The Atlanta Science Festival is back for a 12th year from March 8-22.
“We’ve got 140-ish events happening over the course of those two weeks — everything from a neuroscience dance event to some coding events to hiking Stone Mountain with a geologist,” said Meisa Salaita, one of the festival’s co-directors.
“And you know, it doesn’t matter what you like — even if you don’t like science — there is something connected to something that you like in your backyard,” Sailita said.
At the end of the two weeks, the festival will cap off with a free, family-friendly celebration of science in Piedmont Park with tents, booths and about 100 hands-on science activities.
Who can you meet?
Salaita said people in Atlanta are familiar with the city’s research institutions that house the many scientists around town — Emory, Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia State, Georgia Tech and more.
But she said sometimes those laboratories can feel really far away and inaccessible.
“We reduce the barriers so we make it easy to access, we open doors that are never opened, we make opportunities free or super, super low cost,” Salaita said. “We bring people out of the laboratory and into public parks so that they seem more accessible.”
This also includes graduate students and people from Atlanta’s business scene.
Salaita said that Atlanta is home to many major companies that use breaking technology and science daily in their work, like welders who work on Delta’s plane repairs and employees at UPS who use algorithms to figure out how to deliver packages most efficiently.
“I remember a few years ago — we had for quite a number of years — Clorox is one of our sponsors and they have a facility just south of the airport that makes all the Pine Sol. Like — all the Pine Sol — does anybody know that?” Salaita said.
Building trust with scientists
Salaita said she recognizes that beyond fun, the Atlanta Science Festival also serves other ends, like familiarizing the public with scientists and help building trust.
“For me, it’s much, much more about incremental shifts and attitude,” Salaita said.
She said the Atlanta Science Festival is one way for scientists to meet face-to-face with neighbors, but also expose people to science in a friendly and engaging way, often with folks underrepresented in STEM.
“And if you incrementally do that over time, many, many times — through 140 events over two weeks — and do it annually, and do all of the other work that my nonprofit really pushes to do … what we’re trying to do is change attitudes toward science,” Salaita said, “And that when they speak, we have a sense of warmth when we think about those scientists, and a feeling that they are competent, and those two things together lead to us trusting what they have to say.”
To learn more, visit atlantasciencefestival.org.
