Taser demonstrations, fitness bingo, and making corn plastic were just some of the many science, technology, engineering, and math related activities offered at Guthrie County Extension’s third annual STEM Fest.

The Panorama Secondary Building was filled with local and statewide businesses and organizations Saturday giving fun educational activities to demonstrate the different ways STEM plays a role in our day-to-day lives, and show them what careers they can aspire to in their own hometowns.

The Panora Police Department showed how fingerprint dusting and tasers work. Police Chief Matt Reising explains what STEM has to do with his line of work, “It has a lot, especially just with the taser. I mean we have science, we have technology, and we have math with distance and the drop in the probe and with the fingerprints, I mean that’s a lot of science right there. The technology we use we can’t even display all that, I mean we use technology a lot now.”

Things got a little messy at the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s “Bird Beak Buffet,” where kids learned how beaks serve as a tool much like what you’d find in your kitchen. DNR Training Specialist Anne Riordan shares what she enjoys about the activity, “I do this one with kids quite a bit and it’s such a hands-on one. It’s a wonderful, messy, get right into it, get stuff all over, but it’s great hands-on and that’s what STEM is all about.”

Raccoon Valley Radio participated in STEM Fest, showing participants how to record and put effects on their voice.