Families get hands-on experience at Fermilab
By offering a day of educational presentations, tours and hands-on activities, organizers of Fermilab's annual open house hope to provide families with more than a fun opportunity to learn about science. They also want to make the community aware of the functions and significance of the Batavia laboratory.
Sunday's event offered access to various experiments and areas of the 10-square-mile campus that aren't always available to the public, said Lori Haseltine, education program assistant. Visitors were able to see a herd of bison, a Pioneer cemetery, a linear accelerator and an experiment involving a 50-foot magnet brought in recently from New York.
They also could go on a virtual tour of a Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
"We're outreaching to the community to let them know what goes on at Fermilab and what's available for the public," Haseltine said. The event typically draws at least 2,500 people, she said, though crowds were lighter than usual thanks to a snowy morning.
The weather didn't stop Amy and Matt Coneys from making the trek from Naperville with their daughters, 8-year-old Emma and 4-year-old Maggie. The girls said they most enjoyed a virtual reality exhibit that allows visitors to watch neutrinos and their interactions with other molecules.
"All the experiments have been great and (are) just getting them interested in gravity or sound waves, or getting them really excited about science," Amy Coneys said. "It's been a lot of fun for them."
New to this year's event was a "Colder than Cool" show, during which scientists demonstrated the effects of liquid nitrogen and its uses in electricity and magnetism. The open house also featured a presentation about sports physics and engineering, as well as a panel of women discussing their careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
"We want to show the diversity that's here," Haseltine said.
Additionally, Wilson Hall's atrium was filled with interactive exhibits displayed by students from various high schools, including West Aurora, Naperville Central, Downers Grove North and the Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park. Students from Batavia High School and the Illinois Math and Science Academy also volunteered at the event.
Vincent Pergrossi, 16, of Hampshire, was among the IMSA students helping families try hands-on physics activities. He and his classmates said they enjoyed watching kids make predictions about an experiment and then work through the outcome.
"It's interesting to see their initial reactions," he said. "A lot of them don't really know exactly what's going to happen, so they each have their own guesses, but they're all able - with a little bit of guidance - to figure out what happens."