The Ray P. Authement College of Sciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette will host a Science Day on Friday, and the 2014 Smart Festival, which begins the same day.
Science Day 2014 will be held from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at UL Lafayette for about 500 high school juniors and seniors who registered to attend. Parents, teachers and guidance counselors also will attend.
The Smart Festival, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday. Events will be held that night, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. the next day. The festival will be held at the LITE Center in UL Lafayette’s Research Park.
During Science Day, students will perform experiments, present science projects, and learn about University programs, admissions, financial aid, and scholarships from faculty and staff members.
Industry representatives also will be on hand to provide information about science-related fields and careers.
Students will tour the schools of Geosciences, and Computing and Informatics, and the departments of biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics.
“Science can be extraordinarily captivating, and that’s one of the things we really want to impart,” said Dr. Mike Totaro, associate dean of the College of Sciences.
Smart is an acronym for Science Meets Art. It will feature a variety of presentations, exhibits and lectures for attendees of all ages.
“Smart Festival is illustrative of the deep connections between science and art. Both involve exploration, discovery and creativity, but in different ways. We want to highlight those connections, so it should be a fun two days,” Totaro said.
Charles Richard, a professor of English who directs the Center for Moving Image Arts at UL Lafayette, will explore the science behind creativity at 6 p.m. on Friday.
As part of the presentation, Richard will show video samples from the documentary film In the Mind of the Maker. The film tells the story of an 85-year-old master boat builder from the Atchafalaya Basin region of French Louisiana. It draws heavily from leading-edge research taking place at UL Lafayette.
Dr. Joseph Ledoux, a professor who directs the Emotional Brain Institute at New York University, will talk about “Emotion, Memory, and the Brain” at 7 p.m. on Friday.
On Saturday, there will be a presentation about the human skeleton in the forensic anthropology lab of the LITE Center. Another presentation, entitled “Earth is Art,” will focus on NASA satellite imagery.
Conversations with scientists and artists also are planned for the festival. Topics will include historical storm data, the physics of rocket launches, the history of the Earth’s geological history, and art inspired by science and nature.
Other festival events include robotics activities for children, and a demonstration that will explain genetic concepts using the “Mr. Potato Head” toy.
Learn more about Science Day and the Smart Festival at sciences.louisiana.edu.