The 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) STEM Expo was a success! This year’s STEM Expo marked the fifth annual event for students in kindergarten through 8^th grade. Over 40 companies and organizations provided activities for the more than 500 eager minds on Saturday, March 3rd at Thomas Worthington High School. The activities included rocket straws, terrariums, penny boats, map making, gumdrop and toothpick bridges, asphalt cookies, edible car races, and marshmallow catapults, to name a few.

Carpenter Marty Transportation has been an activity sponsor for all five years of the STEM Expo. Each year we sponsor a new activity to showcase engineering skills and knowledge. Our activities have included penny bridges, balancing robots, straw towers, and more. Due to the popularity (and fun!) of our 2017 activity, we brought the Marshmallow Catapult activity back to the STEM Expo this year. The activity involves planning, building, strategic thinking, and testing a catapult made of a wire coat hanger, rubber bands, and a plastic spoon. The intention of the activity is to work through an engineering design process that demonstrates one of the six simple machines: a lever. This year’s activity seemed to be a crowd pleaser for not only the students, but the parents too! Marshmallows soared toward targets on the wall, with a few line drives to our volunteer staff. The kids kept us on our toes! It was great to see sibling and parent-child challenges that took place.

Click here to see instructions and a video tutorial of how to build your own marshmallow catapult at home.

With the help of many volunteers and companies, like Carpenter Marty Transportation, the Central Ohio ASCE Chapter has been able to provide this annual event for free. Many of the materials and time are donated by corporate and activity sponsors, as well as individuals who are eager to help spark the interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

Carpenter Marty Transportation is committed to the encouragement and development of the engineering field and plans to volunteer for next year’s ASCE STEM Expo. Follow our social media pages for information on next year’s event!