October 7th and 8th, two members of the STAR Center Team (Kate and Riley) were at the Cincinnati Mini Makerfaire. The first in a long line of outreach events scheduled for the STAR Center Initiative, the duo emphasized that the faire went extremely well.

"At first it felt kind of like we were a bit out of place, standing next to all of these established makerspaces and huge organizations, but we just ended up having a ton of fun explaining to people what we do and how science is a part of their everyday lives."- Riley

Although extremely busy with their own booth, the team took some time to explore all of the other cool stuff going on at the makerfaire. With makers drawn from all across the region, there were nearly 150 participants, and foot-traffic totaling in the thousands! A VR booth setup by P&G, aquarium tanks and 3-D printers were among the top hits at the event. The makerfaire team had some especially cool activities lined up, with paint balloons and a liquid nitrogen explosion that sent ping pong balls across the whole fairground! 

"I think the coolest thing I saw at the makerfaire had to be the R2-D2 robots. I totally nerded out when I saw that they were RC and could actually move. Awesome!" noted Kate, adding, "It was a phenomenal experience for us to be a part of. There were so many interesting things going on, and we were thrilled to be able to share our message with that many people."

Kate and Riley, along with several other members of the team, have already started planning for the Louisville makerfaire at the end of this month. We're all super excited to see how it goes! 

Did you see our Founder and President, Kate McKinney, on the news yesterday? We're extremely grateful to WQTV for doing this feature on the STAR Center. This is the Center's first real outreach to the community, and we are loving all of the positive feedback that we've gotten so far!

"I think our message is extremely important, probably now more than ever, with science growing as fast as it is, and something like 80% of jobs in the future requiring a background in STEM. Getting kids involved early is just a really valuable asset." Kate explained during the interview.

This won't be the last time you can catch someone from our team reaching out to the community! The STAR Center is ramping up a public education initiative to get even more people involved in creating positive change- stay posted! 

Watch the interview below!
https://www.wtvq.com/2017/09/20/kentucky-star-center/

The Kentucky STAR Center website is undergoing some big changes! As we get rid of old information and add new features, we thought we would give a quick update/tour on our NEW BLOG!

The about and contact sections are about the same (we will be putting our new youtube video and facility pics on-line soon, though, so keep an eye out!), but if you look under the drop-down menu titled more... you will see where we have made some cool additions to the site. We have an all new members area, complete with a bunch of super cool features just for members of the STAR Center, and a really easy to use registration system! The drop-down labeled Experiment Request Form makes it easier for students to submit requests for new project ideas, and our new and improved Fundraising page makes it easier for donors to contribute!

If you have any suggestions or comments for changes to our site, please let us know! 

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