Correspondent photos / Sean Barron Siblings Cole Pethtel, 8, and Dina Pethtel, 6, of Columbiana, practice a bit of carpentry by using a wooden mallet to pound foam tees into wood blocks during Saturday’s fourth annual Kids Career Fair at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center in Canfield. Thirty-eight vendors took part.

CANFIELD — Cole Pethtel is looking forward to one day studying things that will send him digging far backward in time.

“I like the woolly mammoth and paleontology. I have books on dinosaurs,” Cole, 8, of Columbiana, said.

While he may not have recently come across any dinosaurs or other prehistoric creatures, Cole was happy to be surrounded by many things that were considerably more modern and high-tech, courtesy of attending the fourth annual Kids Career Fair on Saturday at the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center, 7300 N. Palmyra Road.

Hosting the four-hour gathering were the Valley STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) program and City Machine Technologies Inc. of Youngstown.

“The main goal is to try to get kids at a younger age interested in all career choices out there,” Jessica Cene, the career center’s marketing and enrollment coordinator, said. “So many jobs are out there that you don’t necessarily have to go to college for — good paying jobs to hire you on the spot.”

Many of those possibilities were abundantly represented via the 38 vendors, including MCCTC tech programs, that participated Saturday, Cene added. A sample included pre-nursing, culinary arts, cosmetology, building and construction, biomedical options, early-childhood education, exercise science and physical therapy technology, electronics, landscaping, transportation, police work and robotics.

Also happy with Cole’s possible career choice down the road was his mother, Nicole Pethtel, who was grateful her son and daughter, Dina Pechtel, 6, were exposed to a variety of potential job options at their young ages.

“This is really a super cool event for kids,” Pechtel said, adding, “(Cole) learned there are different avenues paleontology can take, not just digging up bones in the desert.”

A ubiquitous aspect of the career fair was the number of competitive robotics teams, one of which, the Rock’em Robotics, had a strong presence.

“This is a blended tournament with elementary school and middle school students in grades three to eight,” Marc Pullen, who coaches the Rock’em teams from Lake Elementary and Middle schools in Hartville, said. “This is an after-school club that we put together to teach STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics), teamwork and problem solving, and to strengthen their STEM skills.”

About 32 of the club’s 49 students came to the career fair, Pullen said, adding that his school has 11 teams.

Precision also played a pivotal role for Emory Close, 15, who is in MCCTC’s building and construction program.

Under the direction of Ryan Benchwick, Emory and other students were provided the opportunity to conduct some hands-on and personal etchings. Specifically, they used a specialized, handheld computer numerical control machine to carve their names into pieces of wood.

A CNC machine is a motorized and maneuverable, computer-controlled device or platform that receives instructions typically delivered via a sequential program based on specific input information.

Benchwick, MCCTC’s building and construction teacher, noted that the students began by writing their names on pieces of ordinary paper, which were recorded on an iPhone. Afterward, a measuring device was used before the images were scanned and files created, then sent to the machine.

Nearly 50 juniors and seniors are in the program, Benchwick said.

Miah Dattilo’s primary interest relied less on precision and delved more into the exotic.

“Actually, I’m interested in zoology — specifically, big cats,” Miah, 16, an MCCTC student who’s interested in its animal science pre-veterinary program, said.

Miah, who spent time holding Joe, a small corn snake, initially wanted to be a veterinarian, but her interest shifted toward studying animals in their natural habitats, she explained.

To achieve that goal, the teen has her sights set on possibly enrolling at Miami University in Oxford, The Ohio State University or Otterbein University in Westerville, which has a partnership with the Columbus Zoo’s animal-science program.

The young people may have been exposed to a plethora of possible career opportunities to consider, but that doesn’t mean Saturday’s career fair was unable to squeeze in plenty of fun as well.

With a combination of water, baby oil and Alka Seltzer, many children, including Dominic Reinke, 7, a South Range Elementary School first-grader, were able to create a variety of colorful chemical reactions and concoctions in test tubes to create mini lava lamps. Overseeing that activity was Jennifer Darst, MCCTC’s allied health instructor.

“We come every year. There’s a lot of stuff for all ages,” Dominic’s mother, Ashley Reinke, said, adding that it’s important to allow young people to explore future options, especially in the trade industries.

Saturday’s Kids Career Fair also was meant to plant seeds for today’s young students that could one day grow into satisfying and fulfilling careers, Cene said.

“It’s never too early,” she added.