September 9, 2022
A tour group gets a look at the state-of-the-art active learning classroom in the UW’s new Science Initiative building. Guided tours will be part of activities to celebrate the building’s grand opening and the inaugural STEM Carnival on Friday, September 16. (UW Photo)
Members of the University of Wyoming community and the public will celebrate the opening of the UW Science Initiative Building and participate in a variety of science activities during the inaugural UW STEM Carnival on Friday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. :00.
Hosted by the UW’s Advanced Science Initiative, most activities will take place in the Science Initiative building at the corner of Ninth and Lewis streets on the northwest edge of the UW campus. The event is the grand opening of the new 153,000-square-foot, $100 million building, a world-class facility focused on both undergraduate education and cutting-edge research in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
In conjunction with the new building’s STEM Carnival — featuring a wide range of engaging presentations and hands-on activities from UW STEM faculty, students, programs and local businesses — three speakers will present at 1 p.m. at UW’s Engineering Education and Research Building.
UW President Ed Seidel will speak on “Basic Sciences as Building Blocks for Innovation”; Ellen Currano, an associate professor in the UW Department of Botany, will speak on “Excavating Wyoming’s Ancient Rainforest as It Changes the Face of Science”; and Nobel laureate Carl Wieman of Stanford University will deliver a taped message titled “STEM Education – The Unexpected Transition from Medieval to Modern: New Goals, New Knowledge, and New Methods.”
Seidel is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has won international awards for his work in physics, computer science, and economic development. Currano is a paleontologist who studies how ancient forest communities responded to environmental changes; she has dug up fossil plants on six continents, with most of her time spent in the badlands of Wyoming and Ethiopia. Wieman has done extensive experimental research in both atomic physics and undergraduate science and engineering education. He has received numerous awards for both, including the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.
Beginning at 10 a.m. and continuing until 3 p.m., interactive STEM tables from various UW science departments will be located throughout the Science Initiative building. Examples of practical demonstrations include:
— Basketball isotope pong with UW’s Stable Isotope Facility.
— Building cardboard houses and solar panels with the School of Energy Resources.
— Making and eating liquid nitrogen ice cream with the chemistry and physics departments.
— Building and launching mini straw rockets with NASA.
— Learning the concepts of hybridization and adaptation with the Vertebrate Museum.
— Viewing the development of frog embryos with the Department of Molecular Biology.
— Using science to create works of art with Science Loves Art.
Visitors can sign up for additional activities at the information booth. This includes:
— DNA extraction and visualization. Participants will go through and perform an easy and fun experiment to break the cells of a strawberry to release the DNA inside. This is sponsored by Roadshow Initiative Science.
— Exploration of electricity. Participants will explore the basics of electricity using balloons, Van de Graaff generators, flashlights and more. This is sponsored by Science Kitchen and NASA.
— Learning the scanning electron microscope. Participants will tour the UW Jenkins Microscopy Facility and learn how a scanning electron microscope works. This is sponsored by INBRE and the Jenkins Microscopy Centre.
— See physics with a demonstration of the watermelon point. Participants can observe and measure the effects of gravity through a watermelon-dropping demonstration from the roof of the Science Initiative building at 12:30 p.m. This is sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
— Experience the new X-ray diffractometer. Attendees will get a demonstration of a new $100,000 instrument that determines the three-dimensional structure of molecules by examining how X-rays interact with crystals of these compounds. This is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry.
Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to see how the building’s state-of-the-art classroom is used for active learning. And guided tours of other parts of the building will take place starting at the top of each hour.
More information can be found at www.uwyo.edu/stemcarnival. Those with questions can email [email protected].
