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Paul:

September means the kickoff to the busy season in the City With Soul. If your calendar looks anything like mine, well, it's filling up fast. Make sure Science Fest is in your plans.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call the podcast Soul Sessions and it's the people, places and events, that make the City With Soul shine. Today on this special edition of the show, we talk to Andrea Patterson about the Mississippi Science Fest weekend, September 14 through 16. And it seems like just yesterday we were talking about this, Andrea. How in the world did it roll back around so fast?

Andrea:

It gotten here before we knew it, but we're excited. We're ready for it.

Paul:

Let's jump right in and take it to Thursday night, September 14th, and that is Science After Hours at the Belhaven Town Center, and there's a whole new audience that gets to take part in this year's event?

Andrea:

We are so excited to be revamping this kickoff event for the Mississippi Science Festival with an exciting family-friendly community event at the Belhaven Town Center. We're going to have live music from the Lonely Hearts and each of the participating museums are LeFleur Museum District will be out there with fun activities for families to come and enjoy just to kickoff our Science Fest.

Paul:

Now, we said Belhaven Town Center, which means there's always good food and good drink available.

Andrea:

Yes, absolutely. It is not a ticketed event, so anybody can come. You can get pizza from across the street, over at Fertile Ground, where they have Poppy's set up out there. We have different cocktails from The Good Bar will be available, so anything available to purchase, but no ticket required to come.

Paul:

Fun kickoff to Mississippi Science Fest, which the Saturday events being held September 16th in the LeFleur Museum District. We'll get into that in just a moment, but first you've got to have Field Trip Friday that happens on September 15.

Andrea:

That's right. We do specifically reserve times for our field trips to come in conjunction with Science Fest and see some of these exhibitors, a sneak peek the day before the festival for our teachers to be able to bring their students and see these STEM subjects in action.

Paul:

Then we head into Saturday, September 16. It's an all day affair at the LaFleur Museum District Campus, which is, tell me the four museums again?

Andrea:

All right, so we had the Mississippi Ag Museum, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, the Museum of Natural Science, and then Mississippi Children's Museum.

Paul:

I know there's a lot to talk about. We probably could talk all day about the fun to be had on September 16, but give me a rundown. Give me a quick hit about what we can expect from Mississippi Science Fest this year.

Andrea:

Well, I'm glad you said the fun to be had because that is our theme this year, the Fun of Science. We are really showcasing the fun perspective of STEAM. Each museum will have special programming throughout the day. It'll start that morning at the Children's Museum with the Science of Skating featuring the Jackson Roller Derby.

Next up at the Science Museum site, Science in Your Own Backyard, with the magician Tommy Johns. In the middle of the afternoon, we'll be able to go over to the Ag Museum and experience the Science of Flight, which is an Ag Aviation exhibit over there, and then wrapping it up at the end of the day at the Sports Hall of Fame with a magician on the Science of Play. Also, at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and the Mississippi Children's Museum. Lobaki will be on-hand with virtual reality demonstrations, so make sure you check that out,

Paul:

If you want to test out some physics and some gravity, the playground's open too, right?

Andrea:

Absolutely.

Paul:

That's a great new addition to the LeFleur Museum District and kids of all ages and all abilities are able to play there too. You usually run a shuttle around to help people park and have some food trucks. Will we see those things this year?

Andrea:

Each of the museums is a drop off point for this shuttle, so you can park your car when you get there and you don't have to get back in until the end of the day. We will have different food trucks available at each museum as well as those museums, like the Children's Museum and the Ag Museum that typically have food every day, they'll also have available for purchase.

Paul:

Free parking, food trucks available for lunch. You don't even have to leave the campus to have a full day of fun with your family at the Mississippi Science Fest. It is September 16 at the LeFleur Museum District. Andrea, what makes this year's event super special? What can people look forward to that maybe they haven't seen before?

Andrea:

You know what I think is really exciting is all of the businesses that come out, some of these businesses new to us and some had been every year that we've had Science Fest. These organizations really encourage visitors to get hands-on with STEM, and so you never know what you're going to get to do, whether it's going to be making paper airplanes or working with slime or who knows what that activity is going to be, but it's always fun and exciting to be hands-on with these exhibitors.

Paul:

That's such an important reminder that the business and nonprofit community really does contribute to the success of the Science Fest. Now, before I let you go, Andrea, I know that you have one other group to thank, people who've been with you from the very beginning for eight years now.

Andrea:

Mississippi Science Fest has been sponsored every year by C Spire. They are really encouraging, and again, students of Mississippi to encourage them in STEM careers, and we enjoy partnering with them every year to really encourage these students.

Paul:

Mississippi Science Fest Weekend, September 14 through 16 celebrates innovation education and interactive learning in the LeFleur Museum District. In the best part, it's one joint ticket for Saturday. It's just 10 bucks for access to all the fun. I'll add a link in the show notes so that you can purchase your tickets in advance. Andrea also mentioned if you come to Science After Hours on Thursday, they’re giving away an Apple watch.

Soul Sessions is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's Capital City. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. You want to know more about our mission, about what we do? Head to our website. It's at visitjackson.com. I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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