HOMETOWN SCIENCE FESTIVAL IS NEXT SATURDAY, SEPT. 23 IN WELLSBORO
Looking through a telescope, doing simple experiments and watching fascinating demonstrations will all be part of the fun at the Hometown Science Festival on Sept. 23
Next Saturday, Sept. 23, between noon and 4 p.m., children and adults are invited to participate in the Hometown Science Festival on The Green in the heart of downtown Wellsboro. The festival is free and open to the public and will be held rain or shine.
Featured will be fun, hands-on science activities, such as simple experiments and demonstrations for children and families led by researchers, educators, students, natural resource managers, biologists, and citizen scientists.
Among the presenters and activity leaders for the festival are representatives from the Tioga and Potter County Conservation Districts and the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy. They will teach visitors about links between aquatic insects and the health of the Tioga River and streams like Pine Creek.
Wellsboro Area High School students will demonstrate their robotics projects, and the Tiadaghton Audubon Society will dissect owl pellets to teach children about owl diets and digestion and host a number of birding walks during the festival. The Penn State Master Gardeners of Tioga County will lead an activity on soil science and the complex processes involved in composting.
Visitors can view sunspots and other solar features firsthand through a solar telescope provided by the Pennsylvania Wilds Astronomy Club (PaWildsAstro.org).
Mansfield University staff and students will teach those attending how to extract DNA from strawberries and how to isolate microplastics from water.
Learn about why historic lumbering tools are considered simple machines from Pennsylvania Lumber Museum staff and how thermal imaging is being used to study ground and surface water in Pennsylvania streams from researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Organizers of the Hometown Science Festival are the Hometown Science Series and Festival and its partners.
The Hometown Science Festival was held in 2017, 2018 and 2019. This is the first time the festival is being held since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
For more information about the festival or hometown science in general, email hometownscience@gmail.com or find the Hometown Science Series and Festival on Facebook.