Pinellas students find inspiration during annual STEM Day field trip to Grand Prix

Students get STEM lesson at St. Pete Grand Prix

Tampa Bay Area students had a pretty cool field trip Friday at the Grand Prix.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Tampa Bay area students had a pretty cool field trip Friday at the Grand Prix.

Pinellas County students during Friday's field trip to the Grand Prix.

Pinellas County Schools, St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch, and the city hosted 75 students at the third annual Team Accelerate STEM Day.

They got a behind-the-scenes look at race day operations, toured the paddocks, met drivers, and saw STEM skills in the field.

Dig deeper:

Friday morning, students from three local schools also visited three stations at the Maritime and Defense Technology Hub.

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They visited Saildrone’s Ocean Mapping headquarters, where they monitor hurricanes and other activity. They also visited the Coast Guard, toured their ships, and participated in a Lego-building activity.

Pinellas County students during Friday's field trip to the Grand Prix.

Why you should care:

Pinellas County Schools says a day like Friday allows students to see various STEM skills and dream of their future in the field.

"This is so important because we can talk about things like this, and students will be listening and interested, but we can't show them things like this," said Cathie Mullins, the Secondary STEM staff Developer for PCS. "So, when we bring them out into the field for these experiences, that's where students really start to say, ‘oh, well, maybe this is something I could do,’" she said.

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"They start to see that there's more to STEM. There's more to learning than just what they get sitting in the classroom," she said.

Pinellas County students during Friday's field trip to the Grand Prix.

"Overall, it’s a really good day for our students, all-encompassing of a wide variety of STEM skills, and they get the opportunity to kind of dream a little bit and maybe see something that they never thought of," Mullins said.

The students also got to watch some of the races from the stands.

The Source: FOX 13's Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story.

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