Birmingham City Councilors tour Southern Research’s STEM Education Outreach Center

On Tuesday, the Birmingham City Council was invited to tour Southern Research’s STEM Education Outreach Center.

This amazing facility located on the Southern Research campus in Southside helps teach students from all over the state about STEM Programing, laboratory experiments and the sciences. In 2022, the center helped reach over 114,000 students, through field trips, school visits and community outreach events.

This facility began welcoming students in 2018 and has played a crucial role in helping prepare students for careers in some of Birmingham’s largest fields, like healthcare and technology.

The field trips are aligned with the state’s curriculum while also helping to introduce students to some of the work that is being done at Southern Research, including demonstrations on green engineering, infectious disease response and more.

During Tuesday’s tour, Councilors Hunter Williams, Crystal Smitherman, Valerie Abbott and Darrell O’Quinn took part in the Wall of Fire Demonstration in which they briefly held a methane fireball. No legislators were harmed during the demonstration.

“It’s so great to have community partners like Southern Research investing time and resources into this kind of programming for our students,” Councilor Hunter Williams said. “STEM education helps prepare our young people for careers some of the fastest growing industries here and we are happy to support these efforts in any way possible.”