Join Us for Maryland Day on Saturday, April 29!
Join us for the 19th annual Maryland Day to explore our world of fearless ideas on Saturday, April 29, 2017, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Maryland Day is an exciting opportunity for prospective students and area residents to learn more about the University of Maryland.
Maryland Day offers more than 400 festivities including exhibits, workshops, hands-on demonstrations, performances, cross-campus tours, lectures, petting zoos, and athletic events.
Maryland Day will be held rain or shine. Admission and parking are free. A campus map can be found here.
We hope you’ll join the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences on Science & Tech Way for the 35 events listed below! To view the full day’s schedule, please visit the Maryland Day website.
Biology-Psychology Building
- Maryland Wildlife Quest – Outside, all day
- Explore the wildlife of Maryland and contribute to a Chesapeake Bay and Appalachian Mountains mural.
Bioscience Research Building
- Microbe Madness – Lobby, all day
- Join UMD microbiologists in making your very own, one-of-a-kind microbe button. Pick out your favorite microbe template and color it in, then watch as it turns into a unique and wearable pin.
- Chemistry Magic – Front Entrance, all day
- Have fun watching the chemists of Alpha Chi Sigma play. Can you shatter a rubber ball? Make putty? Will you see magic or chemistry? This looks to be one explosive event.
- Chemists Celebrate Earth Day – Front Entrance, all day
- The Chemical Society of Washington section of the American Chemical Society hosts activities focused on climate science.
Chemistry Building
- Chemathon: Discoveries in Chemistry Before 1900 – G. Forrest Woods Atrium, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- Watch teams of 300 high school students from across the Washington, D.C., area compete in lab work, posters, written classwork and trivia under the theme of "Discoveries in Chemistry Before 1900."
Computer Science Instructional Center
- Algorithms and Coding With Balloons – Lobby, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
- Kids of all ages can learn the definition of an algorithm and how to "program" computer science volunteers to inflate and decorate balloons.
- CompSciConnect Showcase – 2ndfloor, all day
- Discover computing with our Comp Sci Connect middle school students. Learn how to program Lego Mindstorm robots, create games in Scratch, and explore number systems and cryptology. Additional activities created by students will be on display including virtual reality games and Scratch games.
- Explore Computer Science – Room 1115, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
- Prospective computer science students can meet staff to learn about the curriculum and program offerings. Hear from current students about this exciting field and get your questions answered.
- FISHBowl Entrepreneurship Showcase and Competition – 3rdfloor, all day
- Like the show "Shark Tank"? The FISHBowl is a fun, dynamic, open-house-style competition where students pitch their tech startup ideas. You be the judge of which ideas should make the cut.
- Virtual Reality Demonstrations – all day
- Student developers showcase their exciting new VR projects on Oculus Rift headsets.
Engineering Annex Building
- Humanoid Robots – 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
- Wouldn't you want a robot that does chores for you? Members of the Computer Vision Lab and the ARC Lab demonstrate a robot that learns by watching. It looks at humans as they perform actions with their hands, analyzes the images, understands and replicates the actions.
Geology Building
- Minerals and the Earth: The Stuff of Life – Room 2118, all day
- See and touch pieces of the planet's insides. These minerals, rocks and gems are the raw materials of life.
- Minerals, Mining and Human Innovation – Room 1106, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
- What is ore? Why haven't we run out of it? How does an ore deposit form? How does research improve mineral exploration? How much gold has been mined throughout history? Stop by to learn the answers.
- Discovering Earth Dynamics – Outdoors, all day
- Why do earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur? Learn the answers to these and other Earth dynamics questions through hands-on activities, including demonstrations of deep Earth convection, frictional sliding and ductile putty deformation.
- Fossil Dig – Outdoors, all day
- Dig in the Department of Geology sand pit and uncover millions of years of history. Find fossils up to 400 million years old and, of course, shark teeth.
Glenn L. Martin Hall
- Ask an Astronomer – Front Lawn, all day
- Astronomy faculty and students answer your perplexing astronomy-related questions.
