Thousands gathered in the Court of Sciences on Nov. 5 for the 2023 Exploring Your Universe science fair.

Attendees crowded around chemistry sets and telescopes at EYU, UCLA’s largest science fair held annually on the first Sunday of November. Organized primarily by graduate students, this year’s edition of the event featured 62 booths showcasing subjects including astronomy, geology, chromatology and beekeeping, as well as longer presentations on specific scientific topics hosted by students and experts and shows at the UCLA Planetarium.

Children at the event were invited to participate in activities, including launching makeshift rockets and plunging their hands into topographical sand maps, as volunteers explained the science behind them.

The fair represented a collaborative effort by UCLA’s scientific community to expose people, especially children, to various scientific topics, said David James, an EYU publicity chair and a doctoral student in geophysics and space physics. He added that the event is one of the biggest science outreach events in Los Angeles County, attracting involvement from outside institutions such as the Griffith Observatory.

Sophia Uemura, the EYU president, said one of the main goals of the fair was to make science more accessible to children who may not have the opportunity to engage with it otherwise.

“Together, we … get kids, especially from underrepresented backgrounds, to get interested in science,” said Uemura, a doctoral student in materials chemistry. “It’s basically a way for them to be interactive with science in a way that’s not found in the traditional classroom setting.”

One way the organizers facilitated this was by offering transportation to the fair for schools that serve underrepresented communities, Uemura added.

Everyone involved in planning the fair chose to be involved because of their passion for science outreach, said Hayley Bricker, a doctoral student in geochemistry and the EYU communications director. They said UCLA professors and undergraduate student groups also volunteered to make the event happen.

Miranda Chang, a graduate student in the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, said children visiting her booth, which explored Jupiter and one of its moons, Europa, showed a lot of enthusiasm. She added that she thought the use of hands-on activities helped showcase various STEM topics to children.

“A lot of kids have been coming up, and they’re super eager to play,” Chang said. “They’re very passionate about learning.”

Although EYU was mostly geared toward a younger crowd, it was still interesting for people of all ages, said Brian Worden, who came to the event with his two children. He added that the event drew kids to science by exposing them to new disciplines within the field.

Joscelin Gabriel, another parent who attended the event, said EYU made science more accessible by making it enjoyable and exciting.

“It’s fun to learn,” she said. “The kids have something fun to do, and it’s learning, too, at the same time.”

The fair also featured 14 longer science talks, in which speakers were able to present in-depth presentations about their fields of expertise. The presentation topics included fast-charging batteries, supermassive black holes and the Earth’s magnetic field.

One presentation by third-year materials engineering student Sandoval Martinez focused on the chemistry of ice cream and what makes it smooth. Martinez said in the presentation that ice cream’s unique texture is the result of two processes: nucleation – which results in the formation of an atomic crystal lattice – and undercooling – which is when a liquid goes below its freezing point without becoming solid.

During the talk, they poured liquid nitrogen, which is stored at temperatures of nearly minus 200 degrees Celsius, into cream and milk to make ice cream. Volunteers then distributed the freshly made ice cream to the children in the audience.

After Martinez’s talk came a presentation on solar astronomy by Laura-May Abron, a science communicator and astronomer at the Griffith Observatory. She said she hoped her presentation would inspire attendees to get more involved in astronomy.

Events such as EYU are important because they help bridge the gap between the general public and the scientific community, she added.

“It’s really great to reach out to people who maybe have not necessarily had the chance to interact with science in any capacity,” she said. “Science is still this distant thing in an ivory tower, … so it helps to break down barriers.”

Uemura said that as the first person in her family to seek a doctoral degree, she sees EYU as a way to give back to the community by encouraging people from similar backgrounds to pursue a scientific education.

Ultimately, exposing people to science is the most important part of EYU, Bricker said.

“It’s practice for scientists to justify their work, but it’s also an opportunity to inspire,” they said. “The end-of-day goal is: Hopefully at least one child, out of maybe the 10,000 people who come, feels inspired by some of the work that’s being done at UCLA.”