We enjoyed this event last year and highly recommend the chemistry and physics demonstrations and anything hands-on! Elephant toothpaste is fun to make at home, so ask for the instructions. If your children are older or younger but seriously interested in higher level learning, check out the lectures. Reminder that the planetarium requires tickets, so get those first after checking out the schedules for talks and events.
There is something for everyone, really.
For some videos from last year, click on videos here:
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~outreach/eyu2013.html
Enjoy!
Exploring Your Universe 2013
Traffic Notice: Westwood Blvd will be closed north of National to Pico Blvd, from Friday night to Monday morning. Please use Overland or Sepulveda for detours on Sunday.
Get ready for the most exciting day of science all year, the fifth annual Exploring Your Universe! EYU 2013 will take place on Sunday, November 17th, 2013 from 12 - 5 pm (with possible nighttime activities to follow) at UCLA's campus (see Visitor Info link above for general directions and scroll down on this page for a detailed campus map specific to this event). This event isFREE of charge to the public and FAMILY-FRIENDLY! New to this year: We're live-tweeting EYU! Follow the event with#EYU2013!
This year we have even more activities and groups than ever, including outside groups like the STAR Eco Station. We will feature many activities and demonstrations open to the general public (including students), and we have added even more than last year! Activities for all ages include workshops, faculty and graduate student talks, planetarium shows, solar telescope viewing, comet making, weather tours, dinosaur fossils, physics demos and much more!
New to EYU 2013 are TWO sets of scientific talks! This year we'll be having a special session of talks by professors in the Earth and Space Sciences department in between our general lectures! Click here to see all our talks this year!
This event includes participation from Astronomy Live!, the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Earth and Space Sciences, and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, ESSN, SMACS, Alpha Chi Sigma, BEAM, IEEE, OSA/SPIE, Neuroscience and Statistics. It is sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA Student Organizations, Leadership and Engagement, and each of the departments listed above. This event was developed by graduate students, faculty, and staff in each of the these departments.
Exploring Your Universe will still be held even if there is rain. All outdoor activities will be moved into the Math Sciences Building, the Geology Building, and the Physics and Astronomy Building. The Info Booth will be at the Math Sciences Building. So rain or shine plan on coming, but maybe bring an umbrella just in case!
Event Schedule
The primary event will take place in the Court of Sciences with activities and demos at the Physics and Astronomy Building, Mathematical Sciences Building, Geology Building, and near Kinsey Pavilion. You are welcome to come for any or all of the festivities! Feel free to pick workshops and activities you are interested in attending.
DAYTIME ACTIVITIES
Astronomy (12:00 - 5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences unless otherwise noted):
- How the Sun works and solar telescope viewing
- Stellar Evolution
- Bottle Rockets
- Comet Making Demo
- Pocket Solar System and Asteroids
- Constellation Detectives
- Discovery methods for finding new worlds beyond our solar system
- Planetarium Shows (Mathematical Sciences 8th floor): Every half hour starting 12:30 pm! Pick up tickets to planetarium at the Information Booth.
Physics (12:00 - 5:00 pm) (Physics and Astronomy Building - PAB):
- Physics Demonstrations: 2:30 and 3:45 pm.
- Lasers and Optics
- Waves and Vibrations
- Rotational Motion
- Electricity and Magnetism
Earth and Space Sciences (12:00 - 5:00 pm)(Geology Building unless otherwise noted):
- The Shocking World of Electricity
- Dinosaurs and Fossils
- Earth: Inside and Out
- Mineral Gallery
- Natural Disasters (Court of Sciences)
- Meteorite museum
- Build Your Own Hurricane (Chemistry quad)
- More info about the activities here
- Your Local Space Neighborhood:
- THEMIS: Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms
- ARTEMIS: Studying Space Weather
- Dawn: Investigating the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch
- Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment
- ELFIN Satellite: See UCLA's first Satellite!
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (12:00-5:00) (Court of Sciences):
- Exploding Marshmallows--Expand marshmallows using a vacuum pump!
- Can Crushing--See how pressure can crush soda cans!
- Tornado-in-a-bottle--See and create your own vortexes!
