USA Science Fest: A good excuse for a father to take his girls to the Mall

I dread the day when my two girls, ages 4 and 2, become aware of how society tells them they’re supposed to look and dress. When that day does come, I imagine one of the girls will ask, ‘Daddy! Can you take us clothes shopping at the mall?’

My fear isn’t so much for my inevitably shrinking wallet. I’m more concerned about losing influence over my daughters. Because I’m not the kind of father who’s content to sit on the sidelines—or on a fashion boutique’s dressing-room couch—and watch society influence my children, I was glad for the opportunity to go on the offensive last weekend.

Last month, I approached my daughters and said, ‘Hey! Daddy’s taking you to the National Mall in DC to the USA Science and Engineering Festival !’ Of course, they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. All they heard was the enthusiasm in my voice, which, for now at least, carries some weight.

I had been waiting excitedly for months to attend the inaugural USA Science and Engineering Festival, which kicked off on 10 October with a concert on the University of Maryland’s College Park campus and culminated two weeks later with an expo near the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Sponsored by Lockheed Martin and organized by philanthropists Larry and Diane Bock, the festival promised, and delivered, more than 1500 interactive exhibits designed and presented by university research departments, NSF-funded centers, science museums, technology companies, and nonprofit groups that promote science.

More than 30 Nobel laureates, including NASA’s John Mather shown here, participated in the festivities, which also included an Albert Einstein impersonator, unicycle riders juggling ‘nano balls,’ and singers belting out ballads laced with science lyrics.

Even President Obama joined the action by hosting a science fair at the White House on 18 October. Thanks in part to his efforts to get the word out, more than one million people reportedly streamed through the exhibits on the festival’s final weekend.

At the festival’s Squishy Science booth, which was put together by condensed-matter researchers from Georgetown University, children played with gels, polymers, and other soft materials. The LaserFest booth, sponsored by the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Society of Physics Students, gave children the chance to meet Spectra, the teenage superheroine and star of her own comic book .

Physics also featured in the NASCAR booth, where families posed for photos in front of a racecar and learned about the science behind the sport. People crammed into Howard University’s NanoExpress , a working nanotechnology lab lined with atomic force microscopes (AFMs) and other high-tech nanoscopic and nanofabrication instruments.

The longest line by far was for a ride on a space-shuttle simulator sponsored by the COPD Foundation . The foundation’s simultaneous goals were to inspire young people to pursue science and to increase awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other lung conditions.

As a scientist, I relished the entire event the way my daughters would relish a trip to Disneyworld. They, however, were slightly less impressed. We experienced most of the exhibits either too briefly or from too far away because I knew my girls wouldn’t have the patience to wait in lines or the appreciation of what an AFM was, or even care what their height was in nanometers—my four-year-old, Kera, is roughly 1 billion nanometers tall. Apart from the PBS Kids booth, where Kera (shown here) posed with Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat, most of the exhibits were simply over their heads.

Even so, I was delighted to see children at the festival, especially girls and children from minority groups that are underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Several exhibits targeted those groups; all seemed geared to school-age children.

Next year, I would like to see the exhibits separated into three zones: a kid zone for elementary-school-age children, a teen zone, and an adult zone for the rest of us. I would also like to have the festival provide a location-aware smartphone app, or better yet, a humanoid robot, to guide me through my preselected exhibits. Without help the scale of the event is overwhelming. Maybe I’m asking too much.

More scientists involved

I also hope that next year more scientists get involved from the beginning. Since March I was plugged in to the planning stages through the festival’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Judging by the pages’ traffic, it appeared as though the organizers were initially slow to attract the cooperation of the traditional science societies.

It seems to me that scientists are cynical toward events sponsored by for-profit companies or organized by people outside of the established research community. That’s a shame, because it is urgent that the US reinvigorate and reinvest in science education. There’s a Gathering Storm; it’s approaching category five; and we need all hands on deck.

I left the festival with a bag full of brochures, and two daughters covered with stickers and sporting a free bright neon-green baseball cap from the National Center for Women and Information Technology , which was there to inspire girls to study computer science.

But I also wanted material that my preschool children could learn from at home. I know it wasn’t the shopping mall, but I was prepared and hoping to spend some money on science games or science-themed clothing and gear. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone selling such items on site. I did see a woman with a T-shirt that read ‘I ♥ physics,’ but she told me that she came to the festival wearing it.

Nonetheless, thanks to the USA Science and Engineering Festival, I no longer dread going to the mall with my girls when they reach shopping age. By then, they will have made several pilgrimages to the festival and will, I hope, have been positively influenced by it. And by then, their favorite outfit will perhaps include a T-shirt that says, ‘I ♥ physics.’