Anchor Lede: Next weekend you can experience over 3-thousand interactive activities during a free U-S-A Science and Engineering Festival at the D-C Convention Center.

Randy Atkins: The goal of the festival is to stimulate interest – especially in kids – about science, technology, engineering and math. It is the brainchild of entrepreneur Larry Bock, who’s the festival’s director.

Larry Bock: We celebrate athletes and pop stars and movie actors and actresses, but we don’t celebrate scientists and engineers and as a result there’s been a dramatic decline in the number of people pursuing those fields

Randy Atkins: Bock says the festival will include art, music, comedy, theater, a book fair, and more. Attendees can try lots of hands-on activities, like high-tech role-playing.

Larry Bock: Go into a virtual reality environment, perform surgery using a surgical robot, fly an F-14 fighter jet.

Randy Atkins: The Expo will take place next Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM and Sunday 10 AM to 4 PM…and it is free. With the National Academy of Engineering, Randy Atkins, WTOP News.

• Festival Map