzers and handmade radios are created and used.

Viasat is an Atomic Sponsor.

Experience how virtual reality is used for chemistry and biochemistry.

Learn about our University Police Department at CSUSM, tour a squad car, and meet Hans, our K-9 Officer!

Jump in and become an engineer as you build your very own claw grabber! You’ll cut, fold, and create grabby fingers, then add a straw controller to make your claw open and close—just like an arcade game. Once it’s built, the fun begins! Experiment, problem-solve, and redesign to make your claw work even better. 

Can you create the tallest tower?  Build a free-standing structure using only 10 sticks of spaghetti, some tape, 3 rubber bands, and 6 small marshmallows. 

This is your chance to interact with a two-armed robot who can draw letters, pictures, and caricatures.  Select the drawing you want and a computer system supported by an AI model will produce its own unique version for you to keep and treasure!  Speak with the Classical Academy High School students who planned, designed, constructed, and programmed the robots.

Step into an immersive VR walkthrough designed around questions, answers, and live-style demonstrations. 

Behold the power of 400,000 volts of static electricity!  Watch the giant Van De Graff Generator life solid objects and suspend them in mid-air.  Witness the electrificiation of an entire living human being, offering one a major bad hair day!

Explore Newton's Laws of Motion as you test and a build a roller coaster made with recycled supplies.  

View fruit flies with different physical markers under a microscope and then create your own.  Learn more about the research occurring in the Kezos Lab with students who study fruit fly development and heart rates.

Learn about stem cells and create your own on the shrinky dink paper with students affiliated with the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

Learn how stem cells become different type of cells in the body with a hands-on activity with students affiliated with the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

Experience creative coding through exciting hands-on activities with UCSD students!  Be amazed to see coding in virtual reality (Embodied Code), learn coding concepts while playing Byte Beads game, and build and code a mini KOOV robot.

Learn with students from the Diaz-Almeyda Lab how corals and jellyfishes have a super secret microbe that helps them thrive and create your own coral reef.

View live plankton through a microscope and then build your own plankton using everyday items with students from the Taniguchi Lab. Test your plankton to see if it can be neutrally buoyant in water (neither floating at the top nor sinking at the bottom).

Food vendor

Select from Panda, Crash's Market, Hilltop Bistro, or Qdoba and relax in the Viasat Lounge while enjoying your meal.

Viasat is an Atomic Sponsor.

Explore the world of 3D printing by learning how digital designs become physical objects.

Dimensions Collaborative is a Gravity Sponsor.

Can you solve the 3D puzzle?

Can you solve the geometry puzzle?

Step into the fascinating world of speech-language pathology and explore the incredible brain processes behind communication. Whether you're curious about how the brain works, want to pursue a career in Speech-Language Pathology, or just love learning new things, this booth has something for everyone!

Learn the Art of Pi and discover the beauty of math through creativity.  Puzzles to solve and count on with the Association of Women in Mathematics!

Build a block circuit that light up, spin, and buzz!  Solve mind-bending puzzles that tests your problem solving skills and then discover how color illusions can trick your brain.

Sponsored by Photon Sponsor, San Diego Foundation.

Build, test, and explore how to build a bridge using everyday materials and experiment with different designs to support weight, just like real engineers do!

Explore different STEM careers with the Student Success & Engagement Team from the College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics.  

Create a Lorentz force by using a simple homopolar motor, battery, copper cells, and a neodymium magnet.  Watch the electrical current flow!

Step into a world of trickery where your brain becomes the star of the show!  Create and spin optical illusion discs and see images come alive in surprising ways.

Take the challenge and build a square using 7 variously shaped pieces.

Channel your inner Renaissance engineer as you build a self-supporting bridge designed by Leonardo DaVinci.  Create a bridge with wooden sticks only - glue and tape are not an option! - through clever geometry and balance.

Join the Jameson Lab research students and learn how to identify and match organs to the cells you view under a microscope.

How many magnets can you lift at once? Explore the invisible forces of magnetism and discover how balance, distance, and force affect magnetic strength.

