Local students will have plenty of opportunities to pair learning with fun next week as Meridian celebrates STEAM Break.

Downtown businesses and museums have partnered with Visit Meridian and Meridian Main Street to offer a host of educational and learning opportunities as children enjoy a break from school. STEAM break —science, technology, engineering, arts and math — will bring programs and activities related to a different theme each day, kicking off Monday with science-related activities.

The fun will continue Tuesday with technology, Wednesday with engineering and Thursday with art. The week of activities will end Friday, March 17, with math-themed programs. An additional bonus day on Saturday will provide activities for those who may have missed out during the week or want to go again.

Meridian Main Street Director Matt Schanrock said spring break week is normally the busiest time of the year for the Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian with more than 3,000 kids visiting throughout the week. In preparation, MCM reached out to Main Street and Lauderdale County Tourism, and STEAM Break took off from there.

Schanrock said it wasn’t hard to get art organizations, businesses and museums involved in the event, and the list of activities quickly began to grow.

“Everyone was excited and wanted to put something on,” he said.

Participating in the downtown event are the Mississippi Children’s Museum, Meridian Railroad Museum, Mississippi Arts & Entertainment Experience, Bakery 900, Merrehope, the MSU Riley Center, Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library, Meridian Art Museum and more.

With more than 20 events scheduled throughout the week, Schanrock said it would be impossible to list them all. Instead, he said a full schedule of events can be found at visitmeridian.com.

Parents, guardians and children are encouraged to view the list of activities and plan out their week with events that interest them. There’s no need to pre-register, Schanrock said, and a broad array of activities to choose from.

“There’s no excuse not to do something,” he said.