S.T.E.M. Expo for Kids (Pre-Ship Tour)
The idea for this added port visit event grew from watching 10,000 people a day stand for 5 hours in line, in the hot sun, to tour an aircraft carrier. Here was a captive audience that could at least be educated about the Sea Services while they waited.
The need to keep the waiting public out of the sun led to the idea of using an existing building at the Port of Los Angeles World Cruise Terminal. The idea of using the building gave us the idea of having expo style booths for high tech military contractor companies to educate those in line.
Trying to also fill a need of educating our youth about the importance of studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M.) for our Country’s future and expanding an existing Navy Days – LA event of “Kids in Uniform Tour Day,” the S.T.E.M. EXPO for Kids – Pre-Ship Tour event evolved into the following:
HOW IT WORKS
Once the port visit of US Navy and or US Coast Guard ships and tour dates has been established, Navy Days – LA invites some 10 to 12 corporations to exhibit in the Cruise terminal building. Navy Days – LA will also identify and time-slot some 2500 to 3,000 kids from organizations such as Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Sea Cadets, Police Activities League (PAL), Boy and Girls Club, YMCA, JROTC and other interested groups with adult supervisors.
On the S.T.E.M Expo for Kids Tour days of the port visit, groups of kids from the above organization will arrive per their assigned time. These groups will enter the Expo Building and like an Henry Ford assembly line, will spend 4 minutes in front of each of the 10-12 Corporate Booths listening to the Company’s high-tech product message. Every 5 minutes, a horn will sound and all groups will move down the line to the next corporate booth and a new message. This will repeat until the group visits all booths and exits the building to tour the ships.
Objective: for the kids to leave the building with an understanding that they had better stay in school, study hard and that they should study S.T.E.M subjects in school to be better prepared to enter this ever changing world and compete in it.
Note: For public tour days, the lines will still pass the corporate booths so public education can take place and they can be out of the sun, and some booths may be added or replaced with local government “Disaster preparedness” and local community informational booths.
