It’s great to be able to attend cons again. Think of a pop culture interest and there’s a convention geared just for that. Dragon Con is a con that’s really unlike others. It’s held in Atlanta, Georgia every Labor Day weekend and every pop culture franchise that you can think of is there. Superheroes, middle earth, anime shows, television shows, and more are all represented by their fans or cast members of the shows. What about the science? The STEM, the brains behind the manufacturing of those costumes, real-world technology that goes into science-fiction, and those people who might be exploring space or the ancient history of Earth are not forgotten at Dragon Con.
We go to Dragon Con with our children to see those conversation tracts and to experience them. This is something that we’ve done with our kids since they were six and eight years old. After doing this for the past six years we’ve seen multiple dozens of science experiments. Our children have also had the opportunity to question things, get hands-on with robots, make simple machines, see internal NASA video footage and so much more. We’ve also discovered this secret about the scientists that have attended Dragon Con: they love to talk about science with children.
There is a kid’s track at Dragon Con that focuses on all things children, such as Disney, all-age comic books, theme parks, cosplay, and such. That track is really popular with parents and children through age 12. However, If you have a STEM kid or want to provide children with the chance to speak to real professionals in various science fields then you should check out the science track.
I’ve personally been amazed at how thought out some of the questions have been and how appreciative the presenters were to various children. The vast majority of these audiences have been adults and some of the presentations that we’ve sat in on have really been insider baseball when it comes to science. In those instances, I’ve had them stay seated as long as possible and then left when their sillies got to be too much. Even then it gave us something to talk about, like why it was important to study this or to go to that place. It got our kids thinking, which is a great thing.
On several instances, they were able to get STEM stuff, such as handouts or NASA photographs that they could take back to their classroom. They saw the speakers or panelists walking after their presentation and asked them questions. If your youth is motivated enough to stay for the entirety of the presentation, then they’ll most likely be moved to the front of the queue when they open it to the audience for questions.
In previous years they’ve also had a kid’s experiment session that was created exclusively for them. This past year, among other things, they saw a robotics competition, listened to someone who works at NASA on the Mars program, and heard some of the thought leaders in paleontology. What child hasn’t been fascinated by dinosaurs for some portion of their life?
Our middle school student is smarter than I am. That sounds like an alternate title for a Jeff Foxworthy game show, but it’s true. During our interview with Trevor Valle he got the chance to ask him a very specific question about classification that he’s working on within science. This was an opportunity that anybody could’ve had if they would’ve attended the session on paleontology.
What’s great about Dragon Con is that it’s science in motion. This is not textbook science, it’s the kind where you can ask questions and get current, real-world answers from professionals in the field. This is the kind of curiosity that waters those STEM seeds so that they can grow up to study nutrionos, explore planets, dig for dinosaurs and continue asking questions.
Dragon Con happens every Labor Day Weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.
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