Marvel at the details often unnoticed or invisible to the naked eye.  See tiny details with magnifying glasses, microscopes, and telescopes and complete an Eye Spy scavenger hunt!

Play naturalist games that encourage scientific observation and critical thinking while viewing fascinating from their extensive collection of animals, insects, and more!

Come be inspired and amazed by the science and glory of the physical world!  Shows at 10:15AM, 12:00PM, and 2:00PM.

Viasat an Atomic Sponsor.

For new cubers, use cubing tutorials and create Rubik's Cube mosaics at our booth on Forum Plaza. Then witness an exciting competition as teams of eight work together to solve 25 3x3 Rubik's Cubes in the USU Amphitheater!  Join us for a speed competition (no registration required) from 12:30-2:00PM.

The discovery of marine ecosystems from an indigenous lens with seaweed pressing and legos with the Center for Training, Research & Educational Excellence (CTREE).

Step into our hands-on STEM Fidget Lab, where creativity, science, and sensory fun come together!  Design and create an interactive fidget while exploring concepts like motion, force, balance, and patterns.

Join the Vallecitos Water District to view microscopic water creatures while learning about careers in water utility and conservation.

Meet Gnorp, a robot designed, built, coded, and operated by the FIRST Robotics Team at Classical Academies. Help launch paper airplanes at a goal.

Step into the world of flight and explore the forces that make things fly by designing and launching hoop gliders and straw rockets.

Are you familiar with the important contributions of Mary Anning, Mary Leakey, and Jane Goodall?  Students from the Women's Gender & Equity Center will highlight their contributions to paleontology, archeology, and anthropology while conducting a fossil excavation.

Explore density as Skittles dissolve and colors stack into a vibrant spectrum.

Learn the principles of chromatography (literally ‘writing with color’) with the Jokerst Lab from UCSD by separating purple Kool-Aid into its constituent red and blue color bands. Bring your muscles to squeeze the column!

Watch a tiny reaction make a HUGE, foamy mess—just the way elephants like it!

Create your own bouncy ball by synthesizing a polymer.

Charge it up and let static electricity do the work as your ball zooms down the track.

Watch acid rain being formed and learn about what we do to prevent it.

Dive into the world of non-Newtonian fluids with a hands-on exploration of Oobleck! This material behaves in strange and fascinating ways—it acts like a liquid when handled gently but becomes solid when force is applied. 

Explore compounds found in plants and bugs that are used as dyes. Create your own natural work of art!

Squeeze, release, and watch a cloud form! See how pressure and water vapor work together to make clouds.

Bubbles filled with fog? Yes, please! Watch gases behave in a magical way.

Build a paper airplane with all the engineering behind great flight, then compete to see who can fly the farthest! 

Create catapults out of popsicle sticks to teach about forces, energy, and angle measurements/distance with STEM Ambassadors from the STEM Success Center.

Let your creativity run free and create your own germ with the Biotechnology Student Organization.

What makes wood so strong?  How do years, seasons, and weather impact a tree's growth?  The American Chemical Society San Diego will have models of cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin while studying tree rings under a magnifying glass.  

Join the Society of Physics Students and Women in Physics to estimate how high the rockets fly!

Strike up some science!   Become a musician and engineer while exploring how sound waves create music.

Watch science come to life as you create your very own bubbling lava lamp! Mix water, oil, and a splash of color before dropping in a mystery ingredient that sets everything in motion. As colorful blobs rise and fall, you’ll uncover the science behind density, chemical reactions, and buoyancy—just like a real scientist!

Experience the physics of light and color and how we as humans see with a spectroscope demonstration.  See chemical reactions with alginate worms and human anatomy with heart and lung models.

Join us for an engaging hands-on activity: the Popsicle Catapult Challenge! Participants will engineer their own catapults to launch a basketball into hoops positioned at varying distances (3ft, 6ft, and 9ft).

