Inaugural festival to celebrate everything science

By Paul Takahashi

Thursday, April 28, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.

The inaugural Las Vegas Science Festival opening on Sunday is not your typical science fair. In fact, the weeklong event, May 1 to 7, is technically not even a science fair.

“Science fairs are typically kid-produced science projects for competition,” said co-director John Good. “Science festivals are much different. It’s a celebration of everything related to science, engineering and mathematics that occurs at multiple sites over multiple days.”

Good, who serves as the president of local museum exhibit firm Exhibit IQ, was piqued by a new movement of science festivals cropping up in cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago and San Diego over the past decade.

“Las Vegas used to be one of the best places for physicists,” Good said, lamenting the exodus of scientists after the nuclear test ban. “We’ve lost our way… this festival is an opportunity to bring some of that back.”

In February 2010, Good got together with festival co-director Marilyn Gillespie, of the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, to begin planning for the Las Vegas’ first science festival.

Since that time, festival organizers have secured sponsorships and more than 80 partnerships with local and regional organizations, including the Atomic Testing Museum, UNLV, Desert Research Institute and the Bureau of Land Management.

“Getting everyone together and the community involved was the easy part,” Good said. “But we didn’t anticipate the significant challenge of the budget crisis over a year ago.”

With the school district and UNLV discussing budget cuts, Good said he was worried about the fate of the Las Vegas Science Festival, which is one of 35 festivals being produced or in development across the country this year.

For Good, the cuts meant that funding for STEM education – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – was in jeopardy. That’s why he and the festival organizers persevered in their efforts to bring about a free science festival – they wanted to cultivate “the next generation of scientists,” he said.

“Every working scientist will relate to a time in their childhood when they had access to a science fair, a museum or engagement with a scientist,” Good said. “This festival is an opportunity for kids to engage with professionals and to touch and feel science.”

The festival kicks off on Sunday with “Science is Everywhere Day” when museums, educational institutions and science-related venues around the valley welcome visitors to experience a unique perspective on science. For example, attendees can visit the Clark County Coroner’s Office, hear a presentation by a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum or even take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.

“Especially in a place like Las Vegas that’s known for so many great things, but science isn’t one of them… people will get to see that we all have a connection to science,” Good said.

Between May 2 and 6, the Clark County School District will host 100 science professionals in classrooms, as well as free evening classes for the community. In addition, the festival will hold three “Great Debates” on the ethics of stem cell research, the changing environment and the intersection of science and religion.

The festival will culminate in a large science expo at the Cashman Center on May 7 where families can experience 70 booths of hands-on science and two main stage of science entertainment. More than 10,000 attendees are expected at the science expo that Saturday, Good said.

“We’re definitely excited for this,” he said. “We’re now in the scary phase where we’ve planned everything and we hope they all come.”

For more information and to see a schedule of all the science festival events, visit www.lasvegassciencefestival.com.