Friday, April 20, 2012
12:00-4:00pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
Come one, come all to explore the wonders and delights in the Science of the Circus with the Boston Circus Guild! How can the human body fold into many shapes? What are the physics behind juggling? Forces in stilting? Come learn about anatomy, center of mass, and more. See acrobats take advantage of various forces on a trapeze. Join the fun or stand back and be wowed!
Check back soon for more activities, performances, and updates!!
Activities
Performances
Activities
A Closer Look at Exposures
Festival goers will be able to measure their airway health, inflate real lungs, check out damage to lungs that air pollution and smoking can cause, build DNA with a LEGO (TM) set, and learn about DNA damage from sun exposure and smoking.
ACS Passport to Chemistry
The Passport to Chemistry provides the opportunity to actively explore chemistry through hands-on experiences. Come complete a passport to chemistry, and earn stamps for each activity related to four key topics highlighted during the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) 2011 – environment, energy, health and materials.
Addgene teaches about Genes and Plasmids
Scientists use a clever way to study the genes that make up our chromosomes. Small pieces of DNA containing just a few genes are moved around from cell to cell in little circles called “plasmids” that can be reproduced to make lots of copies. Plasmids are used to study what makes us tick and what makes us sick. Join some Addgene scientists to learn about how our genes make us what we are, what a plasmid is and how scientists study our genes.
http://addgene.org/
Amgen
Come and learn with Amgen scientists the importance of the different states of matter. in the process, we will make chalk to take home and use on your chalkboard or driveway!
http://www.amgen.com/
Annosphere
Beyond the Backyard: Trees in your City and Across the World
Come and learn about the extraordinary work of groups in Cambridge's sister city Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and in Armenia's villages and forests to address their country's deforestation and severe environmental issues. Communicate online with students in Yerevan who are planting trees and learning about their environment. Bring your questions, and your stories and photos about what you are doing with trees here in your school or community and make a friend in Armenia.
http://www.cysca.org
Boston Harbor Islands Citizen Science
Come see how Citizen Scientists help discover the wonders of Boston Harbor Islands. Get an up close look at the microwilderness, and see how many insect orders you can identify and if you can match predator and prey. Test your knowledge of native, non-native, and invasive species.
http://bostonharborislands.org
Colors, Bubbles, and Small Things You Can’t See
A series of demonstrations will illustrate that things are not always what they seem in chemistry. See how small things can cause big changes and chemical reactions. Watch as a clear solution undergoes a series of color changes, try your own chromatography demo to see the color black separate into different colors, and see how plants generate the oxygen that we breathe. Things all around us so small that we can't see them actually make the world as we do see it.
East End House GENASAS Program
GENASAS (Generating and Evaluating New Adventures in Science After School) is East End House’s signature science program for children in preschool through eighth grade. Visit our School Age and Middle School Program tables to see how science, technology, engineering and math look in afterschool, where learning bursts out of the classroom and sets fire to the imagination. This year, come see how scientific inquiry helps us explore our world in fun ways. Make your own bouncing ball with the Middle School Program and a lava lamp in a bottle with the School Age Program!
Energy Efficiency for Everyone!
Test your Energy Efficiency knowledge by spinning the Wheel of Energy. Then play up to four unique games with quiz questions, word jumble, and more. Everyone wins a prize to take home that will make your home more energy efficient. Fun for all ages!
http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/
Explore the Universe with WorldWide Telescope
Take a guided tour of the Universe using the WorldWide Telescope, an interactive and stunningly beautiful virtual observatory that you can download at home for free on your own computer. WorldWide Telescope Ambassadors will show you how to investigate your favorite planets, view exploding stars, colliding galaxies and more, as seen through the world’s most powerful telescopes.
http://wwtambassadors.org
Giant Cell Exhibit
The “walk-in cell” is a model of a human body cell that has been expanded by 300,000 times. That’s like the difference between the Earth and a small hot-air balloon! The Cell invites you to explore in inner construction of the cell and its various divisions and areas.
GoKids Boston- Fitness is Fun!
GoKids Boston embodies innovation and leadership in youth health through life-changing programs, groundbreaking research, exceptional training opportunities, and dedication to the community with a focus on eliminating health disparities. GoKid's unique youth fitness, training, and research center based at the University of Massachusetts Boston's College of Nursing and Health Sciences strives to
1) reduce impact of obesity on children, families and communities,
2) improve children's lives through fitness, and
3) enlist youth and professionals as health ambassadors. GoKids Boston is thrilled to bring our fun and exciting fitness activities to the Cambridge Science Festival this year. Be sure to visit our station where you can learn all of the wonderful ways in which fitness is fun!
http://gokids-boston.org/
Hydrogen Powered Electric Cars
The world is running out of oil, and it looks like we are turning to electricity as an alternative energy source for cars (Toyota Prius, Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, etc.). For the environmentally sensitive, electric power for cars can be provided by solar panels and stored as hydrogen produced by simple electrolysis of water. The Honda FCX Clarity is the first commercially available hydrogen powered electric car and there are now 20 pages of hydrogen gas stations throughout the world. I demonstrate the “solar power/water electrolysis/hydrogen storage/fuel cell generated electricity” concept with science toys, i.e. solar panels and a hydrogen powered electric car.