Build a WhirlyBird and conduct experiments to see how gravity works against lift. How long does it take to reach the ground and how can you make it fly longer?

Make feather helicopters out of straws, feathers, and paper clips.

Spin into science by designing and building a penny spinner while exploring balance, motion, and rotational forces. 

Extract DNA to make a DNA necklace.

Discover the hidden textures of nature as you create beautiful leaf rubbings using crayons and real leaves. Participants place leaves under paper and gently reveal their patterns, veins, and shapes through color.

Take a guess at which objects are magnetic. Are there magnetic rocks in our local sand? How many paper clips can your magnet hold? Compete against family members and friends!

How many tissue squares can you magically pick up? No glue, no water… just a balloon!

Create a boat and load it up with pennies!  How many can your creation hold?

Come explore how we can “see” the effects of sound waves. Tuning forks and water… what could go wrong?

Can water travel uphill? Try it yourself by using an Archimedes screw to move water upward!

Step into the role of an engineer and take on the challenge of cleaning dirty water.  Test your filter, observe how it works, and improve your design to make the water clearer.

Merge the exciting worlds of science and art!  Learn about force and motion and see paint create beautiful swirls and patterns based on the speed and direction of the spin.

Try your hand at some magic....or is it physics?  How does the ring slip onto the chain when it should fall right through?  Learn physics with some magic thrown in!

Get ready to build, explore, and snack your way through geometry! Use fruit snacks and toothpicks to design and construct 2D and 3D shapes. 

Can you guess the number of items in the jar? What are different strategies you can use to estimate? 

Dive into the wonders of the ocean and discover ways to keep our planet healthy—all while creating beautiful sand art!  Join CSUSM Sustainability for a fun and educational experience where you can unleash your creativity and learn about marine life and environmental conservation. 

Get your hands dirty! Plant an acorn and stroll the Ethnobotany Garden to learn about the unique uses for plants that are maintained by the CSUSM Department of Anthropology.

Take a PTC taste test to explore genetic differences in bitterness perception. Learn how inheritance shapes taste sensitivity and why some people experience stronger flavors than others.

Learn about the Mayan Calendar and Mayan glyphs with the Department of Anthropology. Convert your birth date from the Gregorian calender to the Mayan calendar.

Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds help plants make food—and without them, gardens couldn’t survive!  Explore pollinators habits and habitats that keep our food growing with the San Diego Botanic Garden and American Indian Student Center.

Learn about the science behind growing food and creating art like our ancestors did!
Aprende sobre la ciencia de cultivar comida y crear arte como lo hicieron nuestros ancestros!

Experience one of the oldest natural dyes from the cochineal bug. Explore the habitat of this interesting insect in the Ethnobotany Garden.

Examine the anatomy of a horse and what is required to keep them healthy.  Learn about the special relationship humans have with horses and why they play a special role in our lives.  Ivey Ranch Park Equine Ambassadors, Cowboy and Romeo, will be on site from 11:00AM-2:00PM!

Read with certified therapy dogs from Love On A Leash to increase your oxytocin levels and learn the scientific benefits of therapy dogs to people of all ages.

Step into our shaded booth and unleash your creativity!  Arrange an assortment of items on light-sensitive paper, crafting unique compositions. Once satisfied, venture into the sunlight to reveal stunning cyanotype prints in just minutes. Join us at The Makery's Sunlit Studio and let your imagination shine!

Do you see the UV?  Learn about light (electromagnetic) radiation by making a bracelet or keychains out of UV absorbing pony beads. 

The Mobile Children’s Museum is all about sparking early interest in science, technology, engineering, art, and math all through the power of play. From building flying inventions in the Wind Tunnel, to constructing giant structures with Blue Blocks, to problem-solving with Rigamajig, kids get to learn, discover, and create in a way that feels like pure fun.

Learn from our littlest educators at High Tech High Elementary School about how objects move through the air.

Did you ever want to be a rocket scientist? Design your own compressed air rocket, and then launch it sky-high! We'll provide all the materials and help you make your own rocket.