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It's not just schools getting in on the STEM education wave. In Raleigh, a series of lectures and demonstrations offer kids another option in learning about science, technology, engineering and math – all for free.

It's part of Science Saturdays at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

“I got to do an arm wrestle. We never get to do an arm wrestle for experiments in school,” said 9-year-old Stephen Donovan, a fourth-grader participating in a demonstration on wearable robotic technology.

To make these science talks happen, the museum teams up with the engineering department at N.C. State University.

“Partnering with the engineering department at N.C. State is really novel for us. We do so much natural science education -- snakes birds animals -- but partnering with engineering is really different and something we don't normally do,” said Kari Wouk, of the Museum of Natural Sciences.

During his talk, Dr. Greg Sawicki brought his lab work to life by wearing it.

“We work on wearable robotic technologies in my lab at N.C. State and we use physiological principles to inform design of robots that you can wear on your legs to help you move in the real world. This might be for soldiers or firemen or service workers in order to make them stronger or able to do things not really possible for humans,” the associate professor of biomedical engineering said.

And it's not just the kids digging this type of approach.

“I thought it was excellent. The research was very fresh. The science is accurate and thoughtful and well applied,” said parent Neil Donovan.

Science Saturday has become so popular the museum expanded it from a quarterly event to once a month.