Families packed the APEX building at Lehman College on Saturday, May 7 to escape the dreary weather and get hands-on with science.

Though the annual science festival has taken place in New York City since 2008, this is the first time the event, which demonstrates science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in larger-than-life exhibits, has traveled to the Bronx. The visit comes at a time when the borough continues to lag in the number of its residents working in the tech sector.

“What we wanted to do is take kids’ natural instinct to touch things and be curious, and use science and technology and engineering and math as our teaching tool,” said Caroline Gelb, head of education at the World Science Festival and the event’s producer. “So kids are learning pretty intense lessons about neuroscience and physics.”

This year, the festival has built its own large scale and highly interactive exhibits, and has events planned in the five boroughs. The Bronx was its first stop.

“One of our intentions is to come to underserved communities to reach a diverse crowd,” Gelb said. “If you get your hands dirty, and you have fun doing something like tug of war and you’re learning lessons about non-Newtonian fluids or forces of energy and you walk away having learned a couple things about science, you might realize it’s not that hard and can be a lot of fun.”

Exhibits included a giant pendulum, a space simulator, robotics and fluids that allow you to walk on water. A team of experts, mostly teachers from local schools and college students, were at the event to explain the nifty science behind the demonstrations.

Demi Rivera, a program assistant from The Point CDC, a nonprofit afterschool program in the Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point, brought many students from her after school class to Lehman College for the festival.

“I found out about it last week and just wanted to see how many kids can come,” Rivera said. “As soon as they walked in they’re like ‘I want to run everywhere!’”

“I ask my kids all the time what their favorite subject is. They say ‘lunch.’ It’s never any actual subject that they learn from and I’m really excited because even though science might not be their favorite subject, after today they can ask questions because they’ve been exposed in a fun way,” said Rivera, adding that some of the presentations gave her ideas for her own class.

If you missed the World Science Festival in the Bronx, the next event is scheduled for June 5 in Washington Square Park. More information is available at worldsciencefestival.com.