LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — It was a beautiful day for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders baseball at PNC Field in Moosic. More than 50 schools from northeastern Pennsylvania came out for "School STEM Day."
"While the kids are here, not sitting in the seats watching baseball, they can also learn a lot about different types of science, technology, engineering, math, and arts whether it related to baseball or other industries," explains Jordan Steiner, RailRiders director of community relations.
Community groups brought the classroom to the ballpark. Each organization provided hands-on activities incorporating STEM education.
"We really need people to get into it young, so we can have future engineers to accomplish great things," said Cassidy Gallagher with the Civil Air Patrol.
"We brought out the Ozobots today so the girls or anybody can come and play with them and make that connection between what Girl Scouts has to offer and connect it to a STEAM program," said Gina Naticchi.
The RailRiders say seeing so many students in the stands is a welcome sight, as the last School STEM Day Game was held back in 2019.
"Unfortunately, in 2020, our season was canceled. Then we did have a season in 2021, but our schedule was so different we didn't have two day games, so we didn't have any school day games last year just to be able to have them be a part of the day is amazing for the first time in several years," said Steiner.
The students tell Newswatch 16 that getting to explore and learn somewhere new is a nice change of scenery.
"This is actually my first time here, so I am very happy I am here today. It's incredible. I never thought I could learn all of this," said fifth-grader Isaiah from Dunmore Elementary.
"It's great that we can skip the day of school and get to be outside in the nice sunny environment, it's nice that we get to learn stuff with other people, and we are not cooped up in the classroom all day," said Lincoln Brewer from Central Columbia School District.
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