- Cloud-in-a-bottle--See clouds being made right before your eyes!
- Portable Weather Station--Talk with experts about conditions and get an updated forecast for the day!
CEIN - Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- What is nanoscience, and what is special about nanoscale science and engineering?
- Hands-on activities for all ages. Q&A with scientists
Environmental Sciences (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Plant a seed and what it grow at home
- Sustainable Practices
- Solar Power Demo
Chemistry (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Find out how to make a bubble bomb for baths
- Find out what floats on top of what... and what floats on top of that!
- Watch food get frozen with liquid nitrogen
- Eat liquid nitrogen ice cream
- Make some "elephant toothpaste"
- Inflate a balloon with only water, sugar, and yeast!
- Check out a homemade kid-safe lava lamp
Engineering (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Discover microbes using microscopes
- Program robots to obey your command!
- Learn how circuits work! Make your own circuits!
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- See live salamanders and tide pool animals!
- Extract DNA from fruits and plants!
OSA/SPIE (Optical Society of America/The International Society for Optical Engineering) (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Explore how optics work!
Neuroscience Brain Readers (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- See brains! Learn what normal brains look like to doctors and challenge yourself to guess which brains are from patients with epilepsy.
STAR EcoStation (12:00-5:00 pm) (Math Sciences Building):
- See animals and talk with professional animal caretakers!
Mathematics and Statistics (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Guess how many marbles and jelly beans there are, and how many of each color there are!
- Play a guessing game and see if you can beat theory!
- Solve the Monty Hall problem!
Astronomy (12:00 - 5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences unless otherwise noted):
- How the Sun works and solar telescope viewing
- Stellar Evolution
- Bottle Rockets
- Comet Making Demo
- Pocket Solar System and Asteroids
- Constellation Detectives
- Discovery methods for finding new worlds beyond our solar system
- Planetarium Shows (Mathematical Sciences 8th floor): Every half hour starting 12:30 pm! Pick up tickets to planetarium at the Information Booth.
Physics (12:00 - 5:00 pm) (Physics and Astronomy Building - PAB):
- Physics Demonstrations: 2:30 and 3:45 pm.
- Lasers and Optics
- Waves and Vibrations
- Rotational Motion
- Electricity and Magnetism
Earth and Space Sciences (12:00 - 5:00 pm)(Geology Building unless otherwise noted):
- The Shocking World of Electricity
- Dinosaurs and Fossils
- Earth: Inside and Out
- Mineral Gallery
- Natural Disasters (Court of Sciences)
- Meteorite museum
- Build Your Own Hurricane (Chemistry quad)
- More info about the activities here
- Your Local Space Neighborhood:
- THEMIS: Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms
- ARTEMIS: Studying Space Weather
- Dawn: Investigating the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch
- Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment
- ELFIN Satellite: See UCLA's first Satellite!
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (12:00-5:00) (Court of Sciences):
- Exploding Marshmallows--Expand marshmallows using a vacuum pump!
- Can Crushing--See how pressure can crush soda cans!
- Tornado-in-a-bottle--See and create your own vortexes!
- Cloud-in-a-bottle--See clouds being made right before your eyes!
- Portable Weather Station--Talk with experts about conditions and get an updated forecast for the day!
CEIN - Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- What is nanoscience, and what is special about nanoscale science and engineering?
- Hands-on activities for all ages. Q&A with scientists
Environmental Sciences (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Plant a seed and what it grow at home
- Sustainable Practices
- Solar Power Demo
Chemistry (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Find out how to make a bubble bomb for baths
- Find out what floats on top of what... and what floats on top of that!
- Watch food get frozen with liquid nitrogen
- Eat liquid nitrogen ice cream
- Make some "elephant toothpaste"
- Inflate a balloon with only water, sugar, and yeast!
- Check out a homemade kid-safe lava lamp
Engineering (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Discover microbes using microscopes
- Program robots to obey your command!
- Learn how circuits work! Make your own circuits!
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- See live salamanders and tide pool animals!
- Extract DNA from fruits and plants!
OSA/SPIE (Optical Society of America/The International Society for Optical Engineering) (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Explore how optics work!
