A Festival for Your Future Innovators

In the heart of St. Louis is the center of innovation. The Cortex district, the Midwest’s premier hub for bioscience and technology research, is where ideas are generated, businesses are born, and the future of our city – and the world as a whole – is evolving in exciting new ways.

Each day, engineers and entrepreneurs, artists and architects are inspiring area youth to stray from the status quo and use their imaginations to dream bigger. And from September 23-25, the talents of these individuals and the future leaders of our region will be celebrated with the inaugural St. Louis Murmuration Festival.

This three-day event spotlights the phenomenal work going on in the Cortex, and with its Future Innovators Zone, gives kids and their families access to interactive, hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) programming and activities.

Said Julie Noonan of The Fox Theatre and lead on the Future Innovators Zone, “A murmuration is a flock of starlings that produces intricate patterns during flight. With the festival, we’re exploring the patterns that are created when art, science, technology, and music all converge. We want to draw people in and show them new ways of thinking and collaborating.”

Opening kids’ eyes to the future of innovation

The Murmuration Festival is the brainchild of Brian Cohen, founder of LouFest, who alongside Dennis Lower, cofounder and CEO of Cortex Innovation Community, wanted to highlight the amazing developments happening in St. Louis. The event combines cutting-edge musical acts, thought sessions from groundbreaking STEAM leaders, and a variety of free zones that spotlight everything from the city’s artists to its world-renowned local restaurants.

The most kid-friendly zone at Murmuration is Future Innovators, which brings together a variety of organizations dedicated to helping kids achieve the incredible.

“We believe children are the future of St. Louis, and by nature, they’re just instinctively innovative,” remarked Noonan. “They have no fear – just give them a box of Legos, and in minutes, they’ll create something amazing! Our whole goal with the Zone is to spark young minds and bring out the innovator within – and just as important – be collaborative when doing so.”

According to Noonan, just some of the activities at Future Innovators include:

• Saint Louis Science Center, along with Arch Reactor and Inventor Forge Makerspace, lets kids unleash their inner engineers with a Rube Goldberg-style machine. Three different components are available, so kids can work on one section or the entire contraption.
• Nine Network hosts an interactive storytelling area where kids can flip pages on large screen TV’s to join the adventures of Curious George and Daniel Tiger – who also happen to be on site! The area also has iPad stations so kids can pull up games to play alongside their favorite characters.
• School of Rock presents an interactive rock-n-roll petting zoo, letting kids get their hands on guitars, drums and keyboards while learning from professional musicians.
• The Biome School, offering STEAM-based education for kids in kindergarten through second grade, teams up with the Bloxels platform so little developers can build, collaborate and tell stories through video game creation. They can even download their game at home and continue to build long after Murmuration is over.
• Kids can build their own rockets thanks to the team at Challenger Learning Center St. Louis. In addition, the Center has put together a number of maker kits, from marshmallow shooters to brush bots, that can be purchased for a reasonable price and constructed with mom and dad.
• Girl Scout Troop 1484 “Blockheads” made national news – and a visit to the White House – with their Eco Bin invention, which converts used Styrofoam cups into eco-friendly glue. At Future Innovators, 1484 leads projects using their patent-pending GIOo adhesive. “It’s amazing to see children inspiring other children to innovate,” said Noonan. “When they bring their heads together, just look what they can accomplish!”
• Kids can also let their blossoming artistic skills shine with a special project from The Magic House. Young Picassos will hang their works of art on a cardboard tree which will be displayed at the museum through October 8 during its Global Cardboard Challenge exhibit.
• Finally, Monsanto blurs the lines between technology and agriculture, challenging children to flex their creativity by designing and engineering insect robots. As their mini inventions buzz around the table, they’ll get a lesson on the importance of pollination and its role in feeding the world.

The Future Innovators Zone, along with the Maker Expo, STL Innovation Showcase, Art @ Murmuration, and Eats @ Murmuration are all free for families to attend. In addition, you can get a taste of everything the event – and Cortex – has to offer at Friday @ Murmuration, a no-cost kick-off to the weekend.

Musical performances and thought sessions on Saturday and Sunday are ticketed events, but any kid age 10 and younger can get into them for free with a ticketed adult.

For more information on the Murmuration Festival, visit www.murmurationfest.com.