ROSEMONT, IL –– Ahead of this year’s STEMCON, a pack of young students were itching for their escalator to reach the top step. Jockeying for position to get in front of their peers, each student was bursting with excitement to get going on a day full of innovation and friendly competition.
The escalator reached the second floor and one student took off running into a sea of people, their voice trailing with a simple message.
“I’m built like that!"
The moment perfectly encapsulated the energy around the 22nd annual STEMCON. Nearly 1,200 people packed Donald E. Stephens Convention Center on April 26 to witness the brilliance on display from everyone who participated.
“STEMCON is always one of my favorite days of the year,” said Concept Schools Director of Science Education Dincer Coach. “Seeing our students light up as they share their projects and dive into challenges—it’s a powerful reminder of why we do what we do. This event isn’t just about STEM, it’s about giving students the confidence and opportunity to shine.”
Throughout the day, students showed off their STEM skills through the event’s staples: RoboCON, CONSEF, STEM EXPO and Math Olympics.
Schools that made it out to Rosemont spent months preparing for the friendly competition. One Gateway Science Academy parent said her daughter, Layla, practiced with her team for two hours a day three times a week to get ready for RoboCON. If Layla had free time at school, it was spent in her robotics teacher’s room.
However, one of the best parts that came out of Layla joining the robotics club was her being able to collaborate with her peers and grow her leadership skills leading up to RoboCON.
“This whole experience has been a really good team-building exercise,” the GSA parent said. “Even just the socialization with all of the schools who came here I think is pretty cool. She’s just gravitated towards taking control with her team which is great. I also like that this is competitive but it’s also strategizing with each other and with the opposite team so it’s good sportsmanship.”
Students participating in First LEGO League at this year's STEMCON
Horizon Science Academy McKinley Park teacher Sravan Suryadevara was also impressed with how his students have evolved since the beginning of the academic year. Last August, most of his group was unfamiliar with the robot platform. Suryadevara started off teaching them how to build and program a basic robot. When they had mastered that, he peppered them with challenges such as asking them, “how would you get a robot to do X?” and see if they could find a solution.
By the time they got to RoboCON, Suryadevara’s students were fully prepared to compete against opposing teams.
“Some of the kids are totally independent of us and that’s huge,” Suryadevara said. “We have 13 robots competing in total with two teachers and 16 kids. Being able to have some kids be like, ‘let’s just have a quick powwow’ and then go build on their own is amazing. That’s been the biggest change. That’s why we do this, right?”
On the other side of the building, students put on a show with demonstrations that dazzled everyone in attendance. Between projects like hovercraft bowling, glow in the dark water, and fruit being used as a natural source of energy, the STEM EXPO and CONSEF had something for everyone.
One of the highlights of the event came from Osmaan Qarni of Science Academy of Chicago, who made a presentation on an app he created that helps people with color blindness. He came up with the idea after finding out that someone he knows deals with red-green color blindness, the most common form of the condition. The app allows someone to upload a photo and click on the areas of it that the person wants to know the colors of.
Osmaan spent months on the app and went through multiple trials to get it up and running. While there’s no cure for blindness, future scientists like Osmaan are working to fix that.
“I wanted to do something medical related so I could help as many people as I can,” Qarni said. “I know some color blind people and I know that they have some problems in their lives such as driving a car because of the street lights or choosing their clothes because they’re so differently colored. Reading a map could be difficult for them as well and things like that are the reasons I wanted to do this.”
With another STEMCON in the books, students reflected on the impact it had on their growth since they started at their school. One senior from Horizon Science Academy, who attended the last three STEMCONs, believes it helped find his passion for engineering.
“I loved doing this every year. I know other students will too if y’all keep doing it.”
For more information about STEMCON, visit our website.