Neuroscience Brain Readers (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- See brains! Learn what normal brains look like to doctors and challenge yourself to guess which brains are from patients with epilepsy.
STAR EcoStation (12:00-5:00 pm) (Math Sciences Building):
- See animals and talk with professional animal caretakers!
Mathematics and Statistics (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Guess how many marbles and jelly beans there are, and how many of each color there are!
- Play a guessing game and see if you can beat theory!
- Solve the Monty Hall problem!
SCIENTIFIC TALKS:
General Talks (located in Kinsey Pavilion)
Note! There has been a change in talk schedule.
1:30 - 2:00: Dr. Wes Campbell (Physics)
Your Smartphone Is Made of Science: The Amazing Physics of the Common Cell Phone
2:30 - 3:00: Dr. Richard Kaner (Chemistry)
Fun with Plastics
3:30 - 4:00: Dr. Jean Turner (Astronomy)
Tuning in on the Radio Universe
4:30 - 5:00: Dr. James Rosenzweig (Physics)
Miniaturizing the Accelerator: Taking the World's Largest Scientific Instrument from Km-Size to the Table-top
5:30 - 6:00: Dr. Michael Rich (Astronomy)
Amateur Stargazing and Big Science: Discovering Colliding Galaxies from Lockwood Valley
ESS Special Talks (located in Geology 3656):
1-1:30pm - UCLA Prof. Jean-Luc Margot
Life in the Universe
2-2:30pm - UCLA Prof. Ed Rhodes
Natural Disasters: What's Next?
3-3:30pm - UCLA Researcher Alan Rubin
Meteorites: From the Asteroids to the Earth
4-4:30pm - UCLA Researcher Jean-Pierre Williams
Flash! Bang! Cosmic Impacts into Earth
We would like to thank the Groups and Departments involved in Exploring Your Universe 2012: Astronomy Live!, Physics and Astronomy Department, Earth and Space Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences, UC CEIN, CNSI High School NanoScience Program, ESSN, SMACS, Alpha Chi Sigma, OSA/SPIE, and BEAM.
Information for Visitors
Purchasing Food:
In the Ackerman Student Union, which is very close to the Court of Sciences, there is food for purchase.
Carl's Jr. -- A Level -- 8:30am - 4pm
Jamba Juice -- A Level -- 11am - 4pm
Kerckhoff Coffee House (light food fare as well) -- 2nd Floor -- 8am - 11pm
Sbarro -- 1st Floor --11am - 3pm
Panda Express -- 1st Floor -- 11am - 4pm
Rubio's -- 1st Floor -- 11am - 3pm
Rx Candy Store -- 1st Floor -- 11am - 4pm
Wetzel's Pretzels -- 1st Floor -- 11am - 4pm
Driving and Parking Information:
There are several places to park on campus. If you are driving up Hilgard Avenue, turn left at Manning Drive and then right into Lot 2 at the Pay-By-Space parking. In Pay-By-Space parking it is $12 for all day. If you are driving up Westwood Blvd. there is a parking kiosk where you can buy an all day pass for parking in Lot 8. See this UCLA campus map for more information.
Bus Information:
Metro: http://www.metro.net/
Recommended Routes: # 761, 2/302, 305
Big Blue Bus (Santa Monica): http://www.bigbluebus.com/
Recommended Routes: # 1, 2, 3, 8, 12
Culver City Bus: http://www.culvercity.org/bus/
Recommended Routes: # 6
Parking for Non-City Buses:
There is free bus parking available near the Fowler Museum. To reach this designated bus zone, enter campus from Sunset Blvd. at Westwood Plaza. Take the first right onto Charles Young Drive and park along the right side of the street, across from the athletic fields.
Recommended Routes: # 761, 2/302, 305
Big Blue Bus (Santa Monica): http://www.bigbluebus.com/
Recommended Routes: # 1, 2, 3, 8, 12
Culver City Bus: http://www.culvercity.org/bus/
Recommended Routes: # 6
Parking for Non-City Buses:
There is free bus parking available near the Fowler Museum. To reach this designated bus zone, enter campus from Sunset Blvd. at Westwood Plaza. Take the first right onto Charles Young Drive and park along the right side of the street, across from the athletic fields.
