"The 2025 Hartford Public Schools STEM Fair was bigger and better than ever! Putting on this event over the last 4 years has been a highlight of my work since it was launched by Joanna Ali, Ed.D. As a coach / content specialist I get to see the cool things going on in every building, but I just love to see so much student-centered learning and positive energy shared with the community in one place. Over 500 students from across the city came together to celebrate STEM learning and share their passions," stated Will Cheney, Hartford Public Schools Technology Education Coach.
Taking place on May 2 from 10am to 2pm at the Connecticut State Armory in Hartford, the Fair featured a novel miniature speaker series including industry and community partners sharing their insights about the bright future ahead for these students in science, technology, and design.
Special thanks to our speakers and partners including Timothy Lynch, Devra Sisitsky of MakerSpaceCT, Bill Heiden of Levo International, Brent Charpentier, Justin Orcutt, Suzanne Marie Palmieri, and Dr. Daisy Torres-Hill who lead a powerful panel with three of our standout senior #womeninstem: Classical Magnet School Seniors Bella Bois, Jada Bradley, and Rena Johnson.
Classical Students talk Women in STEM with Dr. Daisy Torres-Hill
What makes the STEM Fair so special is the ownership students take of the exhibits, from Naylor Knights leading Botley demos to MD Fox and Pathways sharing their passion for 3D printing. I have to give a particular shout out to the Classical Graphics Lab, led by Ben Dobbs and Lou Lestini for producing over 600 t-shirts. To Veronica Andrea and the Annie Fisher STEM kids for taking the computing challenge to the next level by linking elementary student designers with middle school programmers to prototype their app concepts and to Lisa Rosenman at Betances Learning Lab for engaging with the concept challenge across the whole 4th grade.
Birds of Prey champion Robotics Team 181 from Hartford Public High School, Classical Magnet School and Great Path Academy have fun with their robot and Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez
Wish Museum School's green screen exhibit hosted by Ben McLane and his students was a hit, while Chris Fitzner's Parkville students got students from across the city collaborating on Minecraft. The drone and robotics demos from HPHS Birds of Prey with the support of members of the UHSSE Dragons inspired countless future team members.
Wish School student video engineers showing the big kids their green screen chops!
HPS STEM Coach Melissa Adams worked with teachers to engage middle and high school students across the city in rigorous science projects that impressed our judges from the community and industry so much that she had to break numerous ties for first!
Special thanks to all our volunteers, judges, and community partners including MakerspaceCT, Milestone C, American Eagle Financial Credit Union, ReadyCT, The West Hartford Children’s Museum, Hartford Public Library, CT State Tunxis, Goodwin University, Connecticut Office of Manufacturing, Connecticut Army National Guard, for the Tech prizes donated by Hand2Mind and Milestone C, and so many others who came together to celebrate our students and teachers.
McDonough Middle School student artists show Fox 61 the heart model they build as part of their exploration of heart attacks (seen below)
It is hard to believe that Chris Scoppetta and the HPS Food and Nutrition department fed over 600 students, staff, and volunteers, attending to each individual's dietary needs, without a hitch. Deb Zimmerman, HPS Communications Manager rallied a student press corps at the 11th hour to cover the event, who had the surprise opportunity to talk with Senator Richard Blumenthal, who we thank for making time to show his support for the teachers and students in the capital city.
Senator Richard Blumenthal with Bulkeley students Angelin, Bintu, and Yaneli
Congratulations to the winners and to all the students who exhibited their superlative work:
Annie Fisher STEM science students sidle up to the awards table
For computing:
Concept Challenge: Betances Learning Lab 4th grade (collectively)
Prototype Challenge: Annie Fisher STEM School (collectively)
App Development Challenge:
Noah Arcand, 10th grade, Great Path Academy Town Mobile App
Game Development Challenge:
Tessian Wright, 12th grade, Great Path Academy, Mobile App Game (Hello Kitty! Car Crash)
STEM Coach Melissa Adams manages the awards ceremony
Special thanks to our Student Press Corp who covered the event! You can see so many of their photos and videos here, (most photos attributed to Deborah Zimmerman-Herz were taken by Catie Lake, a student at UHSSE and David Bahati, a student from Bulkeley High School, and photos attributed to Andrew Welch were taken by Yaneli Mendez-Velez from Bulkeley) and see our Instagram Student Take-over Host David Lopez from Bulkeley High School on our @Hartford_Public Instagram here!
Thanks to all our student reporters:
Bulkeley High School
Angelin Gomez Velez
Bintu Mansaray - Bintu is part of the website team as a senior at Bulkeley High School. It was a great opportunity to be at the STEM Fair learning about different projects and sharing information with other students!
David Bahati
David Lopez
Micquandre Wright
Yaneli Mendez-Velez - Yaneli is part of the leadership team and also serves as her school’s photographer. She loves capturing moments that tell a story, especially during events like the HPS STEM Fair.
Hartford Public High School
Seetal Singh Jr.,
Misael Colon Gonzalez
University High School of Science and Engineering
Catie Lake
Liam McCusker - A high school senior who has led the school paper for two years, Liam will student Journalism and Media at Central Connecticut State University next year. When not writing, he enjoys biking, going for walks, and playing golf.
Student reporters will also be publishing article in their schools' newsletters.
Our intrepid student reporters!
IN THE NEWS:
Fox 61: