Hands-on Science

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Use magnetic marbles representing protons and neutrons to model a nucleus, then smash it to pieces just like scientists at MSU’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams! FRIB is a world-leading laboratory for creating and studying rare isotopes that don’t exist on Earth. This is your chance to create exotic nuclei and discover more about FRIB research.

Learn more about A Smashing Time with Nuclei

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Have you ever wondered how social media platforms decide who to recommend as your friend? Or how AI models can be used to forecast the future? All prediction algorithms in AI have some inherent bias. The algorithms need bias to be able to generalize to previously unseen situations, but often bias is seen as a problem that causes algorithms to make mistakes. Here we explore different types of bias and how they can impact scenarios differently. Participants can talk with researchers and learn about the benefits and drawbacks of bias through hands-on demonstrations.

Learn more about Algorithmic Bias in Artificial Intelligence

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

We have a lot of water in the world but very little of it is safe to drink. Stop by our booth and find out how you can protect water resources around you, in your watershed, in Michigan’s environment, and beyond! We will have a water trivia game, crafts, and a visually dazzling groundwater model showing how the water cycle connects the water above ground that we can see to the water below ground that we cannot see. We will use dyes to show how pollution moves through the water cycle and offer tips on how you can be a water steward.

Learn more about All Water is Connected and Ours to Protect

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Fenner Nature Center's Aquatic Adventures program teaches students about wetland ecology through hands-on exploration of aquatic animal and plant life. Aided with collection and identification tools, students can explore the world of aquatic macro-invertebrates developing in different life stages within the environment, investigate adaptations that help wetland plants survive in these unique conditions, and come face-to-face with some cold-blooded residents that call wetland ecosystems home.

Learn more about Aquatic Adventures

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Learn the science and technology behind measuring human movement and how it is applied in a wide variety of settings, from the study of elite athletes to people with movement disorders. Hands-on activities include using different technologies to measure your own movement.

Learn more about Are You the Next Olympic Athlete? Measuring Movement in Health and Disease

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Batteries are everywhere in our daily life. Did you know that you can make batteries from fruits and vegetables? Do you know how to make a battery for your cell phone or even an electric car? In this program, you will make your own lemon and potato batteries that can light up an LED and learn the science behind them. You will also get a chance to learn how to make a lithium-ion battery.

Learn more about Batteries in Your Life

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Are you eager for spring and the colorful blooms to come? We can help! Join members of the Beal Garden team as we teach you how to force bloom branches for an early spring show in your home. We’ll also be sharing information about our 150th anniversary celebration including free concerts, tours, educational events, new ice cream flavors, and much more!

Learn more about Beal Botanical Garden - Blooming Early for our 150th Birthday

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Interested in learning more about bird eggs and nesting behaviors of Michigan birds? Bird eggs have their own unique shape, size, and coloring depending on the species. Join Michigan Audubon to explore their hands-on bird egg display, learn about different types of bird nests, and pick up some new vocabulary. Can you match the bird to its egg?

Learn more about Bird "Egg"stravaganza

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

You’ve heard that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but what is the cell’s recycling center? Come explore Cell City, where you can learn what jobs each organelle does to keep the cell running smoothly. Afterward, MSU Cell and Molecular Biology graduate students will introduce you to real microscopic plant, animal, and bacterial cells so you can see the world of cells for yourself!

Learn more about Cell City: The Diversity of Cellular Life

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

This presentation will discuss the chemistry associated with the human senses of sight, smell, and taste. Poster presentations will provide scientific principles behind the human senses while hands-on activities will keep kids of all ages involved and engaged!

Learn more about Chemistry of the Human Senses

Appropriate for: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Elementary school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Lights are used as decorations for many holidays and festivals around the world. Sometimes these lights are synced to music or programmed to flash in certain patterns to create animations and stunning visual displays. This challenge encourages participants to engage their creative side to design a light show that expresses their personality. They will design, program, and present a light show with basic circuitry and microcontrollers using an Arduino board.
We will also promote and share info about electrical engineering and women in engineering.

