Aromas of popcorn and sounds of circus music drifted throughout the Student Innovation Center during its first annual Creativity Carnival event Wednesday. Students had the opportunity to engage in various creative and innovation-driven activities intended to introduce students to the different makerspaces within the building.
The inaugural carnival was held from 2-7 p.m. Wednesday on the first floor of the Student Innovation Center. The event included free food, a photo booth and a variety of creative challenges.
Through participating in games and activities, students could earn tokens, which could be redeemed for prizes such as candy, scrunchies and Squishmallows. Each of these tokens was laser-engraved in the Student Innovation Center’s own Electronics, Textiles, and 3D Printing Shop.
One of the activities on display was the carnival-inspired photo booth, operated by Jake Anderson, supervisor of the Student Innovation Center’s Digital Media Studio.
“The Creativity Carnival is our way of trying to introduce people to the different makerspaces… It kind of shows people ‘Hey, come and check out the Digital Media Studio downstairs,’” Anderson said. “I guess at the end of the day it’s just to get people to do something fun, relax, come see the area and see our faces – like me. I’m down in the basement for most of the day so a lot of people don’t even know that we’re down there.”
Other activities at the Creativity Carnival included spin-the-wheel trivia, scrap art and a virtual reality headset rollercoaster ride. All activities were free to try and each earned students a token, which they could later trade in at the prize booth.
One of the students in attendance at the event was Salaah Jung, a sophomore in kinesiology and health. Jung said he attended the Creativity Carnival with a group of friends in hopes of scoring some free food and checking out the array of activities.
The idea for the Creativity Carnival originated as the brainchild of Rebecca Nation, learning development specialist at the Student Innovation Center.
“We wanted to create an event in the spring semester and so we had to decide, what did creativity mean?” Nation said. “What does that mean to students and how can we highlight what we do at the Student Innovation Center?”
Nation said she sought to capture the spirit of innovation and creativity with the new event.
“I think that it embodies what we do, we want to show that innovation is open and accessible to everybody,” Nation said. “It’s starting with an idea and turning it into reality, having fun and it’s with your friends too – that’s something we want to encourage is innovation or creativity with other people, because the more ideas the better.”
Dani Orris, the director of operations for the Student Innovation Center also said she believed the Creativity Carnival embodied what the Student Innovation Center stands for.
“We’re all about sparking that creativity,” Orris said. “We want people to come here and know that they have access to all of our different makerspaces to create something that they want to do, even if it’s not necessarily tied to a course or a program or anything like that. We want you to come here and feel comfortable to experiment, try new things and learn new things. That’s the whole point of the Student Innovation Center.”
Orris said that the Student Innovation Center plans to continue to hold the Creativity Carnival as an annual event and will be looking to bring new activities and opportunities to students each year.
“I think that students should know that there’s always events like this happening, even if you weren’t able to make it to the carnival, still just come and check out the building, check out the areas, they’re all free to use and everybody in this building wants to help you in any way they can,” Anderson said.
For more information on future activities and events, visit the Student Innovation Center’s events calendar.
