Nurse Anesthetist and former Washington Redskins cheerleader Rachel recently attended the Howard County (Maryland) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Festival. Here’s her report:
Hello fellow STEM folks! I had the pleasure of representing Science Cheerleader at the HoCo STEM Festival a few weeks ago. This was the second annual event so they were still looking for ideas in terms of how to make the event flow and make it overall even better! This year I was in the “Meet The STEM Professionals” Room joined by a few others including meteorologist Ava Marie, and others working with robots, participating in cancer research and patent work. The festival was set up in two separate buildings. In our room kids and adults could come in and talk to us about our careers and STEM. I brought a few items to promote SciCheer but hadn’t thought until last minute to bring a prop or item from my job (that I was actually able to bring.) I’m a Nurse Anesthetist so I brought along one of my portable pulse oximeter, which non-invasively utilizes LED red and infrared light wavelengths to detect the amount of oxygen in one’s blood – since kids love things that light up, it worked well for a little fun. I had an email list that many parents were eager to sign up for, and the kids loved talking about what they were learning in school, what their favorite school subjects were, or what they might want to do one day. I was also able to meet some folks I had connected with via Twitter prior to the day while promoting 
SciCheer’s presence at the festival. Overall it was a good experience and hopefully the HoCo STEM Festival will continue next year!