All children and their families are invited to the free North Bay Area Science Festival Discovery Day on Saturday, Oct. 27, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hall of Flowers, Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa.
The goals of Discovery Day are to inspire children to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers and showcase North Bay STEM organizations.
Last year, the first Discovery Day in the North Bay was held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, and more than 4,000 people attended. Exhibitors included Agilent Technologies, Kaiser Permanente, Santa Rosa Junior College, the Buck Institute and Clover Stornetta. With this larger venue, we expect more than 7,000 attendees. Come and see the action! Reservations are not necessary ... just show up.
Exhibitors are expected to have a hands-on kid-fiendly booth with a definite "wow" factor! Highlights include using liquid nitrogen to make instant ice cream, saving "Mr Sim" in an emergency room, catapult launches, an F-4 simulator, strawberry DNA extractions, and much, much more!
Folks at the Buck Institute here in Novato have been incredibly supportive of this whole event. You may want to watch a movie about Julie Mangada, a Buck Institute scientist, who was the inspiration for the Science Festival. She has the fun assignment of going out to the schools getting kids excited about science. How cool is that?
By the way, Ms. Cat Nam's fourth grade class at Rancho Elementary in Novato has designed a very cool art contest that will take place at the Discovery Day science festival. Her last year's class was also involved with a special "focus group" that helped us shape the Discovery Day.
The Sonoma County Fairgrounds are at 1350 Bennett Valley Road in Santa Rosa, conveniently near Highway 12 and Highway 101.
The North Bay Discovery Day kicks off the week of activities that will culminate with another Discovery Day in San Francisco on Saturday, Nov. 3. Check out the entire week's calendar for more things to do!
If you have any questions, please contact me, Carole Bennett, the co-chair of the volunteer committee that puts this all together. This is, by far, the most fun and rewarding activity that I have done so far in my newly retired job status!
