BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - The Aviation Heritage Park and Green River Regional Educational Cooperative partnered up Saturday to provide a community event for Bowling Green families centered around rockets.

Families explored rocketry with hands-on science activities representing science, technology, engineering, art, and math, which they refer to as STEAM.

“STEAM is in every job just about that there is anymore,” said GRREC STEM and Computer Science Grant Director Teri Stice. “A lot of people think that STEAM education is just gifted-level kids, but it really is for all learners, and there is a role in it for each and every child.”

Stice said they try to make accessibility a part of their message so kids can see themselves in STEM careers as they get older.

More than 100 families visited the aviation park to join in on the various activities offered during the six-hour event, but what was surprising to GRREC was the age range of those excited to take part.

“We truly have had 3-year-olds all the way up to some college kids come through and said, ‘Is this just for littles or can we do it too?’ And we’re like ‘Yeah!’“ Stice said. ”We want everyone to be a learner. We’ve seen grandparents learning right with their kids, and kids showing their parents how the flight simulator works because the kid gets it, and the parent doesn’t."

GRREC offered a different booth for each section of STEAM, and those who completed each activity were rewarded with prizes such as space-themed books and stickers.

“Some of the questions we ask them at the end is, ‘What was the most challenging of the stations to them?’” said Stice. It’s really funny because we have heard every single answer. Some kids thought the art station was the hardest while others thought science was the hardest, and so we talked through that. We talked about what was easy and what was hard, and it was just really great to see that kids of all ages picked different things each time so they can truly see their strengths in one of those areas.”

Children at the event said that the most exciting part was being able to build their very own model rocket and take it outside to launch into the sky.