Fifth annual South Side Science Festival returns Oct. 3 with curiosity and enjoyable

The children’ minds are blown, University of Chicago graduate scholar Madhumitha Prakash mentioned, when yellow and blue don’t make inexperienced. 

Each 12 months for the previous three years, the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) immunoengineering Ph.D. scholar has run a science demonstration for youngsters exhibiting off the bizarre properties of nanoscale interactions. She combines the 2 colours and asks the kids what they assume will occur.

“Usually what the kids are going to expect is you put yellow and blue together, you’re going to get green,” Prakash mentioned. “But then we teach them how fluids at the microfluidic scale operate at laminar flow. If you want to make green, you have to introduce these really cool geometries that basically switch up the flow and make it a little bit more turbulent.”

Prakash is getting ready to confound and intrigue lots of of native college students and their households on the fifth annual South Side Science Festival, hitting UChicago’s campus on Oct. 3. The 2026 occasion will characteristic greater than 600 college students, postdoctoral researchers, employees and college presenting 130 demonstrations and sharing their love of science with the South Side neighborhood.

“While this is an incredibly fun event for all of the scientists and volunteers who put it on, I think folks take even more pride in being able to share the joy of science with the South Side and broader Chicago community,” mentioned chemistry Assoc. Prof. John Anderson, one of many school organizers. “Our goal is to make a welcoming and inclusive festival for everyone, including across all age groups and interest levels.”

The hands-on occasion brings collectively STEM models throughout the University. Robots dance close to replicas of early hominids, stay jellyfish seem alongside fossils which were lifeless for 300 million years and fruit frozen with liquid nitrogen (courtesy of Anderson, also called “Dr. DiNitrogen”) shatters close to arts-and-crafts tables the place kids paint with electrically conductive ink.

The competition is free and open to all. Registration is optional, but requested.

“The South Side Science Festival brings to life the idea that science is for everyone, giving people a chance to experience being a scientist through hands-on, creative demos and activities connected to their daily lives,” mentioned human genetics Assoc. Prof. Maanasa Raghavan, one of many school organizers. “I’m especially looking forward to seeing families explore the activities together and enjoy the lively atmosphere that makes the day feel like a true community festival!”

In addition to representing her lab on the competition, Prakash enjoys the method a lot that for the previous couple of years she and her accomplice—additionally a UChicago STEM graduate scholar—have created their very own further show, an interdisciplinary demonstration from an interdisciplinary couple.

“He does lipid nanoparticle work and I do a lot of microbiology work,” Prakash mentioned. “A lot of the demos that we did were about concepts at the intersection of our respective expertise.”

While the competition is a repeat journey for Prakash, this 12 months’s occasion would be the first for UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Ruben Verresen. The theorist is designing an interactive digital demonstration to show “some of the weirdest aspects of quantum physics.”

“I remember as a kid the sense of awe I would feel when I would learn a new peculiar fact of the universe,” Verresen mentioned. “Gaining such knowledge almost felt mystical, knowing it was a fundamental principle that for some unknown reasons had to be obeyed everywhere throughout the universe.”

UChicago PME Assistant Dean of Education and Outreach Laura Rico-Beck mentioned spurring that love of science takes a “two-fold approach.” Events such because the South Side Science Festival, lab internships for Chicago high schoolers and the No Small Matter Molecular Engineering Fair deliver college students to UChicago, whereas off-campus partnerships deliver STEM programming to native schools, museums and other community organizations.

“We want people to see that science is something they can be part of, and that it’s already woven into the places, questions and experiences that shape their lives,” Rico-Beck mentioned. “We get to share the science we love with the community we call home, and learn from the curiosity and questions of our neighbors. It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate science together on the South Side.”

“Events like the South Side Science Festival celebrate the curiosity and creativity that exist across the South Side and beyond,” mentioned UChicago PME Interim Dean Stuart Rowan. “It’s an opportunity to come together, share what we’re working on, learn from one another, and experience the excitement of science and engineering.”

Explore and register for the 2026 South Side Science Festival here.

—This article originally appeared on the UChicago PME website.