California State University, Stanislaus and the school’s Science in Our Community program will once again be welcoming thousands of community members to the campus on March 11 with the much anticipated return of Science Day.
The annual Science Day invites members of the public to tour the campus’ science facilities while being able to participate in over 50 science-related activities alongside professors, students, alumni and industry professionals. According to Mark Grobner, biological sciences professor and faculty director of the Science in Our Community program, re-registration is already over 1,000 people.
“It certainly shows that there is an interest, and it makes us feel really good. If we had 500 people, it will still be successful, but the fact that we have 1,000 people is really great,” said Grobner.
The last Science Day to take place in-person was in March of 2020, just prior to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 and 2022, the event was held virtually, which Grobner explained was still a success amongst local children and community members. Nevertheless, the opportunity for people to be together again celebrating science is a unique and priceless thing.
“We did quite a bit virtually, but it’ll be nice to have everyone on campus and interest with them. And there are generally enough activates where you can’t visit everything that’s going on,” he said. “We want to get people interested and involved in STEM and science. Science is the backbone of so many industries such as health care, so this is a way to get kids excited about the possibilities.”
Scheduled activities revolve around anything from space, chemistry, plants, physics, animals, coding, mathematics and just about anything in between. Many of the activities will even be recorded and posted on the club’s YouTube channel, which can be found at www.youtube.com/@scienceinourcommunity-stem4647.
Science Day is open to those of all ages and preregistration is not required to attend, though all attendees must check in at arrival. The event is set to kick off at 10 a.m. at the Naraghi Hall and the Science One Building at the Stan State campus in Turlock and will last until 2 p.m.
To learn more about Science Day at Stan State, head to www.csustan.edu/science/annual-science-day. To preregister for the event, head to https://forms.office.com/r/N3rk9fxDPW.
