Amid thousands of students during the day and hundreds of families at night, an electric energy pulsed through the crowd at Utah STEM Fest — and no lab coat was required.

Kids felt literal static electricity as they placed their hands on a plasma ball at the Clark Planetarium booth while others explored how electric currents work at a Rocky Mountain Power display. To cool off, they plunged their hands into insta-snow demonstrated by She-Tech student leaders or touched sea stars, sea turtle shells and other marine life specimens at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium table.

Three-year-old Poppy brought along her 1-year-old sister, Delilah, and her dad, Jed Hall, eager to dive into the hands-on experiences.

“We like to do experiments at home, so I’m trying to foster a love of STEM in my little girl,” Hall said. “I hope she can have a better understanding of the world. I want her to develop a love of learning while she’s young so she will keep it up when she's older.”

It wasn’t just kids who were learning — volunteer Dannette Rose said she was helping because she wanted to expand her own STEM knowledge.

“I like to learn all kinds of stuff when I help; it’s a good opportunity to learn and explore,” she said.

Rose was assisting Denise Taylor, a Utah 4-H STEM and strategic partner with Utah State University. Together, they guided attendees through the Utah 4-H night sky star dome, encouraging them to look to the heavens.

“It's important kids get exposed to lots of different things because STEM is in everything we do,” Taylor said, listing a vast array of 4-H clubs which all include STEM. “We just need to point it out to students. They can garden, and there's science behind the soil and the growing process. They do robotics and we can talk about coding. They read Harry Potter and explore potions and wands and learn about chemical reactions and magnetic fields. When we go into elementary schools, sometimes kids say, ‘I don't do STEM,’ but they don't realize our world is engrossed in it, and it will be a big part of their future and is what they can do.”

Tami Goetz, director of the Utah STEM Action Center—the organization behind the 11th annual event—agrees.

“I have seen students trying to figure how to balance their love of STEM with other interests and passions,” she said. “My advice to them has always been that they are lucky because STEM overlaps with so many other education and career paths.”