Learn more about Create Your Own Light Show with Electrical Circuits and Arduino Board

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

The Michigan State Campus Archaeology Program will be offering a series of hands-on activities designed to teach participants about archaeological practices and the production of knowledge about human pasts through material culture. In addition to displays from CAP’s excavations on the MSU Campus, participants will try their hand at reconstructing ceramic vessels, identifying artifacts, and learning about stratigraphy, excavation, and archaeological laboratory work. Come by to learn how archaeologists interpret the past through what others leave behind!

Learn more about Digging The Past: Learning through Artifacts with MSU’s Campus Archaeology Program

Appropriate for: Elementary school age

Explore and build the layers of the Earth, experiment with density and centrifugal force and learn about their effects on the formation of the Earth.

Learn more about Earth Science in the Montessori Classroom

Appropriate for: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Elementary school age, Middle school age, Over 21 years only

Let's get active! Join us for some guided exercise and explore the many benefits of resistance exercise training.

Learn more about Exercise is Medicine

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Come explore several STEM investigations on static electricity while watching a WKAR Curious Crew episode on the same topic. Then get 'charged up' as you complete a hands-on challenge building an electroscope.

Learn more about Explore Static Electricity with WKAR's Curious Crew

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

FIRST robotics program offers opportunities for students from PreK to 12th grade. Students learn about programming, fabrication, electronics and controls, and many other STEAM skills. More importantly, they learn to be part of a team and work with others that are different from themselves. FIRST is proud to offer a great experience from meetings to events to community service, and so much more. Come and check out all that FIRST has to offer!

Learn more about FIRST Robotics!

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

This program presents the zebrafish as an exciting animal model for basic and translational research. Zebrafish have unique attributes, like transparent embryos and external (outside of mom), fast development. This makes zebrafish helpful for answering many different research questions, especially questions about the development of an organism from egg to adult. Here, we showcase the zebrafish with interactive activities for all age groups, including spotting zebrafish embryos at different stages of development, following food movement through a live zebrafish’s system, picking out fish with special traits, and learning how we can change the zebrafish’s DNA with a tool called CRISPR.

Learn more about Fish You Well: Using Zebrafish to Study Development and Disease

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

How does one get a polygon of maximum area if the lengths of the edges are fixed? This is a famous problem in mathematics. Do we want to solve it using experimental … physics? … mathematics? BOTH! We use physical intuition: water occupies maximum volume, so if we imagine a polygonal garden pool with movable sides, it will automatically take the shape we are looking for!

Learn more about Geometrical Shapes and Physics: How to Observe Them in Your Backyard

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Explore how Earth’s water systems are connected through the flow of water! In this interactive exhibit, participants will engage with physical models and digital demonstrations to explore how water moves through the environment both above and below ground in different unique landscapes. Participants can pour water onto a 3-D printed landscape and watch how it makes its way downstream, digitally place a drop of water somewhere in the US and follow its path to the ocean, and observe how water travels underground as we add water to a groundwater system model.

Learn more about Go with the Flow: Exploring the Movement of Water!

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Every day we turn on our faucets, showers, dishwashers, laundry machines, and countless other water-dependent conveniences without stopping to consider: where does all that water come from? For the tri-county region of Clinton, Eaton, and Ingham counties, 100% of our water comes from below ground. Through a private well or a public utility, we all rely heavily on groundwater. Come stop by and learn all about groundwater as we build the region’s Saginaw aquifer in a cup!

Learn more about Greater Lansing’s Saginaw Aquifer in a Cup

Appropriate for: Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

In 2017, Pathology Outreach Program (POP) was established in Chicago to raise awareness among high school and undergraduate students about the field of pathology and laboratory medicine via interactive sessions. This initiative is aimed to increase awareness about pathology as a field and its importance in patient care, laboratory workflow, career options via medical or non-medical pathways, and this specialty’s future directions. MSU Pathology Interest Group is a group of medical students and a pathologist at MSU who aim to bring pathology skills and awareness to medical students and the general community by hosting interactive learning sessions on topics related to pathology. MSU Pathology Interest Group has teamed up with POP to bring its outreach to Michigan schools and continue this vital mission, especially as this field is currently facing a workforce shortage.

