The theme of the 2022 North Carolina Science Festival is "Engineering Tomorrow." It’s appropriate, because just as North Carolina and the nation are opening after more than two years of shutdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival is opening as well.
Organizers say the return to normal comes with valuable lessons learned that are here to stay.
“This is the third edition of the Science Festival touched by the pandemic and I think there’s a lot of pent-up demand to get out, and with 300 events planned statewide, folks will be able to do that,” said Johnathan Frederick, Director of the North Carolina Science Festival. “But we are encouraging our partners to plan their events with COVID-19 safety in mind. We’re also encouraging partners to consider keeping those COVID modifications that made the events even better and more accessible.”
That means in-person events that can also be turned into hybrid events or have an online component so that more people can be reached.
That importance of an online science component is why the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab has upgraded its website, which includes a blog that is frequently updated.
The lab is in Greenville, near East Carolina University, and is part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Researchers are studying and preserving the thousands of artifacts recovered from the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which sank off the North Carolina coast near Beaufort in 1718.
While the lab’s online component has been upgraded, researchers are excited the lab’s open house is returning to the NC Science Festival after two years.
“We’re thrilled to bring visitors back into the lab, but we also want guests to be comfortable, so there will be plenty of open space and social distancing,” said Kimberly Kenyon, the QAR Lab Senior Conservator. “We’ll have stations geared to multiple age groups so visitors can see how chemistry, physics and technology help us recover and conserve artifacts.”
That search for new audiences is also why the festival is partnering with the National Mathematics Festival for the first time. It’s an online event. The Math festival brings together leading mathematicians to inspire people of all ages to look at math in new and unexpected ways. (Factals let you make snowflakes in April! How about Prime Cubes?)
“It’s clear from the past two years how important in-person learning is for students in school and it’s the same with the Science Festival; in-person events remain the most important factor,” adds Frederick. “But in reimagining the festival for the future, hybrid events with an in-person and online component opens science to students and families who may never have been exposed to that topic or that place. It creates a new audience.”
The North Carolina Science Festival runs from April 1-30, 2022. To find a full list of events visit their website.