WACO, Texas — The City of Waco and Education Service Center Region 12 hosted their STEAMclipse event on Saturday, April 6! It's all in honor of the total solar eclipse happening on Monday, April 8.
STEAMclipse is a free, family-friendly celebration of the eclipse and building STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) awareness, opportunity and education.
There were several booths, presentations, guest speakers and entertainment for people to listen to at the Waco Convention Center.
NASA also exhibited and spoke at the event. It's something sixth grader at Bishop Louis Reicher Catholic School, Janie Spikes, will never forget.
"I'm here because I love doing space, and I want to be an astronaut when I grow up," Spikes said. "I always wanted to talk to NASA. It was a dream come true."
6 News spoke with Dr. Mark Clampin, the Astrophysics Division Director in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
"Waco is right in the middle of the totality," Dr. Clampin said. "So this is an ideal place to see the eclipse."
They hope to educate future young scientists.
"It's just an opportunity for us at NASA to really talk about the kind of things that really inspire us, the scientists and engineers and try and pass some of that excitement on to the general public by showing them something that you know, we think is really cool and amazing," Dr. Clampin said.
Andi Parr is one of the organizers of the STEAMclipse festival and says 19 different guest speakers spoke throughout the day. All speakers had one goal in mind.
"It's all to build that stem awareness, opportunity and education," Parr said.
The City of Waco has eclipse events happening throughout the rest of the weekend. To learn more, click here.
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