The State of the Sciences event is coming to Centennial Campus Friday for its second year to provide NC State students, staff, alumni and local families with programs and activities to spark a love for science.
State of the Sciences is a family-friendly event put on by NC State College of Sciences will be hosted at Hunt Library.
Nate DeGraff, director of marketing and communications in the College of Sciences, spoke on the event planning process first hand. He said that this is the second year that the event has been held in Hunt Library and it was originally more of a lecture series. Now, it has turned into an event that displays NC State’s progress in science.
“We want to showcase our science,” DeGraff said. “It’s really important to our college to get kids and alumni excited about science. It’s a chance for people on campus, undergraduates of the college and of other colleges to see what we do here.”
According to DeGraff, the College of Sciences has been planning the event in partnership with NCSU Libraries since last semester and students will be heavily involved.
“This is open to everyone,” DeGraff said. “Students will be part of the event, to keep the event running smoothly and to help with demonstrating labs.”
Marian Fragola, director of Program Planning and Outreach for NCSU Libraries, discussed how the event was made possible.
“We worked with the College of Sciences to provide some programming at the event as well as worked on logistics in terms of using the Hunt Library for an event of this size,” Fragola said.
Fragola said that the event will feature many different indoor and outdoor activities, some that involve rockets, video games or virtual reality. According to Fragola, the focus is to tie the activities back to education and science.
“We provide a lot of fun activities like the Teaching and Visualization Lab where we will do an experience VR station and a Sphero station, 3-D printing demos, as well giving inside the book bot tours,” Fragola said.
According to Fragola, over 1,000 people have signed up for the event. While there will be some of the same demonstrations as last year, Fragola said there will be some new activities introduced as well.
“We are keeping the things that worked really well, like Star Party and the talks and demonstration,” Fragola said. “But we’re moving things around, and we have new things like rockets and a chess-playing robot. The library staff is doing green screen filming in the media studio on the fourth floor.”
The event, which is part of the North Carolina Science Festival, will also demonstrate research being done by NC State students.
“One of the main constituents is an alum of the College of Arts and Sciences, to really show off what’s happening now with graduate student work and undergraduate research,” Fragola said. “But it’s also great for kids; it’s part of the North Carolina Science festival.”
DeGraff said he is excited for the performances and demonstrations, like the math-inspired dance performance and science trivia competition. Fragola said that she is looking forward to including Arts NC State in the programs.
“I’m excited about incorporating Arts NC State into the programming,” Fragola said. “But it’s just such a fun time to have the library being used like that; to see people everywhere and children walking around and learning things. It’s cool to see people experiencing Hunt Library for the first time or seeing them go in places they haven’t ever been before.”
There will also be food, wine and NC State beer at the event. Those interested in the event can visit NC State College of Sciences’ website.