Learn more about Hands on Pathology: Hosted by the MSU CHM-COM Pathology Interest Group

Appropriate for: Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Plants need to respond to stresses, like drought or being eaten, by sending signaling molecules through the plant or changing the structure of their cell walls. Using computer simulations at the atomic scale, our group is studying how these signaling molecules are picked up by the proteins from membranes at the cell surface and how cell wall structure changes depending on humidity. Now you can see this too! Using interactive molecular dynamics simulations based on Newton’s laws of motion, you can control what happens at the nanoscale by adding forces to guide this process, while learning about the molecular simulations happening here at Michigan State University.

Learn more about Hands-On Molecular Simulations to Discover How Plants Communicate

Appropriate for: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Stem cells are cells that can self-renew and differentiate into many cell types. In adults, stem cells can only be found in specific organs, such as hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow that regenerate your blood cells. However, many organs (e.g., heart and pancreas) do not have stem cells. But your doctor may still be able to use stem cells to cure diseases like diabetes or heart failure in the future. But how? Dr. Wang will tell you stories about individualized pluripotent stem cells that can be coaxed into all types of adult cells including cardiomyocytes and pancreatic cells.

Learn more about Harnessing the Power of Stem Cells for Discovery and Therapy

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

The average American uses over 2,000 gallons of water a day, but they generally only see 100 of those gallons go down the drain. So, what about the other 1,900 gallons? ~95% of our water usage is in ‘hidden water,’ which is the water required to produce the commodities we interact with every day, such as our electricity, the clothes we wear, and even our morning coffee. In this exhibit, learn about the water footprint of everyday objects, and find out how ‘hidden water’ is essential to every aspect of our lives.

Learn more about Hidden Water

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Coastlines are extremely dynamic systems, making them vulnerable to storms, changes in water levels, and human disturbance. Understanding coastal erosion in the Great Lakes is imperative to protecting Michigan’s beloved beaches. Coastal scientists use drones, iPads, and remote-controlled boats equipped with the latest geospatial technology to map changes in coastlines to better understand the constantly changing landscape. Join us for a live wave tank demonstration with different wave and water level simulations and see how we use an iPad to map changes in the coastline over time.

Learn more about How do Beaches Change Along the Great Lakes? Mapping Coastal Erosion with Drones, iPads, and Remote-Controlled Boats

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

What makes MSU’s supercomputer so super? The key ingredient is referred to as parallel processing – in other words, MSU’s supercomputer can do many things at once, while a normal laptop computer can do comparatively few things at once. Learn more about parallel processing in a fun, interactive, and hands-on demonstration called a “Raspberry Pi Supercomputer.” Play with a mock supercomputer to see how much of a performance improvement you can create with parallel computing!

Learn more about Interactive Simulation of Parallel Processing for Supercomputers

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age

Pharmacology is the study of the beneficial effects of drugs or molecules, whereas toxicology involves investigating subsequent aversions. Pharmacology and toxicology are a part of groundbreaking discoveries in the form of therapeutics for biological wellness. The drug discovery process includes scientific jargon, twists, turns, and eureka moments. This Expo Booth will provide hands-on investigating principles of therapeutic discovery. Are you ready to become a pharmacologist and toxicologist within just minutes? If yes, the Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Student Organization invites you to help us discover a cure!

Learn more about Just a “Dose” of Therapeutic Discovery

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Join members of the Quantum Optical Devices Lab (QuOD lab) for fun hands-on demonstrations of lasers, optical fibers, and polarization, and learn how these can be used for quantum computing to tackle big problems like the traveling salesperson problem. Hands-on demonstrators will let people of all ages see how laser light can be used to transmit information, and how it can be guided down an optical fiber, using a laser beam confined to a water stream you can touch to see the laser inside. Optical polarizers will show how light can be manipulated and how observing its state changes it. Participants will learn about the motivation for quantum computing, what superposition means, and see how photons of light can be used as a quantum bit (qubit).

Learn more about Lasers, Photons, and Superposition: Harnessing the Power of Light to Build Future Quantum Computers

Appropriate for: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Bismuth is an element with a remarkably low melting point. Given the low melting point, you can melt metal and grow crystals on your stove at home! Once removed from the heat, Bi slowly cools and forms a vibrant crystalline pattern. Learn how to make your own crystal and take home samples. This demo will discuss what a crystal is, what a mineral is, what bismuth is used for, what conditions promote crystal growth, and why crystals are different colors.

