Bill Nye knows science is cool.
So does The Dancing Scientist and the thousands of Nebraskans — young and old — who explored its wonders during this spring’s Nebraska Science Festival.
Where else could you get a hair-raising lesson on static electricity, magnify zebrafish embryos, learn how to fix Fido’s fracture, use gravity as a paintbrush, launch a paper rocket and make lightning bolts with your fingertips?
Presented by UNMC, the inaugural, three-day festival featured an array of science-and technology-related activities across the Omaha area. Free activities drew more than 2,000 people to the Science
Expo at The Durham Museum, plus science-related doings — from charcuterie and dinosaurs to art and astronauts — at City Sprouts Community Garden, Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater, Fontenelle Forest, the French Bulldog, Hot Shops, Joslyn Art Museum, Lauritzen Gardens, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, Strategic Air & Space Museum and the UNMC College of Dentistry.
Bill Nye, the Science Guy, filled Joslyn Museum’s Witherspoon Hall, where he discussed climate change, new ways to store energy, the importance of algebra and his family’s fascination with sundials, including the two he helped put on Mars.
Back at the Science Expo, the Dancing Scientist (aka Jeffrey Vinokur) wowed students with gooey polymer chains, jaw-dropping air vortex rings and polymer-based snow creations — all to the beat of hip-hop music and hip dance moves. Down the hall, Chemistry and Physics on Wheels, or C.A.P.O.W., showed students the magic of chemistry and physics in a show filled with pops, bangs and flashes.
So, after three science-filled days, what was really cool?
Seeing so many “a-ha” moments on the faces of kids.