PETCO PARK (KGTV) — Thousands of children packed Petco Park in San Diego on Saturday for the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering, a free event designed to foster a love of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math — even as federal funding for science faces significant proposed cuts.
Among the roughly 20,000 attendees was 9-year-old Nicholas Camargo, who spent part of his day building a DNA helix replica. Nicholas wants to be an engineer when he grows up, and said the festival gave him a glimpse of what his future could look like.
"They can learn a lot from science. They can get smarter. And a bunch of other things like it's actually pretty interesting," Nicholas said.
The event comes at a precarious moment for science funding in the United States. The Trump administration has proposed a 40% reduction to the National Institutes of Health, a 47% cut to NASA, and a reduction of more than 50% to the National Science Foundation in 2026.
Festival organizer Annie Warner said events like this one are critical for sparking early interest in science — especially now.
"The opportunity for students that are, you know, 5 years old, 15 years old to get a chance to work with, uh, lab grade technology is a really cool opportunity, and I think sparks a lot of interest for future opportunities," Warner said.
The festival hosted 125 science-based organizations, offering hands-on activities where kids could experience life in a lab or out in the field conducting experiments.
"So having students be able to learn more about that now at such an early age and have, you know, their whole like grade school experience, high school experience to build on those opportunities and experiences is really important," Warner said.
For Nicholas, the day was about more than just fun — it was a step toward his own future.
"For kids that wanna be scientists, engineers, or want to just make things, it's pretty cool because you gotta learn, you gotta see how what scientists would be like you gotta make stuff that a scientist would make a construction builder, let's say. It's actually like extremely cool to be here," Nicholas said.
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