This year’s Family Open House at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 22. More than 2,000 people are expected to attend.
The Open House offers family-style hands-on activities, science shows and Q&A sessions with scientists. The event is free of charge and registration is not required for any event except for a tour of the Linac and former Antiproton Source, which is being retooled for use with a muon experiment. Register for the tour here: http://ed.fnal.gov/ffse/openhouse/.
The highlights of this year’s program will include hourly cryogenics shows by Jerry Zimmerman as “Mr. Freeze,” the popular Ask-a-Scientist session on the 15 th floor of Wilson Hall, and hands-on exhibits designed and built by area high school physics students.
The participating high schools are: Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Naperville Central High School in Naperville, and Northside College Preparatory in Chicago.
“The Open House offers activities for the entire family,” said Spencer Pasero, an education program leader at Fermilab. “Mr. Freeze and his cryogenics show are always a hit, and I’m very excited about the activities the high school students are contributing. This is a party for children who bring an adult with them to learn about the world of physics.”
About a dozen scientists will be on hand to answer questions in the exhibit area on the 15th floor of Wilson Hall where visitors can get a bird’s eye view of the Fermilab site and the surrounding towns.
The Family Open House is free of charge and made possible by an anonymous donor to Fermilab Friends for Science Education.
Fermilab is a Department of Energy national laboratory operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance, LLC. The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the nation and helps ensure U.S. world leadership across a broad range of scientific disciplines.