Another fun-filled, chock-full Energy Day Festival, another new attendance record – just as plans to expand the event to three other cities next year unfold.
About 27,000 people – along with one of country music’s rising stars – turned out the afternoon of October 17 to applaud the dozens of Houston-area teachers and students recognized at the 5th annual Energy Day Festival. The record-amount of festival-goers viewed more than 75 interactive exhibits and scientific demonstrations showing on-going advancements and innovations in one of America’s fast-growing sectors – energy.
After attendees watched petrochemical magic tricks and used body movements to power a light bulb, they got to listen to a live performance by singer and songwriter Alyssa Bagley, a rising country music star who has opened for Clay Walker, Josh Turner, Dierks Bentley, Gary Allen, and Big and Rich, and will be opening for Willie Nelson in November. Hundreds of students from area schools, plus teachers and parents, volunteered to staff the event, and the Energy Day Academic Program (EDAP) awarded almost $15,000 to the winners of Houston-area STEM competitions.
Download images from the event.
The free, all-day event, held at Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston, remains the largest of its kind in Houston. For years, it has helped spark students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) – the basic classroom skills the nation needs in order to continue its record-breaking energy revolution and the affordable, reliable energy it has supplied to millions of American families, farms, factories, and small businesses in recent years.
“Over the last several years, it’s become crystal clear that STEM education is the gateway to our nation’s economic success,” said David Holt, president of Consumer Energy Alliance and the event’s chief organizer. “This is especially true in the energy sector, where technological advancements – namely the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing and radical advancements in nuclear and renewable energy – have transformed the U.S. economy, lowered consumer energy costs, and improved the economic prospects for millions of Americans.
Holt added, “We can only continue this record-setting energy revolution if we produce the well-rounded students we need with skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Energy Day makes that happen by showing students – tomorrow’s future workforce – the range of real-world possibilities available to them if they pursue a degree in a STEM-related field.”
Given the growing popularity of the event, the Energy Day Festival will expand to three other cities next year. In addition to Houston, it’ll also be held at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh in Sept. 2016; at the Petroleum Museum in Midland, TX, in Oct. 2016, and in Salt Lake City at a date and time yet to be determined.
This year’s Energy Day Festival marks the conclusion of a series of academic events happening from January to September. Students participated in the Energy Day Academic Program which is made up of the following 10 unique, citywide, energy-related competitions:
- The Education Foundation of Harris County Energy City of the Future Competition
- The Science Engineering Fair of Houston
- The Houston Affiliate NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award
- The CSTEM Challenge
- The International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, and Environment Project
- The SeaPerch Underwater Robotics Challenge
- The Young Inventors Association Of America Young Inventors’ Showcase of Houston
- The All Earth Ecobot Challenge
- The Energy Day Art, Essay, & Media Contest
- The John Kingsley Kerver Educator Award
- The next Houston-based Energy Day is scheduled for Saturday, October 15, 2016.