The College of Arts and Sciences and Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Valdosta State University will present Science Saturday: Adventures in Mathematics and Computer Science from 9 a.m. to noon on March 5. The event will be held at the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Center in Martin Hall, which is located at the intersection of North Patterson Street and West Jane Street.
 
Science Saturday: Adventures in Mathematics and Computer Science is ideal for students in the middle grades. However, all ages are invited to take advantage of this fun-filled and educational opportunity, which includes such activities as origami folding, programming through games, robotics, creating high quality websites in minutes, building model airplanes from cardboard, doodle science, going binary and playing to win with Nim, and more.
 
Participants will have a chance to win a Texas Instruments calculator, with drawings held every hour, and one lucky person will take home an Apple iPod. There will be free T-shirts while supplies last. Refreshments will be served.
 
Science Saturday is supported by VSU’s STEM Initiative and is part of an ongoing effort to inspire the next generation to want to learn more about these areas. Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences understand that the nation’s future economic prosperity is closely linked with student success in the STEM fields.
 
According to the United States Department of Education, only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in mathematics and interested in a STEM career. In November 2009 President Barack Obama launched Educate to Innovate, an initiative designed “to move American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade,” according to a White House press release. He also called on the nation to develop, recruit, and retain 100,000 STEM teachers over the next 10 years and asked colleges and universities to graduate an additional one million students with STEM majors.   
 
Science Saturday: Adventures in Mathematics and Computer Science is sponsored by DuPont, Lovell Engineering Associates P.C., CJB Industries Inc., and the American Chemical Society. All activities are free of charge and open to the public.