Teen STEM Café @ the Square
Join us at The Square PHX for free STEM programs developed BY teens FOR teens. Meet real STEM experts, explore STEM topics, and engage with interactive activities! (not to mention the free food, prizes, and freebies!)
Download our Teen STEM Café flyer to share with your community.
Your Superpower Starts Here!
The Leadership Team is made up of a core group of dedicated teens
who are responsible for planning and running each Café. Leaders are eligible for prizes, special swag, and other fun stuff!
If you’re interested in becoming a Teen Leader for the Teen STEM Café @ the Square, contact us by filling out this form.
“Choose your Superpower” virtual sessions coming soon!
Upcoming Program Details
“Eyes on the Sun: Unlocking our Star’s Secrets”
Saturday, May 10th, 2025, 9:00 – 11:00 am
Celebrate NSF’s 75th anniversary at STEM Fest!
Join Teen STEM Café @ The Square for this fun, free program with snacks, interactive activities, live demos, and a talk by a real STEM expert!
Learn about MUSE – a space mission collaboration between NASA and Lockheed Martin – from its Deputy Program Manager, Aura Roy. Get a deep dive into solar science, and how MUSE is attempting to unlock the sun’s wild secrets. This isn’t sci-fi, its cutting-edge science happening right now!
Like free stuff? Every teen who attends this Café will get a free comic book from STEAM Superheroes!
“Bots, Brains & Beyond: The Future of Robotics!”
Date TBD
Get your gears turning and join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the robots that are changing our world! From humanoid helpers to machines that think on their own, we’ll explore the wild and exciting future of robotics. Spoiler alert: It’s way cooler than sci-fi!
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More Info: Robot Dolls
In the late 1700s, Swiss clockmaker Pierre Jacquet-Droz created dolls that could seemingly spring to life – playing the harpsichord, drawing a picture, or writing a note. These dolls, who look like they wouldn’t be out of place in a modern-day horror movie, still exist and are on display at the Neuchâtel Museum of Art and History. They are some of the earliest examples of robots, or automata, with amazingly complicated components. See them come alive:
Previous Programs
“Mission to Mars: Red Planet, Big Dreams!”
Ready to blast off? Join us as we explore Mars—Earth’s cooler, redder neighbor! From rovers to rocket ships, we’ll dive into the science behind Mars missions with Dr. Dave and discover what it might take to live on the Red Planet. Spoiler: Martians might be real… kind of.
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More Info: Making Up Martians
In 1877, Giovanni Schiaparelli’s identification of canali on Mars (meaning “channels”, but mistranslated as “canals”) fueled speculative fire about life on other planets, both in fiction and nonfiction. Mathematician and astronomer Percival Lowell fully believed Martians existed, and in 1894 built an observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, specifically to observe Mars and detect life there. Many people believed Lowell’s account, including scientist and inventor, Nicola Tesla, who thought that communication with Mars might be possible. Science was bolstered by literature with books like HG Wells’ War of the Worlds (1898), serials like Edison’s Conquest of Mars (1898), and plays like A Message from Mars (1899). Other fiction writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries described life on Mars as having evolved similarly to life on Earth with humanoid life forms that had blue, red, and green skin. Luckily, they did speak English!
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“Scales, Tails & Tall Tales: The Secret Life of Reptiles”
Get ready for a wild ride into the world of herpetology with Wild Man Dan! Meet the superstars of the reptile and amphibian kingdom and discover why snakes, frogs, and geckos are cooler than you think. No scales required—just curiosity!
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More Info: Snakebite SOS
In October 1957, Field Museum herpetologist Karl Patterson Schmidt was bitten on the thumb by a boomslang, a highly venomous snake native to Sub-Saharan Africa. He then kept track of his symptoms in a journal as the venom coursed through his body, eventually killing him in less than 24 hours. Newspapers around the country reported on Schmidt’s death diary, including in the Tucson Daily Citizen, October 3, 1957:
Upcoming Programs
Saturday, May 10th, 9:00-11:00am
- Eyes on the Sun: Unlocking our Star’s Secrets
More Upcoming Programs:
- Bots, Brains & Beyond: The Future of Robotics
- Animal Instincts: Science & Art Collide
- Flight Lab: The Science of Soaring
- Magma Masters: How Volcanoes Work
- Treat Trials: Canine Cognition in Action
- And more!
Dates and times for all upcoming programs will be shared when they are finalized.
Want to be updated as new Teen STEM Café information becomes available? Sign up for our emails today!
Thank You
Teen STEM Café @ the Square is supported in part by generous grants from Teen Science Café Network and STEM Next Opportunity Fund, as well as the YWCA Metropolitan Phoenix and the National Science Foundation.
Directions & Parking
Address: 602 E Adams St, Phoenix, AZ 85004
The Square PHX is located Heritage & Science Park on the Southeast corner of 6th Street and Monroe (1 block south of Van Buren and west of 7th Street) in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The Heritage Garage offers public parking, and is conveniently located on the Southeast corner of 5th Street and Monroe.
Bus routes 1, 3, and 7 all stop at Van Buren and 7th Street. Light rail stops at 3rd Street and Washington (west bound) and 3rd Street and Jefferson (east bound).
See the Rest of the Square
There’s so much more to do!
While your teenager is at the Square for their STEM program, you can check out our Audio Tour, our Museum Store and Visitor Center, and the Rosson House Museum, as well as the new and old local businesses here at the Square – Stemistry, Que Sazón, The Diaspora Collective, and Pizzeria Bianco.