Join us for the Maine Science Festival!!

Mark Your Calendars for the 10th annual MSF!!

Schedule of Events:

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm: MSF Trivia

Join fellow trivia players for a night of science trivia created especially for the Maine Science Festival! This is a don't-miss night of fun!

Thursday, March 20, 2025

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm: Science on Tap presents: Clear Ears, Full Heart, Can't Lose

Join us for an evening learning about the brain. Brian Harris, Founder and CEO of MedRhythms, will discuss how MedRhythms uses music as a therapeutic tool for brain recovery from strokes and other conditions. Fayeza Ahmed, Associate Professor of psychology at the University of Maine, will share insights from her research on the connection between heart health and the brain.

Friday, March 21, 2025

9:30 am -12:30 pm: Field Trip Day

Our Field Trip Day is for 7th and 8th grade students from schools in Maine, with the day's programming specifically designed for this age group.

These events are limited to those schools that sign up in the preceding months. If you are interested in learning more about the 2026 Maine Science Festival Field Trip Day or would like to be notified when sign-ups are open, please send an email to [email protected]. The Field Trip Day is provided free of charge to the schools that attend.

4:30 pm - 7:00 pm: Teen Tech Night

Hey students in grades 6-10 - are you ready to explore the exciting world of computers and information technology? Join us for Teen Tech Night, where you can learn, share, collaborate, and delve into cutting-edge software and web-based tools.

This year's workshops will feature a range of captivating sessions designed to spark your curiosity and creativity like robotics, cyber security and more!

Saturday, March 22, 2025

9:00 am - 4:00 pm: Exploration Stations: Engage, Examine, Experiment

Roll up your sleeves and learn through various hands-on activities from scientists and practitioners around the state. Make sure to stop in and visit each activity and discover that science is everywhere!

Activities include:

- 1 Earth Composting  Composting
- BASWG - Town of Orono  Stormwater Model
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences  Plankton Power: Build, Race, and Explore the Tiny Creatures of the Ocean!
- General Dynamics Bath Iron Works  Shipbuilding
- Girl Scouts of Maine  Math In Nature
- Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust  Tree ID activity and Mystery Box
- IDEXX  The Colors of IDEXX
- Maine Maritime Academy
- MDI Biological Lab  Regeneration and Stem Cells: A Science Mystery to Crack
- Owls Head Transportation Museum  OHTM's Lego Derby Race Track
- Rho Chi Society Chapter - Husson University  The Science of Pharmacy
- Southern Maine Community College  It's a shore thing; exploring Maine's intertidal zone
- The Challenger Learning Center of Maine   Hands on STEM with Challenger Maine
- Tyler Technologies and the University of Maine Maine App Challenge: Start Building Today!
- UMaine Space-UMaine AI  UMaine Space
- University of Maine - Advanced Structures and Composites Center  Introduction to Textiles
- University of Maine at Fort Kent  The Photosynthesis-Climate Connection
- University of Maine Cooperative Extension: 4-H  Flora and Fauna of Maine (marine and terrestrial)
- University of Maine Society of Physics Students  Hands-on physics activities!
- University of Southern Maine - STEM Outreach  LEGO SPIKE Coding
- USGS Maine Coop Fish and Wildlife - University of Maine Dept of Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology Maine's Fish and Wildlife
- Versant Power Astronomy Center
- Versant Power  Electrical Safety
- Within the Whale  Whale Anatomy

9:00 am - 4:00 pm: Maine Mobile BIOLAB

Senses and Perception

- Discover the fascinating science behind how we perceive the world in this immersive exhibit. Test whether you're a supertaster and explore how compounds can alter taste. Uncover the connection between smell and memory as scents transport you to the past.

- Challenge your vision with mind-bending illusions and experience the McGurk Effect, where sight and sound combine to change what you hear. Visualize sound waves on an oscilloscope and see how vibrations create the sounds we hear.

- Finally, explore touch by experimenting with temperature perception and experiencing the "Pinocchio Effect," where it feels like your nose is expanding or shrinking. This hands-on exhibit reveals how your senses work together to shape your reality.

9:00 am - 4:00 pm: Scrollathon

The Maine Discovery Museum is thrilled to host Steven and William Ladd's National Scrollathon®! The Ladd brothers, renowned artists with work in major museums worldwide, bring their collaborative art project to Maine as part of the 10th Maine Science Festival.

Join us for one of four Scrollathon sessions, where you'll create your own fabric scroll to keep before contributing to a larger collaborative piece. This artwork will be permanently displayed at the museum, with a high-quality photograph featured in Washington, D.C., for America's 250th birthday in 2026. Be part of this nationwide celebration of creativity and unity!