Learn more about Let’s Grow Bismuth Crystals!

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Semiconductor chips are becoming increasingly smaller with a greater computation power. Lithography is a chemical/physical process that creates small patterns on chips by depositing materials through physical masks. In our everyday lives, screen printing of graphic artworks on canvases or t-shirts utilizes a similar concept. Using a hands-on activity, we will teach participants the basics of lithography. Using inexpensive materials, such as hydrophobic sands or Play-Doh, they will draw shapes and spray dye solutions through them to print the image on the canvas. We will also bring magnifiers to show the participants actual micropatterns generated from the lab.

Learn more about Lithography: How Chemistry Makes Tiny Computer Chips

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Michigan has more than its fair share of organic soils, where plants grow in the decomposing remains of other plants that have accumulated in wetlands over thousands of years. These soils vary across the state and support different kinds of ecosystems, from flat mossy bogs to bumpy cedar swamps. They make up a lot of our agricultural land as well, supporting the growth of many crops. Come see and touch some of the diverse materials found in Michigan's organic soils, and learn a bit about how we manage these wet landscapes!

Learn more about Peaty Bogs and Mucky Swamps: Michigan's Amazing Organic Soils!

Appropriate for: High school age, Over 21 years only

Plants are sessile organisms that have to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions to survive. A key part of this is the response of photosynthesis to dynamic environmental changes. Photosynthesis is easily measured using non-invasive techniques, allowing us to visualize how living plants respond to their environments. This presentation will demonstrate how plant photosynthesis responds to a variety of classical environmental stresses.

Learn more about Photosynthesis in Dynamic Environments

Appropriate for: Middle school age, High school age

Physician assistants are advanced practice providers who work in nearly every medical specialty, setting, and with patients of all ages. Michigan State University PA students will present foundational information about the profession, explain the anatomy of select bodily systems, then transition to explaining how we are trained to evaluate each respective organ system. Participants will have a chance to apply what they learned through a hands-on experience with our medical equipment.

We hope to curate an educational, yet exciting experience, and spark an interest in the study of medicine while promoting awareness about the PA career path.

Learn more about Physician Assistant Science

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Explore plant pathogens with S.P.O.R.E., Student Phytopathological Organization for Research and Education! All ages can observe diverse plant pathogenic microorganisms and their symptomatic host plants while learning about the historical and agricultural importance of plant diseases in Michigan. Try to match each host symptom with their respective pathogens. Come see live cultures and plant specimens to get hands-on with phytopathology. A prize will be awarded to individuals that can match most specimens correctly!

Learn more about Plant Pathogens: Match Plant Diseases to Their Microorganisms!

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Different plastics and how they are recycled with be presented. To depict an important aspect of recycling, different plastic materials will be taken and subjected to separation by a simple density-based method. The most widely used plastics, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) will be taken and daily used examples of each will be shown. Students will be amazed to apply the concept of density, using simple materials available in-house, to solve real-world problems.

Learn more about Plastic Recycling: The Art of Separation of Plastics by Floatation Method

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age

Where does water flow and how do watersheds work? Discover answers to these questions during hands-on exploration of our Augmented Reality Sandbox. Users can make it rain on the rivers, lakes, hills, and developments they create in the sand, then see the human impact on our environment. The interactive sandbox creates a topographical model with contour lines and simulated water. This watershed education tool is a free resource used by the Greater Lansing Regional Committee for Stormwater Management and the Michigan Water Stewardship Program to help residents improve watershed health and protect our Grand River Watershed.

Learn more about Play in the Sand and Make it Rain to Create Landforms and Study Watersheds Using an Augmented Reality Sandbox

Appropriate for: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Polymeric materials are functional and structural elements for a wide variety of fields. The past decade saw a burst of development of polymer science and technology. In this presentation, we provide an introduction to the roles polymeric materials have been playing in addressing challenges in energy, health, the automotive and aerospace industries, advanced coatings and intelligent packaging, and the separation and purification. In the end, we highlight severe environmental issues brought up by synthetic polymers and call for attention and solutions from the general public.

Learn more about Polymers and the Future

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Polymers are one of the most important substances found in nature and are synthesized for industrial usage. This is due to their peculiar molecular structure composed of a repeating chain of molecules (monomers). Join us for an in-depth look into the inner workings of these compounds and their role in our modern life through an in-person experiment using common household items.

