Bourns is committed to helping young people explore and engage with STEM education. Each year we host STEPCON, a STEM educational conference where students can engage in the world of STEM via a live Science Show and hands-on activities from a variety of STEM-related organizations. We partner with the Science Technology Education Partnership (STEP) each year for this event. As a booth vendor, we offered visitors a variety of demos that focused on energy and sustainability.

Sustainability is a critical issue that affects the world we live in. Therefore, teaching sustainability to students is more important than ever. No matter what age the student is, teaching them about sustainability, helping them critically think about the subject, and encouraging them to play an active role in sustainability in their community will set them on a great path for the rest of their lives.

Teaching sustainability to students can help them develop a sense of responsibility towards the environment and the planet. It can also help them understand the importance of conserving natural resources and avoiding polluting the air. The internet and the local community are vital assets in showing the students how important sustainability is. STEPCON plays a vital role in preparing students to meet the challenges of the future and igniting the imagination of thousands of students so that they might pursue promising careers in high-technology fields.

Teaching sustainability to young students can also help them develop knowledge, skills, values, and motivations for action, allowing them to maintain their own well-being and that of their community and the planet. It gives students real-world skills they can use to improve the planet and offers them a deeply engraved understanding of why the environment is important.

As people the world over continue to search for renewable energy sources, innovative and interesting ideas for generating power are constantly being devised. Here, students are learning about mechanical energy, a form of renewable energy, which can be converted to electrical energy using an induction generator. Induction generators work on the principle of electromagnetic induction, discovered by Michael Faraday, the 19th-century English physicist and inventor.

The working principle of a hand-cranked induction generator is relatively simple and hinged on basic physics—specifically, the principle of electromagnetic induction. When a student turns the handle of the generator, they set into motion a magnet within coils of wire. This action induces a flow of electrons, which generates electricity.