St. Bonaventure University is giving the community a chance to celebrate fall with some exciting experiments on Sept. 24 at the local Fall in Love with Science event.
Biology professor Dr. Xiao-Ning Zhang and student coordinator Josh McGraw have teamed up to share their passion for science with others. The event will take place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the new Olean Farmers Market in Lincoln Park this Sunday.
The point of Fall in Love with Science is to bring a scientific learning experience to the community in a way that is convenient.
“The idea is that a lot of community members don’t necessarily have the means to come to our campus to do things and learn from us, but they may still have the desire to do it, and so I think it’s good for us to bring all the learning and the fun of science to them,” Zhang said. “We hope they find science can be fun. It is really behind a lot of things they do in their lives. We hope science will be less scary and more friendly to them in the future.”
After a lot of talking, meetings and brainstorming for over a year, the team’s vision of getting more people interested in science is becoming a reality. Zhang pointed out that while it was fun figuring out what they wanted to do, there were also serious deadlines and steps that went into the process, and McGraw did most of the work on those parts.
With the help of some of the student clubs on campus (Enactus, Psychology Club, Astronomy Club and American Society Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Chapter), there will be about a dozen activities to do at the event. A couple of these will include the chemistry department having chemistry professor Dr. Scott Simpson teach how to make silly putty and collaborators from BOCES and physical therapy facility Rehabilitation Today showing how 3D prosthetics are made.
Zhang and McGraw believe the Farmers Market is the perfect place for their event to take place.
“It’s new, and also it’s a very nice community space. It smells so fresh. It’s by the park, so if kids want to go play at times, they can go play. The family can check out different things as well,” Zhang said.
To clarify, Fall in Love with Science is not just for kids, but for adults and teenagers, too.
“We think it’s for anybody, but we would like to see a lot of students of different ages, their parents and their family. Also, the community members,” Zhang said, restating her point that Lincoln Park is a community-friendly space, so she and McGraw have high hopes for attracting people from around the area.
“I love everything about [science],” said Zhang. “I think a lot of it is the hands-on part, especially when you think about a science idea, and then you make it happen. That is just awesome, and we want to share that with others who haven’t seen that before.”
By Vanessa Donadio
donadivj16@bonaventure.edu