Immersive Audio

Explore the cutting-edge world of immersive audio!  In this exhibit you will experience a 3D sound field from a twelve loudspeaker, 7.1.4 immersive sound system.  Listen to immersive musical examples, film clips, and soundscapes, and learn about Dolby Atmos, Spatial Audio, surround sound, and more.

10:00 am - 2:00 pm: Maine Invention Convention

The Maine Invention Convention (a program of the Maine Discovery Museum) is a statewide competition that promotes innovative problem-solving and inventing by Maine middle school students. Students work with their peers and teachers to identify and solve problems using the Innovation Engineering process. At this event, students from each participating school compete for the top invention awards and for the chance to represent Maine at the National Invention Convention at The Henry Ford Museum in June.

AORTA: Human Anatomy and Medicine

TWO SESSIONS - 10-11:30am and 12:30-2pm

The University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine's AORTA Program is offering a hands-on anatomy lab experience! A short introduction of the AORTA program, UNECOM, and body donation will be provided at the beginning of the session. Participants will rotate through 3 stations exploring the body's organ systems, healthy vs. unhealthy tissues, and surgical interventions. We utilize isolated organs from human body donors who have gifted themselves to medical education. The workshop leaders will do their best to involve participants as much as possible, as your questions and preferences direct the progression of the session.

10:00 am - 11:00 am: Power Play: Exploring Muscle Strength with Biomechanics?

Demonstrating the use of biomechanics equipment to show muscular power and discuss why having powerful muscles is important for both athletes and general populations.

11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Exploring Light Pollution

Participants take a deep dive into the growing issue of light pollution! This workshop starts with a discussion of what light pollution is and how it affects humans and the natural world, and culminates in an engineering design challenge to create a design for a model streetlight that minimizes light pollution, while still allowing for safe lighting for streets and neighborhoods.

11:30 am - 12:30 pm: Immersive Audio: Historical Overview, Essential Terminology, and an Introduction to Dolby Atmos

In this presentation, the exciting world of immersive audio will be introduced, including technologies such as surround sound, immersive audio, spatial audio, ambisonics, and binaural audio.  The talk will investigate historical uses of immersive in film and music production, and special attention will be paid to Dolby Atmos and its current dominance as the immersive format of choice.

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm: Worlds Beyond Our Sun: Exploring the Architecture and Evolution of Alien Planetary Systems

A general overview of what we know about multiplanetary systems outside our solar system and how we connect that information to our own past.

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm: Fish Printing - freshwater fishes of Maine

Learn about common freshwater fishes and the art of gyotaku. Paper will be available or bring cotton (shirt/sheet/fabric) to print on.

2:45 pm - 3:45 pm: Immersive Audio: Auditory Localization, Psychoacoustics, and Binaural Audio

It's amazing that despite only having two ears, humans can localize sound from all directions.  Wouldn't it be exciting to watch a movie, listen to music, or play a video game and hear sound in front, behind, and above you?  In this presentation, the methods used by the human auditory system to localize sound will be examined.  Binaural audio will also be introduced, and its use in new technologies such as Dolby Atmos, Apple Spatial Audio, and immersive audio will be discussed.

7:00 pm: ?5 Minute Genius - 2025 MSF Headliner

5 Minute Genius features short, sharp talks by some of Maine's finest scientists with 5 minutes per talk, plus 5 minutes for questions. Presenting a sprint through some of the most remarkable, cutting-edge science in Maine - you will feel like a genius in no time!  Want more? Stick around for a reception after the event in the lobby.

Sunday, March 23, 2025

11:00 am - 1:00 pm: Downtown Bangor Scavenger Hunt???

A downtown science scavenger hunt! Pick up your sheet/ information at the Briar Patch, and go find the science the clues lead you to. Once done, return your signed slip to the Briar Patch. The top finisher receives a prize, and all who finish will be entered into a drawing for a goodie bag. The hunt has to be completed between 11 am -1 pm.

11:30 am - 12:45 pm: Invisible Lines, Tangible Impacts: The Anthropology of Borders?

Professor Dan Sandweiss will be presenting on the historic and archaeological border situation in Peru and Obie Casperson will be presenting her research on Cyprus' green line.

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: PFAS and Agriculture

In this session, we will give an introduction to PFAS and how it came to be introduced in some agricultural soils in Maine. We will also share the results of a recent research project where we worked with a commercial farm that had contaminated soils to test PFAS uptake into vegetables. Co-presenters will include UMaine researchers, graduate students, and farmers.

Date: March 19 - 23, 2025

Location: Various Venues in Bangor, ME

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