Yewande Oluwole, 5, and her sister Jadesola, 3, love astronomy and can name every planet – even the dwarf planets. But peering through a refracting telescope at a tree branch on the University of Chicago Crerar Quad was the first time the stars felt within reach.
“It’s important that they get a chance to experience science and see it in real time,” said their father, Akinyele Oluwole. “This just gives them the opportunity to see more, do more, touch more and get more involved.”
The Oluwoles were among of the thousands of families from across Chicago who came to the University of Chicago campus on Saturday for the yearly South Side Science Festival. This was the largest event in the festival’s four-year history, with more than 700 UChicago scientists and 200+ volunteers from across campus sharing STEM with approximately 4,300 kids and parents from across Chicago, more than half of whom were from South Side communities.
The event was sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement, Biological Sciences Division, Physical Sciences Division and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
The festival’s 110 hands-on activities let kids play with lasers, make robots dance, synthesize gloopy slime worms, compare animal skulls, practice CPR and see their world under powerful microscopes. The purpose is not to spark interest in science, said UChicago Chemistry Prof. John Anderson, one of the event’s original founding faculty members. That spark is already lit in kids’ natural love of discovery. The South Side Science Festival’s goal is to keep that flame burning.
“I think when you’re a kid, there’s a lot of joy and interest in science. And then as folks get older, they say, ‘Oh, it’s hard. That’s not me. That’s not for me,’” Anderson said. “One of the key messages we want to reiterate to people of all ages at the festival is that science can be for you. Science is fun, it’s interesting, it’s cool, and we want to show that off.”
Peering inside replica human, chimp and other skulls to explore the similarities and differences was 11-year-old Gabriel Gillum’s favorite part of the event.
“The skulls over there were really cool,” he said. “Just to see how it looked inside."
The festival has become a family tradition, Gabriel’s parents Jasmine and Anthony said.
“It was a great time last year,” Jasmine Gillum said. “He got to do a lot of things that he wouldn't normally do at this age, and we had a good time. So, same thing this year.”
Wren Veilleux, 9, said her favorite demonstration was painting with MXenes (pronounced “maxines”), an electrically conductive paint discovered in 2011. After kids painted squiggles, smileys, video game characters and their names, a scientist ran a current through the drawing itself to make both a bulb and the children’s eyes light up.
“I expected it to light up, but dimly,” Veilleux said. “Not nearly as bright as it did.”
Fostering a love of science within the community is a university-wide priority, said UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) Dean Nadya Mason, who also serves as Robert J. Zimmer Professor of Molecular Engineering and University of Chicago Interim Vice President for Science, Innovation, and Partnerships.
“Being able to connect people, particularly young people, to their world is not only one of the deepest obligations we have as scientists, but it’s also one of the greatest joys,” Mason said. “Events like this help people notice the science all around them, from the farthest reaches of space to inside their own bodies.”
While most of the demonstrations were on the Crerar Quad, the third-floor atrium of the Gordon Center for Integrative Science was a gaggle of robots, microscopes, steaming liquid nitrogen tanks, gasps and laughter.
“Warning, everyone! Loud sound!” UChicago PME PhD student Sam Marsden shouted across the room before shattering a racquetball that had been frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Marsden loves smashing racquetballs because he can demonstrate how well they bounce before being frozen. Many of the kids, he said, preferred making their own shapes to freeze and demolish.
“A lot of it has been kids sculpting hearts out of Silly Putty. And then sometimes those hearts don’t shatter. So, you know, that’s a good sign,” he said, laughing.
Alyssa Sholes, 10, said her favorite demonstration was the microscope where she could watch fish embryos and other animals develop.
“I saw little bugs in water!” she said. “I forgot what they're called.”
They’re called Drosophilia melanogaster, or the common fruit fly. For the demonstration, Biophysics PhD student Chris Anto and Cell, Developmental and Molecular Biology post-baccalaureate scholar Avi Strok had to break down their years of research into the flies’ development into lessons a kid could learn in a minute and take home for a lifetime.
“I love taking the basic developmental angle when I’m relating to kids, talking about how, as animals are starting to develop, they need to have hands, need to have eyes, need to have hearts,” Strok said.
It's not only community members who benefit "when scientists step out of their labs and into conversations with festival goers," said UChicago PME Assistant Dean of Education and Outreach Laura Rico-Beck, one of the event's main organizers. The scientists get just as much in return.
"There is something invaluable about engaging with curious minds from all walks of life: teachers and teenagers passionate about climate change, parents wondering how research impacts their lives," she said. "These conversations remind our scientists why their work matters beyond the research and innovation space, sharpen their ability to communicate complex ideas in accessible and meaningful ways, and build a strong sense of connection between the university and the community."
Anto said his own path to science started at children’s events like the South Side Science Festival, where he got to talk to working scientists and see the passion and curiosity that drove them.
“That sense of curiosity, when it’s conveyed correctly, makes us feel connected to science in a way that pushed me towards science when I was younger and led me to give back to the scientific community here today,” he said.
Sholes, for one, planned to help share that sense of wonder the moment she got home.
“I'm gonna tell my friends all about everything!” she said.
The South Side Science Festival is an annual fall event that is free and open to the public, and held on the University of Chicago campus.
Article Written By Paul Dailing