From Feb. 10–14, the Fermilab Office of Education and Public Engagement held its first-ever virtual Family Open House. With live and on-demand content throughout the five-day event, attendees could participate in real time or enjoy programming on their own schedule, with over 10,000 interactions from 45 states and over 20 countries. The EPE Office is excited about both a very successful five days and about how it can be carried forward.
Other Skies: An Exoplanetary Festival takes place on Sunday, March 20, from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. CDT. Other Skies is a groundbreaking online festival interweaves musical performances, visual art, and talks from scientists working at the cutting edge of exoplanet research — whose work directly inspired the art on display. Over the course of the day, a diverse interdisciplinary panel will present a broad picture of our exoplanetary horizons and their ramifications for our shared humanity. Fermilab scientist emeritus Mike Albrow…
Students from Cowherd Middle School visit Fermilab on Oct. 5, 2017.
If you’re willing to help with the April 24 Superheroes in STEM workshop at Fermilab, please sign up to help by March 1: https://forms.gle/qRCPXe3jJEkGsesTA The Superheroes in STEM conference is an opportunity for high school students to interact with Fermilab experts in STEM fields. The students see what it’s like to work in a national lab in the areas of engineering, computing or physics. Sign up to help by March 1.
From Chicago Tribune, Feb. 10, 2021: Fermilab scientist Jessica Esquivel makes a habit of sharing the greatness of STEM with girls. This feature discusses several of the ways she fuels up through mentoring Black and brown girls, including the #STEMtag campaign and an upcoming Wikipedia edit-a-thon to recognize the contributions of unacknowledged Black physicists.
A reminder to the lab community: Our first Virtual Open House is right around the corner, and you and your families are invited to participate. Check out the Open House offerings, and be sure to register in advance. The event will run for five days, from Feb. 10-14, with “on-demand” content available 24/7, as well as live-streamed events. Activities will include pre-recorded demos and activities for all ages, trivia games, tours of the lab facilities, a community art show and more — all free for everyone to enjoy.
From Chicago Tribune, Feb. 3, 2021: Fermilab’s Family Open House is a popular annual event in the Chicagoland area. This year, it’s virtual. Amanda Early, education program leader, discusses the programming that the virtual event will bring to classrooms and homes around the world.
Scientists at Fermilab aim to solve the mysteries of dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up 25% of our universe. In this recording of a live virtual event, eight scientists explain how their research helps answer questions about dark matter. They give tours of their experiments and show some of the cutting-edge work that takes place at lab. The list of speakers and topics is below. This virtual event was recorded on Oct. 31, 2020, and was part of the worldwide Dark Matter Day, organized by the Interactions collaboration.
The reimagined event will bring five days of family-friendly physics fun from the lab to the living room.
For all of us, 2020 has been an interesting year full of unique challenges and unique opportunities. The Education and Public Engagement Office has used this time of change to focus on broadening the national and international reach of our efforts via new, virtual opportunities. In this column, I’d like to feature some of the highlights of the past year.