Local festival puts science in the spotlight

Where can you find live tarantulas, a physicist singing rock songs and a Hollywood director? Only in Las Vegas.

Thousands of people came to the inaugural Las Vegas Science Festival expo Saturday at the Cashman Center to see more than 60 displays, including interactive exhibits, live animals and a mini planetarium.

The expo was the conclusion of the weeklong festival focused on getting children more excited about science.

“Vegas is not often thought of as a place where a lot of science and engineering happens. And we can change that,” said John Good, president of a locally based company that makes museum exhibits and the co-director of the festival.

Good said he heard about the idea of cities holding science festivals at a conference about two years ago and decided it needed to be done here.

Unlike most similar festivals, however, the Las Vegas event wasn’t able to get government grants to support it and relied solely on corporate donations to stage the free festival.

People repeatedly warned Good not to be disappointed if no one showed up.

The warnings weren’t necessary. About 2,000 people participated in the first day of the festival on Sunday, and nearly that many participated in smaller events spread over five weekdays.

About 3,000 people attended the expo just in the first two hours Saturday, putting the event well on the way of reaching its goal of 10,000 participants.

“Las Vegas has turned out...and it shows they care about science,” Good said.

One of the keynote speakers at the expo was Robert Weiss, a Hollywood producer and the president of the X Prize Foundation.

Best know for its initial competition to encourage private companies to invest in space exploration, the foundation now sponsors contests to encourage technical innovation. Weiss spends a fair amount of time traveling to science events across the country and said he was impressed with what he saw in Las Vegas.

“I’m blow away at the turnout at this. It’s rough sometimes when you start the first of anything,” he said. “When I pulled in, the moment I saw the parking lot was full, it really did my heart good, because it shows there is interest here.”

Weiss’ presentation at the expo was focused on encouraging childrens’ interest in science, math and engineering.

Even though he likes sports, he said, too much attention is given to athletics when only a small fraction of children will ever play professionally. On the other hand, a young person interested in science and engineering has a good chance of making an exciting career out of it, he said.

“Every one of these kids can turn pro. And that’s cool,” he said after his presentation.

Weiss, who also spoke to West Prep School and UNLV students, said the nation “will suffer the consequences” if children aren’t interested in science.

“This is an opportunity — things like the science festival — to really stimulate them and keep them interested,” he said.

It seemed to be working, judging from the frenzy of activity at the expo, where it was sometimes difficult to maneuver through the crowds.

Connie Taylor brought her family to the expo for some “free fun,” she said.

She said she was impressed with the displays. “It kind of makes you think about all the different things people are doing; it’s a different perspective,” she said.