Teachers, students and organizers found the event to be a success. 530 seventh- and eighth-graders from Escanaba Junior/Senior High School, Hannahville Indian School, Mid Peninsula School, Manistique High School, Rapid River Public Schools, Bark River-Harris, Big Bay de Noc School, North Central Junior/Senior High School, Carney-Nadeau Public School, Gladstone Junior High School and Holy Name Catholic School attended the recent Mind Trekkers in Escanaba. Held at the Ruth Butler Building on the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds on Jan. 21 under the name “OneUP Hidden Coast Festival,” the event was conducted through a partnership with Upper Peninsula Michigan Works! that began in 2022.

With a much farther reach than just the U.P., Mind Trekkers has been touring the nation since 2010.

“We are very proud to have traveled coast to coast with our program, from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco,” shared Jannah Tumey with the Center for Educational Outreach at MTU. “The events we have hosted and been a part of have welcomed over two million attendees!”

At each festival, Mind Trekkers brings together demonstrators from local industries, educational institutions and other community partners. Participating at the RBB in January were Bay College, DSISD CTE programs, Northern Michigan University, North Country Electrical Line & Heavy Equipment School / Midwest Truck Driving School, Billerud, VanAire, OSF Healthcare, Alger Delta Cooperative Electric Association, and Independent Machine Company. 

A middle-schooler practices scaling a mock telephone pole under the watchful eye of North Country Electrical Line School during the recent Mind Trekkers festival held at the Ruth Butler Building. (Photo courtesy of Katie Poma)

“This event was awesome because it got the students to see many STEM experiments and demonstrations one after another. All of the volunteers and vendors were extremely knowledgeable and were able to answer all of the inquisitive seventh-graders’ questions,” said Carlton Isaacson, science teacher at Gladstone Middle School.

There were stations with over 50 hands-on activities at the OneUP Hidden Coast Festival. Favorites with students were standing inside a giant bubble, seeing a piano made out of bananas, and skewering a bubble without popping it.

“It was a great day for the kids to get out of the school building and see them interacting with others who have similar interests while experiencing activities within the STEM field,” said Katie Poma, who also teaches at Gladstone Middle School. “Most of the kids agreed that either the basketball station or the liquid nitrogen ice cream was the highlight, but it was also great to see them try things they wouldn’t normally see in a classroom.”

In school the next day, several students were so intrigued by what they had seen from Mind Trekkers that they had additional questions about the science behind various experiments. “I was excited to see a few of the students who typically do not share their thoughts or questions with the class talk with enthusiasm about the Mind Trekkers field trip,” Isaacson remarked. “A huge thank you to all who made this happen. Many of these experiments will be talked about and recreated in our classroom!”

Several students enjoyed practicing climbing a pole set up by North Country Electrical Line School. Kids collected information from a number of the stations.

Standing inside a seven-foot-tall bubble was a surreal experience that many kids got a kick out of. It was one of many demonstrations put on my Michigan Technological University's Mind Trekkers. (Photo courtesy of Katie Poma)

“It’s always a win when a student finds something they’re interested in,” Poma said. “We appreciate the effort that went into putting it on and look forward to next year.”

MTU reported that as an outcome of the OneUP Hidden Coast Festival in Escanaba, 80% of students said they were more interested in STEM after the event, 98% were more interested in attending a college or university and 100% of teachers would bring their students to another Mind Trekkers event.

“This was the third year the event was hosted in Escanaba, and we hope to return in the future,” said Tumey. “We thank our event sponsors, including UP Michigan Works!, the Daniel J. Kobasic Foundation, Bay College, Delta Schoolcraft ISD Career & Technical Education, Advanced Blending Solutions, VanAire, Domtar, OSF Healthcare, and Alger Delta Electric.”

An IT Essentials Class on AI and Cybersecurity from Delta-Schoolcraft ISD showcases a custom-built AI computer to demo AI with chatbots, image generation, music generation, video generation, and AI programming. In the background is a computer with a rolling cyber threat map to talk about cybersecurity basics. (Photo courtesy of Jannah Tumey / MTU Center for Educational Outreach)