2024 South Side Science Festival offers up fun and inspiration

Melrinea Davis said her nine-year-old son Misael loves science, and when the family heard about the University of Chicago’s annual South Side Science Festival through his school, they had to check it out.

She watched as he hovered over a training dummy and listened intently as a UChicago Medicine volunteer explained that if Misael ever has to perform CPR, he can remember how fast the chest compressions need to be by humming “Baby Shark.” During the daylong event, he also examined snails through a microscope and later planned to watch a liquid nitrogen demonstration with Fermilab scientist “Mr. Freeze.”

“This is good for the community,” Davis said. “A lot of the schools don’t have the funding to let the kids get a lot of hands-on experience in science, so it gives them a chance to learn something they might not get to see in school.”

Davis and her son were among 4,500 attendees at the third annual festival, held on campus on Oct. 5. Co-organized by UChicago’s Biological Sciences Division, Physical Sciences Division, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and Office of Civic Engagement, the festival aims to bring the campus and broader South Side communities together to explore science in a fun, accessible way. From opportunities to control robots and 3D printers to panels on health trends and AI to a paper airplane design contest and explosive liquid nitrogen demonstrations, the event offered education and excitement for visitors of all ages.

“It’s our hope that the festival sparked inspiration and showed that STEM can be fun and accessible, especially for our youngest attendees and those who might not otherwise be exposed to these subjects,” said Sarah Tinsman, program director for inclusive innovation in the Office of Civic Engagement and the festival’s lead organizer. “We would love for events like this to be an entry point for our neighbors to keep the scientific momentum going by participating in one of the University’s STEM programs for local residents and, ultimately, consider exploring a career in a STEM field.”

Stronger support

Organizers say volunteer support for the event more than doubled this year, with nearly 1,000 UChicago students staff, and faculty supporting either a science station or the event more generally. Whereas in years past the majority of event volunteers were graduate students in STEM divisions, this year volunteers represented units and roles all across campus, according to volunteer coordinator Lauren McNamara, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in chemistry.

“It was really neat to see all these different parts of the University were coming together to help put this on,” McNamara said. Building those bridges not only introduces people to STEM who might not previously have been exposed to it, McNamara said, but also helps strengthen the science itself by inspiring a more diverse future STEM workforce—a central goal of UChicago’s broader Inclusive Innovation initiative.

“It’s critical because as scientists we’re addressing these big problems, and a problem is best addressed from a diverse set of views,” McNamara said. “Having people who think differently, who have had different life experiences, can only help. If everyone comes from the exact same background and is trained in the exact same way, they’re going to think about the problem in the exact same way, and you aren’t going to find creative solutions.”

Outside a tent where their 13-year-old daughter and six-year-old son were busy learning about planetary science, Bronzeville residents Clarence and Regena Carson noted their appreciation for the event.

“Our job is to put whatever we can in front of them—opportunities to expand their minds and opportunities that are also free and local, if possible, so this fits all those,” Clarence Carson said. “The University is big, they’re here, and they have all these opportunities to share with us. It’s pretty awesome that they’re using students to teach younger students and to inspire them to go into science.”

The Carsons’ son was fascinated by a demonstration about music and the frequency of sound as he’s recently started learning the violin, Carson said, and their daughter was a fan of the festival’s robotics and 3D printing areas. By putting on events like this with the community and inviting community members to take part in year-round, on-campus programs like a UChicago math program his daughter participates in, the University is putting its resources to impactful use for community and UChicago participants alike, he said.

Not just for kids

For participating scientists, like UChicago graduate student Nathaniel Rowe, the festival is an opportunity to both engage with community and explain their work to people who may not be familiar with the complicated field of study. Rowe and his colleagues in the Department of Physics led a series of demonstrations designed to show how physical phenomena appear in the technology we use every day, like our phones, generators and TVs.

“Having especially young people who are interested in technology and developing new technologies and exploring the fundamental physics associated with those technologies is very important in the long term, and it’s also important because kids are just naturally very curious, and it’s important to help that curiosity prosper,” Rowe said.

Older festival attendees had plenty of activities to choose from as well, whether it was taking in a panel or voting for their favorite presenter in the Science Slam competition.

Washington Park residents Tori Gillam and Brandii Hill, who both earned STEM degrees in college and now work in scientific fields, said they were drawn to the festival’s overall vibe (and the chance to spend a sunny fall Saturday outside on campus) and actually planned a whole STEM-centric day, sandwiching the festival between visits to the Museum of Science and Industry and the Museum of Surgical Science.

Hill said she was most impressed with the projects shared by high school student participants in UChicago STEM programs and hearing about all the different areas of science the students already wanted to pursue.

“I didn’t even know what engineering was until my senior year when people said I should study it,” Hill said. “So, the more exposure that you get to all that there is out there, the more you can find your interests, the better.”