Photo courtesy of Guthrie County Extension.

Kids across Guthrie County got to take home the fun of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math during the month of June thanks to Guthrie County Extension and Outreach and the Southwest Iowa STEM Region.

COVID-19 prevented the two partners from holding their STEM Fest this spring as part of their five-year commitment. Instead they concocted the “Guthrie County 2020 Olympix: Imagine Your Own Adventure” and distributed STEM activity packets for two different age groups at all of the communities within the county’s school districts. Southwest Regional STEM Manager Deb Frazee says the program was an overall success, “We don’t know, this may continue as we go forward into the fall and so this may become our new normal, because the STEM festival is a regular part of our program. We’ve had three years of it already where we did the face-to-face with these business partners and those have just been the greatest activities. I mean we get 300-400 people on a Saturday afternoon, so having almost 400 children enrolled now that’s really exciting and we appreciate families engaging in our program.”

Most of the weekly dropoff locations for the packets were at public libraries, and Mary J. Barnett Memorial Library Director Pat Sleister and Panora Public Library Director Kim Finnegan both voiced their appreciation for having these active learning opportunities given to area children. Frazee thanks all those who were involved in the program, and she encourages parents’ feedback as they look to possibly holding similar events in the future.