T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS With sails attached to their “Mars rovers,” STEM students at Emerson Friday took a deep breath and let loose a gust of wind to move their vehicles forward. To construct the rovers, they were given items like candy, paper and rubber bands.

Many workplaces have a “bring your kid to work day,” and Emerson Process Management is no different; over 100 first- to eighth-grade students got to build small tools and vehicles at I <3 STEM Day on Friday. "They're going to be learning different engineering concepts today and trying to solve engineering problems," said Emerson Iowa STEM Chairwoman Cherra Meloy. "The theme for the event is 'To infinity and beyond,' so all the events are going to be space-themed." Divided by age group, the approximately 116 Emerson employee children went to different rooms to start building. One task was to build "Mars rovers" out of common items like rubber bands, paper and round candies. The children figured out the candies worked well as wheels, for instance, and used rubber bands to strap their contraptions together. The students placed paper sails on their rovers, and blew wind into the sail to test their vehicle's locomotion. Races were held when all the kids finished building. "I think it's a little hard because you have to really figure out how to do it, and what each track is like," said 9-year-old Ava Hendricks, a fourth grade student, adding there were four different tracks the rovers could be tested on. Fellow fourth-grader Colin Vry enjoyed getting creative with the building materials he was given. "It's cool they thought of making rovers out of rubber bands, paper, candy and stuff," he said. While the rovers raced in some rooms, rockets were being launched in others. The children were tasked with building catapults for small rockets out of popsicle sticks, plastic spoons and rubber bands. "I think it's good because it's science, and it's really cool because you could use it in a science experiment at school," said sixth-grader Mitchell Thayer just as he launched his rocket at a stack of plastic cups, which crumbled on impact. Soon-to-be high school freshman Taylor Wittkop said she and three others teamed up to build two catapults, each with a different design. "We had one that went very high and one that went very far to use them in different ways," the 14-year-old said, adding it wasn't too difficult a task. "We just tried different things to figure out what would work." To test their creations, the students took aim at several different obstacles and targets. Some, including a target flat on the floor, were designed to test the landing place of a rocket. Others tested the catapults' launch power and accuracy. "They're also going to learn about pressure and magnetism, and how we use those concepts in our products here at Emerson," Meloy said. The magnets were well-received by students who saw them at work. "I watched magnets connect," said 6-year-old first-grader Nicholas Olberding. "We saw a magnet that goes around." Fellow first-grader Eliza Bell said she enjoyed seeing the magnets. "We went upstairs and we saw how magnets work," she said. "We got to touch them." Meloy said the event was part of an effort at Emerson to engage young children in STEM activities. "There's a group here at [Emerson] called Women in Innovation, and my purpose in that is to do outreach with kids to try and get them interested in STEM activities," she said, adding the company backs those efforts "from the top down." Friday's event was one in a series of STEM education efforts that have been taking place in Marshalltown in recent years.