There were about 40 hands-on, science-related booths at the seventh annual Junior Scientists Kids’ Day, an event designed to get students excited about science.
The UA Libraries and Tucson Unified School District’s Career and Technical Education programs partnered to create an event for children ages four to 12 that would be a fun and educational approach to science, engineering and general education. Parents were also welcome.
The event was free for parents and students in TUSD. There were more than double the number of booths from last year’s event, said Jeanne Pfander, an associate librarian and outreach director.
The event was held Nov. 7, just a few feet away from where the University of Arizona’s homecoming festivities were in full swing. Between 700 and 800 parents and students attended the event.
Utterback Middle School’s jazz band began the festivities with a live performance. A DJ provided music for the rest of the event.
“A lot of kids live only a couple miles away from the university, but have never been here,” said Karl Oxnam, one of the event organizers.
“It is a neat experience for high school students to teach elementary and middle school students. It also is a chance for students to mingle with college students and professors and get a sense of what it might be like at UA.”
Several UA departments and a few TUSD high schools participated. The high schools that had booths or were helping with booths were: Sahuaro, Catalina, Sabino, Pueblo, Tucson, Santa Rita, Rincon and Palo Verde.
The groups from UA included: Women in Science and Engineering (WISE); Posada San Pedro Residence Hall, an honors dorm; the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab; Chi Sigma Chemistry Fraternity; UA College of Optical Sciences and UA Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. 
A few events included:
• Kids made ice cream at the “Ice Cream and Slime” booth with UA Alpha Chi Sigma Chemistry Fraternity and Catalina High School culinary students.
• The UA College of Optical Sciences helped kids make kaleidoscopes using colored beads.
• Representatives from BIO5-BioTech and Pueblo High’s Biotech programs helped students make necklaces that resembled a strand of DNA.
• Palo Verde High School had members from their engineering program show robots they made to elementary and middle school kids.