Learn more about Polymers: Breaking Down Nature’s Building Blocks

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Want to know how music is made? Explore the science of music through hands-on activities with the MSU Community Music School! We will use musical instruments and household items to demonstrate how sound and music are created through vibration. Visitors will also have the opportunity to make their own musical craft.

Learn more about Explore the Science of Music with the MSU Community Music School

Appropriate for: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

This is your chance to “go inside” the body, identifying bones, organs, and systems of the human body, using only your hands! The Anatomage Table is the only fully segmented real human 3D anatomy platform and is the most technologically advanced 3D anatomy visualization and virtual dissection tool. You'll get a chance to view and interact with the other 3D visualizations, including reptiles, mammals, birds, and even see inside a scanned mummy!

Learn more about Blood, Bones, and Brains: Inside the Body with the Anatomage 3D Table at MSU Libraries

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Have you ever wanted to make your own bath bomb? Would it bubble better in a warm bath or a cold bath? Let's test this by creating your own personal bath bomb and observing how it bubbles in different temperatures. Will your bath bomb recipe yield lots of bubbles in the warm water or the icy cold water? Wouldn't you like to find out?

Learn more about Bubbly Bath Bomb Baking

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

What determines which foods taste good and which taste bad? How does taste influence what we eat? Join the Johnson Lab as we explore the neuroscience of taste perception!

Learn more about A Taste of Neuroscience

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

We use the word “taste” to talk about the foods we eat: “that tastes amazing/gross/like salami.” But really, our experience of food flavor comes from much more than taste! Flavor perception is the combined detection of molecules by three sensory systems: taste, smell, and chemesthesis. Through a tasty demo, visitors will learn about “retronasal olfaction” – the smelling we do while chewing food – and how much it contributes to flavor. Next, visitors can go “flavor tripping” by eating berries that contain a molecule, miraculin, that binds very strongly to our sweet taste receptors, making sour foods eaten shortly afterward taste sweet.

Learn more about All in Favor of Good Flavor!

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Come join MSU's chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma, a professional chemistry fraternity, as we explore the magic of liquid nitrogen!

Learn more about Chemi-COOL Demonstrations!

Appropriate for: High school age, Over 21 years only

In the game "Deal or No Deal," each contestant is faced with multiple scenarios in which they must quickly make decisions. So how do people make these decisions? Is it based on calculations they make in their heads? Or, is it based on a 'gut feeling'? Consequently, is there some mathematical pattern that all contestants follow when making decisions in similar unknown scenarios? My presentation explores how closely the average person makes decisions based on the expected value of the briefcases. It also explores the mathematical relevance of the banker's offers and whether they are reasonable or not.

Learn more about Decision-Making in the Face of Uncertainty: An In-Depth Study of the Game Show 'Deal or No Deal'

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

This program is intended to educate the public on the science of optics and photonics through presentations, demonstrations, and conducting science on site. The poster presentation will be used to explain the wide applications of optics in our daily lives, from cameras, LCD displays, 3-D movies, to optical communications. The on-site demonstrations and hands-on activities will present and explain interesting optical phenomena including light transmission and reflection, light polarizations, and lasers.

Learn more about Exploring the Science of Light

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Learn about bird migration, migratory bird research, and how to visit the Michigan State Bird Observatory. Booth visitors can play a migration game, help match berry samples, learn about bird identification, and much more! www.burkelakebanding.com

Learn more about Michigan State Bird Observatory

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

This presentation will feature various hands-on displays to educate participants about the hidden microbial world that surrounds us! This includes demonstrating bioluminescent bacteria, antibiotic resistance, microbes under a microscope, and much more.

Learn more about Microbe Magic

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

The first battery was built by Alessandro Volta in 1800, long before we had cell phones to power. With some household items, you can build this battery yourself! Visit us to learn how to build a battery that can light up LEDs.

Learn more about Need a Recharge? Build Your Own Battery!

Appropriate for: Elementary school age, Middle school age, High school age, Over 21 years only

Meet researchers in the plant sciences, plant a pollinator garden, and get hands-on at Science in the Gardens!

Learn more about Plant Science Exploration!