How SWEet is Engineering?
Join members of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) to learn about the excitement of engineering and to complete your own dazzling engineering design challenge.
www.sweboston.org
Illustrating RNAI with Alnylam
We will be illustrating how we deliver RNAI to the cell by using a balloon (the delivery vehicle) in side another balloon (the cell). The inside balloon will hold an siRNA made of 2 short pieces of wiki sticks, illustrating DNA.
www.Alnylam.com
Jurassic Roadshow
Jurassic Roadshow brings together professional and knowledgeable amateur geologists in an exhibit of the dinosaur footprints of the Connecticut River Valley.
Meet the 2012 IDEAS Challenge Teams!
Be inspired! See how the 2012 IDEAS Challenge Teams have solved problems in their communities using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math). What's your Big Idea?
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Swarming Nano Hex Bugs: Watch 12 bug-like robots exhibit swarming behaviors. Ask questions and interact with the robots to learn how simple robot design, probabilistic programming, and swarms can lead to seemingly intelligent behavior. Why do they move forward? What about their shape makes them always flip onto their feet and allows them to get around each other? Learn how ants, birds, fish, and more behave like this, working together to overcome obstacles.
Model Organism Zoo
Come join Harvard Science in the News as we explore how scientists use bacteria, worms, and even fish to better understand our own biology! At this hands-on “zoo” we will show you model organisms scientists use in every day research to better understand our own genes. Exhibits will be explained by Harvard graduate students and visitors will be able to see these organisms up close through the microscope! Zoo appropriate for all ages. http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/
NuVu Studio's Brain Food Show
What comes to mind when you think about food and the brain? Well, hopefully more thoughts beyond a good dose of acai berries, blueberries, wild salmon, matcha, cacao beans, and walnuts in your diet! At NuVu Studio's Brain Food Show, we'll be showcasing food robots, music created from food sounds, synesthesia-inspired interactive multi-media projects, a brainwave-reading keep-awake machine, an interactive body-painting screen, and much more. Here’s to a variety of food for thought! http://nuvustudio.org
Optical Demonstrations
Optics is all around us and the NES/OSA will demonstrate this practical science. Come see the science behind of cell phone and television displays, cameras used by firefighters to find people in burning buildings, communicating using light and fibers and other applications. http://nesosa.org
Ordinary Materials Do Surprising Things
Engineers intentionally design some materials to do amazing things. Other materials happen to do amazing things when you use them in creative ways. Come by our table to investigate a few of these astonishing materials. Prepare to be surprised!
Robotics with Children's Technology Workshop
LEGO robotic systems are wonderful resources to help children understand and appreciate the design, function, and engineering of modern mechanisms. CTWBoston will be using RCT and NXT LEGO systems at the Cambridge Science Fest Carnival for hands-on demonstrations of construction and programming, and relating these concepts to real-life robotics.
http://icampma.com/
Science Innovation Projects
Come see cool science projects funded by the Friends of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, like FIRST Robotics, Lego Biology, and various unusual Physics Projects.
Water Play for PreSchoolers
The Needham Science Center introduces preschoolers to the wonderful world of water! Play with the Water Wall to move water all around.
Wyss Institute BioInspired Robotics Platform
Robotic insects might seem like the stuff of science fiction, but come see them in real life! Researchers from Harvard talk about their work with robotic insects in a non-technical, family-friendly presentation. All ages welcome.
Zoo New England’s “Digs” Dino Discovery!
Are your children fascinated by dinosaurs? Come find out why fossils are the key to conservation of endangered species. Join us for a day of remembering our past. Participate in hands-on fossil creation and dinosaur track discovery! Through activity and discussion we will explore the fascinating world of dinosaur science and what that means for modern day species conservation and preservation.
Performances
Mad Science of Greater Boston
This show includes foggy dry ice and demonstrations of how science is used to float beach balls in the air. With suggestions from the audience, the Mad Scientist will unlock the mystery of how to get "Egg-bert" back into his house. Ever see scissors sizzle and shiver? Ever taken a bubble shower? Here's your chance!
Marvelous Molecules in Play
A selection of live interactive chemical reactions including colorful transformations, exploding yogurt cartons, invisible gases, hot potato balloons, magical polymers, chemiluminescence, colorful electrolysis of water, flaming vapors plus many more. Guaranteed to amaze children and adults alike.
Cambridgeport History Project Pop-up performances
Alvan Clark & Sons, Telescope Makers: Some of the biggest and best telescope lenses in the world were made here by Alvan Clark & Sons in the late 1800s. Hear one of their neighbors chat about their wondrous works.
Model T Factory Worker with his Tin Lizzie: Meet a 1920 Ford factory worker, with his Tin Lizzie, made at the Model T assembly plant in Cambridgeport!
Made possible by the Cambridge Historical Society and Underground Railway Theater, in-residence at the Central Square Theater.
More to come!
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