On February 13, MSMS students, faculty, and staff traveled to Thames Elementary school for the MSMS Traveling STEM Carnival. The MSMS Science Carnival has been a school tradition for more than 25 years but this is the fifth year to host it across the state, the second year to include math stations, and has since been relabeled as the STEM Carnival.
During the carnival, every fourth-grade student in the Hattiesburg School District had the opportunity to see several interactive STEM related demonstrations conducted by MSMS students. The MSMS students in the science section presented projects and experiments that introduced higher-level scientific concepts. The students in the math section, however, focused on teaching students different and more effective ways to answer more challenging grade-level concepts.
Taking the program outside of Lowndes County goes to the heart of the school’s mission; “Part of our mission to ‘enhance the future of Mississippi’ is outreach,” says Dr. Germain McConnell, Executive Director. He added, “We understand how important it is to inspire the next generation of STEM professionals at young ages.” Erin Williams, a senior at MSMS expressed, “It is nice knowing that my current school is giving back to my elementary school.” Williams added, “I am glad that the STEM carnival was able to provide those students with knowledge they might not have known yet. It was nice to see how excited the students were about the carnival.”
Hattiesburg was chosen this year because of one our alums. “Chad Edmonson has talked to me for a few years about bringing the Traveling STEM Carnival to Hattiesburg, and I am happy that we were able to do so this year,” said Dr. McConnell. Edmonson is a 1999 graduate of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. Edmonson expressed, “The Traveling STEM Carnival is a great way to show kids how much fun STEM can be.” He added, “Investing in this event allowed my wife, Catherine, and I to support two of our favorite causes, the city of Hattiesburg and my alma matter.” Edmonson is the is the managing partner of Lee-Way Financial in Hattiesburg.