Seattle Science Festival This Weekend

From the website:

The 2013 Seattle Science Festival, an 11-day celebration of the science and technology happening in our community, runs June 6-16, 2013. It features luminaries from the science world in opening and closing night events, a free Science EXPO Day featuring hands-on activities and special stage programs on Saturday, June 8 at Seattle Center, and a variety of Signature Programs at venues around the region throughout the Festival. 

Today is the Middle School Science Fair for SPS.

Looks like lots of great stuff and Saturday, June 8th, Science EXPO Day is FREE (and includes, no kidding, "a bilingual inflatable colon."  

Science EXPO Day is filled with fun and educational programs, including over 150 engaging exhibits, an introduction to Geocaching, the 2013 Laser Roadshow, "an Amazing Glimpse into Lasers, Optics, and Photonics!" and a full day of Stage Programming.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Garfield Orchestra under the direction of Marcus Tsutakawa will be performing the West Coast premiere of Phillip Glass' "Icarus at the Edge of Time" at the opening night of the Seattle Science Festival tonight at the Paramount! It will be an amazing evening with physicists Brian Greene, Sean Carrol and Adam Frank, narrated by Kal Penn, and in addition to the Icarus, a multi-media presentation, score by Phillip Glass, based on a book by Brian Greene, the physicists will discuss the “Beyond Infinity? The Search for Understanding at the Limits of Space and Time.” We're very proud that our Orchestra is helping to present this amazing evening.

Friends of Garfield Orchestra
6/6/13, 5:34 PM
Josh Hayes said…
I attended the Middle School Science Fair tonight, at the Museum of Flight, and I cannot tell you how impressed I was with the work those kids did. Some of those posters were very thought-provoking -- and I'm a scientist! -- I found myself reading their study, looking at the result, and thinking, "Huh!", over and over. Really good work, and heartening to see such good stuff coming out of our SPS middle schools (and K-8 schools - Blaine in particular had some excellent projects).

Well done, all! Sadly, my own child did not come away with an award, but she was not bothered by that, nor was I. The problem seemed to be that the ten categories for prizes were oddly constrained, and some perfectly good science simply had no category in which it could compete. In years to come, these criteria should be made clear at the earliest possible time.
6/6/13, 10:02 PM
Anonymous said…
@Josh,

Last year, they gave out awards (at the Middle School Science Fair) to those who finished in the top 5% (Superior) and the top 10% (Excellent), for each grade level, as well as awards for the different categories (Most Original, Best Engineering Project, Best Health Sciences Project, etc...), as well as "Best Overall" for each grade level.

This year, there were no "Superior" or "Excellent" awards handed out.

I don't know why they got rid of the "Superior" and "Excellent" categories this year. I wish they had kept them, so that more students could be acknowledged for their hard work and ingenuity.

Each participant did get a cool "finalist" T-shirt this year, which was not the case at last year's event (funding issue?).

I agree that the work was impressive, and it was very cool to see such great science from SPS students.

- North End Mom
6/7/13, 10:12 AM
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