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Los Angeles Times
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
STEAM-themed Imaginology returns to Costa Mesa
OC Fair & Event Center's annual Imaginology event really does get creative with what children can do with the educational approach known as STEAM. In fact, even the animals at the center's Centennial Farm get to show what they do — including goat milking demonstrations, weavers and spinners displaying different types of animal fibers and an exhibit highlighting hens. 'Even though the acronym is STEAM, I always like to think of the A as both arts and agriculture,' said Evy Young, director of Agricultural Programs. 'When it comes to the animals, I think a lot of it really ties in with engineering. In fact, almost all of those letters with the science, technology, engineering, arts and math … to be able to raise animals, you need to be able to feed them, so to be able to calculate how much feed to provide your animal on a daily basis. There's definitely science involved in making sure that they're healthy and what other elements you need to be able to provide for them.' At the heart of Imaginology, which launched as Youth Expo in 1989 and was renamed in 2014, is offering STEAM education and hands-on learning from a diverse range of exhibitors, bolstered by youth competitions, demonstrations and entertainment. Some of the 2025 exhibitors are theCoderSchool, Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue, Costa Mesa Police Department SWAT, Fishing in the City, Hack Club, Hedgehog Lacers, American Cetacean Society of Orange County, Orange County Aerial Arts, Model T Ford Club, the Reptile Zoo, Rolling Robots, Orange County Scroll Saw Assn. and Wonders of Wildlife. This year's event takes place Saturday and Sunday, April 12-13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa. Admission is free and parking is $12. 'We want to have an educational fair or festival that shows kids all of the different possibilities that land within the STEM or STEAM framework,' said Johanna Svensson, director of Exhibits and Education. She said those particular disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math can seem scary to a lot of people. So having children interact with microscopes, for example, or practicing coding skills can help make these subjects less intimidating. 'We have an organization called the Hack Club that's coming and so [children] can see how fun it is to do some of these things on kind of a project level and what it takes to design something that comes alive in some sense,' she said. 'Be it a robot or just being able to code something on one side of the screen and seeing an animation, for example, come out of that. So yeah, it's an opportunity for kids to see all of the different pathways that exist.' Other event highlights include the new Ninja Nation Boot Camp at Heroes Hall's Sky Hawk lawn, an inflatable obstacle course with challenges testing physical strength and mental agility. Mind Works is full of hands-on STEAM activities, including a chance to compete in giant versions of classic games like Operation, chess and Connect Four. Guests can also get creative with magnets, Legos and Lincoln Logs, make giant bubbles and check out a Slinky staircase. Competitions are a big part of Imaginology. Though the competitions deadline for online entry has passed, guests can see the projects on display — including murals, cardboard engineering and poster art incorporating STEAM themes. There are also 4-H competitions where local youth are judged on ability to raise small livestock, understanding of animal and veterinary sciences, and their projects. Svensson said Megan the Bubbleologist will be performing with bubbles and music, and Zany Zoe will be roaming the grounds with her magic show. 'Clay Play is in one of our exhibit buildings and kids will be able to make little sculptures with clay,' Svensson said. 'That's always a huge hit.' The Orange County Scroll Saw Assn. is a returning organization. 'And they're always a big hit because kids get to learn how to use a scroll saw, which sounds really dangerous, but they teach them how to do it,' she said. 'It's using a piece of wood, but you're able to kind of manipulate the wood so you can make a design.' Whether it's farm animals, robots or playing with clay, it all comes back to the importance of educating future generations about STEAM. 'I think that it's kind of how we as a population sort of stay on top of innovation and help make the world run,' Svensson said. 'I feel like, especially for little girls, it's important to see how they might be able to envision themselves in a position as a doctor or a scientist or an engineer, and what that actually means. We're always going to be a nation that needs to innovate. We're always going to be a nation that needs to build, and I just think that it's a good way to show that learning can be fun and that it will be their meaningful careers for the greater good.'
BBC News
13-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Twickenham coding genius swapping GCSEs for Silicon Valley
As a toddler, Toby Brown first began tinkering with padlocks. Then he started kitting his house out with alarms made out of bits of paper and wires. By the time he was in primary school, he had coded timetable games and was selling them back to his teachers in Twickenham, west schoolboy later joined Hack Club, a global hackers' community for teenagers, where he became their youngest employee at age at 16, Toby has secured a $1m deal with Silicon Valley investors for an AI platform he has built, Beem. Toby has postponed taking his GCSEs and instead is jetting off to build up his business in sunny said: "This amount of money is going to be so helpful. I actually got the phone call on my birthday, so it was a great birthday gift."My friends were quite shocked by it. I made the mistake of not telling them early enough, and it got to the last week of school, and the news came out, and suddenly everyone was like, 'Ah, Toby, can I have a tenner?'"It was such a massive part of life. I'd wake up early in the morning to work on it, and I'd come home from school and start coding, it was all I was doing, all I was working on, and it was hard sometimes not being able to tell everyone what I was up to." As for what Beem actually does, Toby explains: "It's essentially a computer that brings files to you; it can bring your calendar to you, and it's scaleable to do anything, really."An example I really like is if you imagine you're going on holiday and you're going with your family, you've booked an Airbnb and it [Beem] realises you've not booked your flights yet. Beem knows you; it knows your price, and it knows what airline you like to fly with."For Toby's mother Claire, it is a mystery where he got his coding talent from."We don't have a background in coding or computing. I work for the NHS; my husband is in marketing, and it's not something we know much about," she said. "It was quite a shock for us, quite surprising," added Claire."But he did it all by himself - from building his first computer to finding Hack Club, which was where he really found his people and community."Toby's mentor and founder of Hack Club, Zach Latta, who is based in Vermont, in the US, said he knew Toby was special straight away."From the first day you met Toby, you knew that this was going to happen."Hack Club is a place where there are hundreds of teenagers around the world who are working together on these alternate paths, and you could just tell that Toby was going to take this step."I'd say it wasn't a surprise from me when I heard that he'd raised $1million, obviously that was going to happen," Mr Latta explained."It's so exciting to see so many incredible young people joining Hack Club from London and the UK right now, there's a big growing community there." 'World domination' "It's such an exciting opportunity," Toby added. "I think we've got an opportunity to really change things, change how we use computers, and I couldn't turn that down."Toby said after his trip to California, he hoped to return to London and continue his asked whether Beem was going to take over the world, Toby chuckles: "World domination, but not the evil kind!"
