Nerds are the new cool kids in the U.P.

HOUGHTON — A festival to highlight science and engineering is underway in the Copper Country, and one event was full of nerds.

The Keweenaw Science and Engineering Festival is a four-day event that brings learning and fun together for the whole family. During Nerd Night, teenagers gathered at the Continental Fire Company in Houghton for hands-on activities hosted by Michigan Tech’s Physics Department.

Laboratory Systems Associate in MTU’s Physics Department Scott Rutterbush said, “The more we can expose these kids to that, the more base level of understanding they’ll have and the more we, at places like Michigan Tech, can do with them when they come into our program. It’s making them better engineers, making them better scientists.”
The activities may be fun…but they also teach valuable lessons about science.

Calumet High School Junior Hayley Williams said, “It’s not, you know, studying a black hole or something you can never see. It’s working with vacuums and sound and things that you understand in a way that hands-on. You can really experience it.”

Nerds are not what they used to be. They are the cool kids now.