Science Demonstrators

We have a number of key goals for our demos and some ideas for how to achieve them.

Show that science is fun!

We’re pretty confident that whatever activities you come up with will be a blast! We will work with you to integrate them into larger events we’ll have going on throughout the festival, like a festival passport to get stamps from each exhibit, allowing our visitors to win prizes.

We’d also like to emphasize incorporating art into our festival to create a STEAM event.

Make science open for everyone

We will have guidelines and training, particularly to address adapting your activities for our neurodiverse audience. We’d also like you to consider how to make demos accessible for folks of different ages and backgrounds. Finally, we will work with you on communicating the science to help make it as accessible as possible.

Humanize people doing STEM work

As Nirvana once said “Come as you are”.

We encourage you to bring your whole selves to the event. Show our attendees that there are real people behind the science, and that they have the same interests, likes, hopes and challenges. For example, between us our organizing committee has to grapple with navigating the world with chronic pain, ADHD, autism and dyslexia but we’d like for others to know that you can succeed when you have the appropriate support. In-keeping with this, we’d like to learn about any accommodations you may need to participate successfully in our festival.

Demonstrate the diversity of fields of science, and scientists

We’re hoping to recruit folks from many different STEM fields to show that there is a big wide world of research fields. We’ll also be looking for people from many demographic backgrounds to represent the rich diversity of the Tampa community. We hope that we can work with you to communicate with audiences who speak languages other than English, or have different cultural backgrounds.

Explain that science is a profession

Part of the event will be displaying scientists in situ. So we’ll be asking for photos in the lab, out in the field, at the chalkboard, or wherever best represents you and your work. We’d like for any budding young STEM professionals to learn that this might be a career path for them.