For the third consecutive year, IEEE-USA were key sponsors for Dayton Big Hoopla, a series of community events leading up to the First Four games of the NCAA Tournament. Our team traveled to Dayton, Ohio to be a part of the Hoopla STEM Challenge on 16 March 2025. This year’s event saw record attendance, and also record IEEE-USA volunteer participation. Helping our members connect with K-8 kids allows us to:
- Support youth STEM programs by helping kids learn about engineering and electricity at a crucial time in their intellectual development
- Connect with our amazing members and volunteers and students
This year’s Hoopla STEM Challenge was the biggest we’ve seen so far — nearing 4,000 total attendees, including 1,500 kids, flocked to Wright State University, to engage with local, regional and national organizations by participating in exciting, STEM-related activities. This year, IEEE-USA got into the spirit even more, by giving away 2 Smart TVs! Kids who participated in the STEM Challenge entered to win, and we drew names at the closing ceremonies. Another huge prize for the event is the set of full-ride scholarships given to winners of the Hot Shot Challenge — a series of basketball challenges for K-8 kids.
After last year’s mini-lightsabers were such a hit, we knew we needed to up our game. So this time, we showed the kids how to build Airplane Paper Circuits. This activity was great because it tied in:
- Electricity – IEEE was founded as the Institute of Electrical Engineers, so this still resonates with a huge population of our national and global membership. And of course, when you can make something move using electricity (like with the motors in this activity), the kids love it!
- Engineering – putting together a paper circuit may look simple, but it really does take some tinkering to engineer one of these airplanes. The kids did a great job staying patient and curious, as they figured out how to make their propellers spin!
- Aerospace – Dayton, Ohio, is the birthplace of aviation, and home to Wright-Patterson Airforce Base.
We could never have pulled off this event without the work of our amazing volunteers. This year, we had higher volunteer participation than ever before. IEEE member volunteers came to us from IEEE Region 2, Dayton Section and student chapters at University of Dayton and Wright State University. This incredible group of engineers, scientists and students worked together to make sure these kids not only got to go home with a great souvenir, but they also learned something along the way about patience, dedication and discovered the work of a true engineer. A huge thank you to these folks for helping us put together such an exciting booth this year.
If you’d like to get involved at the IEEE-USA booth for next year’s Big Hoopla, please reach out to Leah Laird at l.laird@ieee.org.
