NUFO is extremely pleased to be an official sponsor of the first USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo on the National Mall on Saturday, October 23, 2010, and Sunday, October 24, 2010. (See http://www.usasciencefestival.org/ for a full list of festival activities.)
The Festival includes daytime, evening, and weekend events for the general public, including workshops, lectures, open houses, lectures, and performances from October 10-22. The final Festival event will be the Expo on the Mall on October 23-24, 2010. NUFO will join the more than 500 leading science organizations to provide approximately 1500 hands-on science activities during the two-day Expo. The Festival organizers anticipate that at least 100,000 people will attend this event during the two days with each booth hosting between 6,000 to 8,000 people.
The hands-on exhibits are varied and include a star-gazing party, a Rubik's cube competition, solar powered robot demos, an explanation of science behind healthy weight, and much more. A calendar of events can be found at
http://www.usasciencefestival.org/component/content/article/51/121-festival-events-calendar
NUFO's currently plans to feature three different activities to provide visitors with a glimpse of research done at our national user facilities: a computer simulation of a RHIC collision, a demo of what happens to marshmallows in a vacuum tube, and a "make your own buckyballs" activity. This event promises to be not only fun, but also an excellent way to showcase the outstanding work done at national user facilities-both to the general public and to future scientists and engineers. Twelve volunteers are required to run the booth during the Expo. If you're interested in participating, please contact Tony Lanzirotti (lanzirotti@bnl.gov) for details.
The Science Festival is just one of the many activities that NUFO will be participating in during the next year to educate our membership, our leaders, and society about the important research being conducted at our national user facilities.