After 11 years of organizing the Atlanta Science Festival, co-founder Meisa Salaita finally touched a human brain for the first time last year. She had many opportunities to feel the brain’s tofu-like texture, firm and squishy, over the years, but the thought had always wigged her out.
Last year, however, Salaita met a young woman at Georgia Tech who told her a story. “She was like, ‘Look, when I was a kid, my parents took me to the Atlanta Science Festival because they said I could touch a brain. Now I’m a neuroscience student at Georgia Tech,’” Salaita remembers. “I said, ‘I need that on video.’” The college student agreed to film her story if Salaita touched the brain. She did.
“That story was worth it,” Salaita said. It reminds her why she was so determined to start Atlanta Science Festival in the first place: to make science accessible, fun and inspiring.
Now 12 years in, it is safe to say Atlanta Science Festival does just that. For two weeks, from March 8-22, festivalgoers can partake in more than 100 science-centric events hosted by roughly 80 organizations across metro Atlanta.
Credit: Rob Felt
Credit: Rob Felt
The two largest events are the kickoff March 8, an open house with demonstrations, booths and talks at Georgia Tech, and the grand finale March 22, an Exploration Expo expected to draw 20,000 in Piedmont Park. In between, wildly diverse venues host their own science celebrations. Many are free. Some require registration or a fee. Most have interactive, hands-on elements that bring science to life.
Sleuth for salamanders at Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve. Learn about animal biomechanics at Zoo Atlanta. Discover hydroponics at Produce’d. Animate a diorama using artificial intelligence at Decatur Makers. Explore Stone Mountain’s geologic history as a massive magma chamber. And so much more.
Organizations that aren’t science-based even find creative ways to incorporate science into activities. Museum of Design Atlanta will host a Lego event, building coral reef structures to teach design principles and coral conservation. Rogue Wave dance company will perform a contemporary dance based on the surge of brain activity that occurs at the time of death. Whole World Improv Theatre will base a show on the audience’s science suggestions. Atlanta poets will craft stanzas from data sets at The Supermarket.
“I love working with organizations that are seemingly not connected to science, but essential to Atlanta,” Salaita said. “I just think it’s super cool to find these touch points of science to something that’s seemingly unconnected.”
Credit: Courtesy of Atlanta Science Festival
Credit: Courtesy of Atlanta Science Festival
The roots of the festival go back to when Salaita was at Northwestern University working on her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry. As she tells it, she was so fascinated by what she was learning that she couldn’t help but share her enthusiasm with friends and family. Alas, they didn’t share it.
“They would just give me these looks of, ugh, how do you like that stuff?” she said. Their rejection baffled her.
“I just had this real deep love for it. I felt like it was the epitome of beauty in nature … that you could see, even at this microscopic atomic level, that it’s just so perfect,” she said. “Nature is perfect. I didn’t understand why nobody else felt the way I did.”
Salaita wanted to change people’s minds. But how?
She mused that some people didn’t like science because the academic environment bleeds the fun out of it. She had seen it happen firsthand as a high school chemistry teacher.
When she heard about wondrous European science festivals, she found inspiration. She applied for a National Science Foundation grant to launch Atlanta’s inaugural science festival in 2014 with co-founders Jordan Rose and Sarah Peterson.
Of all the science festivals since, this year’s feels particularly pivotal, Salaita said.
“I feel driven in this moment where science is being so devalued,” she said. “The more we can do to make science accessible and friendly and make people feel like it’s something of value, the better off we’ll be.”
Credit: Rob Felt
Credit: Rob Felt
A sampler of Science Festival events
March 8 | Festival Kickoff Celebrating STEAM
Dozens of hands-on activities, demonstrations and exhibits. Topics range from robotics, brains, biology, space, art, nanotechnology, computer science, wearable tech, bioengineering and more. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. March 8. Check in at the Area 4 Visitor’s Parking Lot, Georgia Tech, intersection of Ferst Drive and State Street NW, Atlanta. Free. Registration requested.
March 8 | Biology of the Despised
Maybe cottonmouth snakes aren’t enemies. Maybe they’re just misunderstood. Find out why, while seeing them slither. 2-4 p.m. March 8. Conducted by the Amphibian Foundation at Outdoor Activity Center, 1442 Richland Road SW, Atlanta. $5.
March 8 | Animal Biomechanics
Learn how orangutans swing, and elephant trunks work, with help from biomechanics experts. 10:15 a.m.-2 p.m. March 8. Zoo Atlanta, 800 Cherokee Ave. SE, Atlanta. Program included with zoo admission.
March 8-9 | Grow Up with Hydroponics
Hydroponics experts at Produce’d guide a tour of the farm to teach how plants can be grown without dirt or soil. 11 a.m.-noon. Multiple days. Produce’d Indoor Hydroponic Farm, 4674 Clark Howell Highway, Suite #6, Atlanta. $20 per group up to four people.
March 9 | Into the Maker-Verse
Build a physical diorama and animate your creations using AI. 2-5 p.m. March 9. Decatur Makers, 605 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur. Free.
March 11-15 and 18-21 | “The Art of Math”
Exhibition showcasing artists who use precise mathematics in their art. Multiple days and times. The Sun ATL Gallery, 399 Edgewood Ave. SE, Atlanta. Free with registration.
March 11-13, 15, 19 and 20 | Persistence of Vision
Can you believe your eyes? Explore perception concepts such as afterimages, depth perception and blind spots. 10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Multiple dates. Cascade Library, 3665 Cascade Road, Atlanta. Free with advance registration.
March 12 | Science Improv
Professional improv comics will base their performance on science suggestions from the audience. 7:30-9:30 p.m. March 12. Whole World Improv Theatre, 1216 Spring St., Atlanta. $10; students $5.
March 15 | Coral Reef Lego Jam
Build artificial coral reefs with Legos and explore how these structures can help restore marine ecosystems. 10 a.m.-noon March 15. Museum of Design Atlanta, 1315 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. $10.
March 22 | Exploration Expo
The Exploration Expo, which is free and typically attracts some 20,000 people, is like a carnival for science. Festivalgoers can dig for bones with archaeologists, look inside a jet engine, hold reptiles and, yes, touch a human brain. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 22. Piedmont Park. Free.
If you go
Atlanta Science Festival
March 8-22. A searchable schedule of events and locations is available at atlantasciencefestival.org. Cost varies by event.
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