- Climate and Life Through Time – Front Lawn, all day
- See rocks, tree cores and corals that tell us about climate and environments in the recent past and long ago at the one-of-a-kind Stable Isotope Laboratory's interactive display.
- Earth System Science and Climate Change – Front Lawn, all day
- Explore our planet with Earth system scientists from the university, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Find out how much water can you "squeeze" from a cloud and learn about lightning and flash-flood safety from NOAA's interactive displays. Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) enthusiasts are invited to stop at the Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Education, Assessment and Research (MADE-CLEAR) table.
- Explore the Universe With the AstroTerps – Front Lawn, all day
- Join the AstroTerps, the UMD student astronomical society, to create craters, play with a grapefruit model of Saturn and participate in other hands-on activities and demonstrations.
- Fingerprinting the Universe – Front Lawn, all day
- Each person has a unique fingerprint. Each chemical element in our bodies and the universe also has a unique fingerprint that is encoded in light. Learn how astronomers study the skies using different wavelengths of light and how they decode the light to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
- Maryland’s Weather and Climate – Front Lawn, all day
- Learn about Maryland's weather and create a tornado in a bottle.
- Our Neighbor, NASA Goddard – Front Lawn, all day
- Around the corner and around the galaxy: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, five miles away in Greenbelt, builds spacecraft and instruments and invents technology to study Earth, the Sun, solar system and universe. Discover how its mission affects you.
- Solar Observing – Front Lawn, all day
- Take a safe look at the big yellow (or red, depending on the filter) ball in our sky through telescopes with observatory staff.
John S. Toll Physics Building
- Physics of Pottery – Lobby, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
- Get behind the wheel with the Physics Pottery Club. Learn about the physics behind pottery while molding ceramic bowls and figurines.
- The Physics of Fantastic Worlds: From Star Wars to Harry Potter – 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
- Wizards have magic, but Muggles have science! Stop by for an exciting and interactive physics demonstration show.
- Think Quantum: Joint Quantum Institute – Front lawn, all day
- Discover the secrets of the universe as described by quantum mechanics, the physics revolution of the last 100 years. Come hear and see how photons behave both like particles of light and waves of electromagnetic energy. Learn about quantum computers of the future. See magnetic levitation, possible because of superconductors.
- Cosmic Ray Tour – Front Lawn, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
- Come on a virtual journey in this lab where students, physicists and engineers build state-of-the art particle detectors to fly on gigantic balloons in Antarctica.
- Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream – Front Lawn, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
- Bet you haven't had ice cream like this! This homemade specialty tastes great and is safe for all ages. Come try it, while supplies last.
- Radar Velocity – Front Lawn, all day
- Test your throwing ability at the Radar Velocity Detector Station.
- Smoke Cannons – Front Lawn, all day
- Two cannons make for amazing motion when rings collide!
Plant Sciences Building
- Bone Collector and Forensic Science – Room 1168, all day
- Skeletons. Forensics. Can you piece together the facts from all that remains?
- Discover a Swamp – Room 1162, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
- Capture and observe the small aquatic creatures that are common in nearby wetlands. Learn about their behavior as they swim through water and climb on plants.
- Explore Life Questions With Biology Answers – Room 1164, all day
- Who attacked Testudo? Crack the genetic code with a DNA bracelet. See how fast your brain can think. Explore human evolution by examining fossil skulls.
- Germs! The Five-Second Rule – Rooms 1171 and 1168, all day
- Is the five-second rule true? How well do you wash your hands? Learn the truth using a special microscope.
- Insect Petting Zoo – Room 1161, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
- Imagine tarantulas, exotic insects, scorpions, bees and millipedes longer than your hand for you to look at and touch if you dare.
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Media Relations Contact: Irene Ying, 301-405-5204, zying@umd.edu
University of Maryland
College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences
2300 Symons Hall
College Park, MD 20742
www.cmns.umd.edu
@UMDscience
About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences
The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 7,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college’s 10 departments and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research centers foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $150 million.
Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2017