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FACI-RUM 2011

On April 29, 2011 Wi(PR)2EM and the Science on Wheels Educational Center (SONW) organized and coordinated the First Arts, Sciences and Engineering Festival of UPRM (FACI-RUM, was its acronym in Spanish) at the Rafael A. Mangual coliseum at UPRM. This large event combined our NanoDays activities with the 20th anniversary of SONW as well as the Weather Fest 2011.

Almost 1,500 K-12 students from all over the Island, and almost 200 teachers and parents participated.  FACI-RUM was sponsored by Wi(PR)2EM, SONW, projects funded by the Department of Education College Access Challenge Grant Program and the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources (López-Garriga), and the NSF funded Structured Organic Particulate Systems Engineering Research Center (Velázquez-Figueroa). The festival consisted of various presentations, a dance presentation by the Humanities dance team, a large scale Science Show and two exhibition areas. The main exhibition area was organized by Wi(PR)2EM and SONW.  It consisted of 23 educational interactive stations with one table each and a NanoPlayground. Colleagues from the Humanities department organized three of the stations. FACI-RUM 2011 included most of the activities included in the 2010 and 2011 NISE Net NanoDays kits plus many developed by Wi(PR)2EM students. Over 100 students were involved in a variety of tasks during the day.