Hundreds of students huddled around do-it-yourself robots, circuitry models and miniature ziplining ninjas for the first day of Green River Regional Educational Cooperative’s STEM-a-THON.

Stations aimed at teaching robotics, coding, physics and science filled Knicely Conference Center on Tuesday along with around 750 students from 30 different schools across Kentucky.

Kaylee Crowder, a consultant at GRREC, said the event strives to introduce young students to concepts in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — in ways that anyone can connect with.

“We know that a lot of times, our STEM experiences are reserved for our Gifted and Talented students or reserved for after-school activities,” Crowder said. “We also know that research shows that students with disabilities are just as successful in the STEM industry.

“We wanted to give an opportunity to not only model inclusion for our teachers but to give the students an idea of what STEM could look like for them.”

Crowder said students with learning disabilities often miss out on opportunities or struggle to keep up with traditional instruction. The second-annual STEM-a-THON is, in many ways, designed for them.

Before attending, students with disabilities were paired with another student to help “empower them to their full potential,” Crowder said.

Attendees were greeted with a variety of stations to explore STEM topics and a “playground” filled with robotic games and physics models that teach tangible lessons in engaging ways.

Numerous corporate and community partners helped fund and run the event.

Savannah Denning, a GRREC special education consultant, said the event is also a way to “merge what we’re doing with K-12 with what the workforce is looking for.”

“We want to bridge the gap between what kids are getting in school and what they need to be ready in a workforce,” Denning said.

Denning added that these events also help combat misconceptions about people with learning disabilities being capable workers.

“When we see neurodivergent kids, they pick up on patterns very differently and far more easily than neurotypical brains do,” Denning said. “So when we think about coding, robotics, those patterns just click for them and their brains, and we just want to make sure we highlight that.”

Carrie Cox, education and community outreach manager at the National Corvette Museum, manned a booth next to an eye-catching Corvette on display as up-and-coming engineers ogled the interior. Behind her, students slid toy cars across a long table with differing surfaces to model the impact of terrain on speed.

Cox said their attendance is part of the museum’s growing educational program, which also includes a new gallery that opened in April with interactive exhibits and videos.

“We definitely want to show off that (a Corvette is) a cool car, but it’s also math, science, technology, engineering, robotics, it’s all the things,” Cox said.

Cox said the mission of any museum is educating, but ironically, educational programs like this can sometimes be an afterthought. She said since the gallery opened, the museum has taken more hands-on approaches to better engage young students who visit.

She added that young people today tend to be less interested in cars as a whole, a fact they hope to change through their programs while also encouraging the next generation of designers, engineers and manufacturers.

Trooper Daniel Priddy, public affairs officer for KSP Post 3 in Bowling Green, helped show off some of the department’s latest tech, from drones with cameras to fingerprint scanners to 3-D modeling software to reconstruct accidents and crime scenes.

Priddy said almost none of that technology existed when he began. Now, it sometimes seems like young students know the technology better than he does.

“They’re going to have a leg up on anybody that didn’t grow up on this technology,” Priddy said.

He added that on top of potentially jumpstarting a child’s interest in a law enforcement career, their booth was a chance to interact with young people outside of an emergency.

“A lot of the times when we show up, it’s a bad day for the kids and the family — it could be a house fire or collision or anything like that,” Priddy said. “This is a little different, we can actually interact with them and let them see some of the tools that we use.”

Chelsea Keene, a 5th-grade teacher at Park City Elementary in Barren County, and Ronnie Atteberry, a special education teacher at Park City Elementary, brought students to the event for the first time this year and said each was beyond excited to be there.

“They’re really excited about the hands-on opportunities,” Keene said. “I had one student before we left who said, ‘I can’t wait to get there and actually do things.’ ”

Keene and Atteberry help co-teach math at Park City and said it’s often difficult to incorporate hands-on lessons due to time and resource constraints. They said students with learning disabilities especially struggle with “getting things on paper” and need lessons like those at STEM-a-THON.

“We’re so accustomed to everything having to be on paper that we forget that these hands-on experiences are where they learn most,” Keene said. “I think opening the door to make them realize that they can succeed just as much as anyone else.

Even if they can’t put it on paper, they can still show what they know, and I think that’s a really big thing for them.”