STEAM Expo Days

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: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Elementary school age, High school age

Many people know their clinical specimens get sent to the medical laboratory, but what happens next? Who performs the testing, and how is it done? Take a tour of the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics program and explore the different disciplines of the medical laboratory, do some hands on medical laboratory activities, and learn about the scientists who perform medical laboratory testing every day!

Learn more about Explore Medical Laboratory Science!

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

Explore the MSU food processing complex, including the mobile food processing lab, a state-of-the-art food-grade facility that recently underwent a $4.4 million renovation funded by the State of Michigan. This facility is used for student education, research, conducting small-scale processing and recipe optimization, and collaborating with industry. The mobile food processing lab is a one-of-a-kind creation capable of operating a wide range of food processing equipment to produce a variety of finished food products that include blanching, pasteurizing, canning, drying, washing, cutting, and many other operations.

Learn more about Food Processing at MSU

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: Kindergarten and Pre-K, Elementary school age, Middle school age

The best kind of science experiment is one that you can do all by yourself. So drop by and learn from YouTuber Tommy Technetium how you can perform several experiments at home with adult help. You can learn how to explore the science of bubbles, butterflies, batteries, and much more!

Learn more about At-Home Science with Tommy Technetium

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

Come climb the 74 steps of Beaumont Tower! Learn about the tower's history and see how the carillon is played.

Learn more about Beaumont Tower Tours

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

The Rachana Rajendra Neotropical Migrant Bird Sanctuary is home to a diverse ecosystem of plants, animals, and microorganisms. Located in the Baker Woodlot property on campus, the sanctuary provides an urban refuge for wildlife and people to enjoy year-round. Experience this hidden gem while learning about its inhabitants and what makes it such a special place.

Learn more about Exploring the Rachana Rajendra Bird Sanctuary

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

Imagine where we would be without inventions such as the light bulb, microwave oven, or even our favorite toys. Join us as we explore the unexpected and amazing tales of how these everyday modern marvels came to exist and celebrate the scientists and inventors who made them possible.

Learn more about Eureka!

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

We will offer short, 15-minute planetarium shows every 30 minutes. Come see what's up in the night sky.

Learn more about Abrams Planetarium Shows

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

Don't miss your chance to meet and handle live beetles, cockroaches, millipedes, and more at the MSU Bug House. Observe museum displays featuring over a thousand preserved insects from around the globe and ask our knowledgeable guides all your burning insect biology questions!

Learn more about Explore the Amazing World of Insects at the MSU Bug House!

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

Learn about the history of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at MSU during the University Archives & Historical Collections pop-up exhibit! Visitors will be able to see and touch scrapbooks, photographs, diaries, and other historical items from the 1860s through the 1980s. This is a unique opportunity to see gems of the Archives’ collections, and to meet and talk with the University’s archivists who care for over 165 years of MSU history.

Learn more about History of STEM at MSU Pop-up Exhibit 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

It is time to stop using plastic bottles that only serve to pollute our oceans and our planet. This presentation will demonstrate the formation of edible water bottles using simple methods with easily available ingredients such as sodium alginate and calcium lactate.

Learn more about Edible Water Bottles! Economic & Ecofriendly Alternatives to Plastic Bottles

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

Have you ever wondered how Beal is able to grow pineapple or a papaya tree? What keeps the garden staff busy before the garden wakes up? Join us on a Behind the Scenes tour of the greenhouse that houses some of our plants. Learn what it takes to keep our collection growing even in the harshest of winters.

Learn more about Behind the Scenes at the Beal Garden Greenhouse

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

Have you heard the AI bot creepily ‘singing’ the song ‘Jolene’? Artificial intelligence initially arose to automate mundane tasks and computations, but lately it’s been making waves in creative spheres. This brings up questions about intellectual property, ethical use of technology, bias in algorithms, and the nature of creativity itself. The MSU Museum CoLab Studio invites you to join us as we explore text-to-sound generative AI, learn how to use the algorithms, and grapple with the future implications of this technology. This hands-on workshop will be led by Mark Sullivan, a practicing photographer, composer, and the creative director of the Museum CoLab Studio.

Learn more about AI Sonic Art Workshop

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

Ever wonder what trees we have on campus, and which ones are native to Michigan? Join Plant Recorder Carolyn Miller as she guides you around campus learning about how to ID our native trees and where to find them. In addition, she will introduce you to the MSU Campus Virtual Tree Map, where you can find all the trees on campus!

Learn more about Beneath the Pines: MSU Native Tree Walk

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

Weather is very important for agriculture, and the trends we are seeing in our climate will also affect what we grow and how we grow it. Learn about how we measure the weather, and how that can be used to help growers make management decisions on their farms. See different types of weather stations at our facility and learn about how weather affects insects and diseases.

Learn more about Don't Underestimate the Weather - How Weather and Climate Affect Agriculture

Appropriate for: High school age, Over 21 years only

Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between plants and people and there is nowhere better to explore than in MSU’s own Botanical Garden! This tour is designed to get you thinking about your own relationship with plants from your chemical dependency on coffee every morning to hating the smell of boiled brussels sprouts!

Learn more about Exploring Ethnobotany and our Relationships with Plants

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

Make your own edible ice cream aquifer! Learn about aquifers and groundwater and how you can protect water resources. Find out how groundwater in the aquifer can become contaminated by watching what happens when you start adding chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and soda to your ice cream aquifer.

Learn more about Edible Ice Cream Aquifers: What Can You Learn About Groundwater?

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

Fossils discovered in the last 20 years preserve an outstanding record of several stages in the transition from our fish-finned relatives to the early tetrapods - four-legged vertebrates. This presentation will use fossil specimens from the MSU Museum to show important discoveries that help us to understand the critical steps in the transition from water to land, a major evolutionary event that happened nearly 400 million years ago.

Learn more about Fins to Limbs: How Our Ancestors Came Ashore