The University Museum will host the STEAMFest from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, transforming the Museum grounds into a science and technology wonderland.

The event is open for all people to experiment and get creative. Activities will incorporate STEM subjects with art and design to show how they work together. Jill Kary, University Museum curator of education, said these two fields go hand in hand.

“Art covers a whole lot of areas. You start doing art, especially sculpture, and you’re an engineer doing physics design and planning things out.” Kary said. “You think, ‘This is what needs to happen, so how do I make it happen?’” So, art is STEM for real.”

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is an umbrella term that groups interconnected scientific fields together. STEAM expands on this grouping by including the arts, encouraging creativity in said fields. 

The event will be open to people of all ages. Activities will be hands-on and pitched at a general level. Activities include creating a cardboard box town, a VR tour of planets and coding circuits. 

The event is a collaboration of multiple partners from across the Jonesboro community. The University Museum is the main host but it is supported by A-State’s engineering, computer science, music and art and design departments. Other sponsors include the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, Bradbury Art Museum and the Jonesboro Public Library. 

Stephanie Sweeney, youth services manager for the Jonesboro Public Library, says that STEAM subjects are important for all people to learn.

“With these concepts you have to think outside the box to change the status quo. So kids can exercise creative thinking with artistic processes, and that will open them up to different ideas and how they can combine that with the concepts of technology or engineering. And just show that there’s a wider range of skills needed than just being good at math,” Sweeney said. 

STEAMFest is a newer event on A-State’s campus. In the past, it was split into the Tinkerfaire and the Arkansas Science Festival. The Tinkerfaire was created in 2013 and focused solely on STEM. The science festival is held annually in October. 

Together, Kary and Karen Yanowitz, psychology professor and director of the Arkansas Science Festival, decided to combine the two events into one.

“We had always contributed to each others’ events and decided to combine forces,” Yanowitz said. “If you are looking for a “bigger picture” answer, I think both of us feel that showing people

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