Science Night at Alumni Park

In partnership with the Wisconsin Science Festival, explore events celebrating Wisconsin scientific “firsts” including the birth of public radio, as well as the future of radio technology, including the search for extraterrestrial life.

From 6–8 p.m.

Interactive discovery stations, science-themed tours, science cab stop, One Alumni Place (650 N. Lake St.). Run your own radio station. Bring your transistor radio and/or mobile device, and broadcast from a hands-on station that uses technology spanning the history of AM radio, starting with the first vacuum-tube based “9XM” transmitter built here on campus in 1919. Listen to your music on a transistor radio (featuring a transistor, invented in 1947 by park-featured alum and two-time Nobel Laureate John Bardeen). Try your hand at “starshade origami,” developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and based on an origami-inspired starshade designed to help scientists such as Maggie Turnbull (see also below) use a space telescope to image potentially habitable planets.  Also enjoy science-themed drop-in tours of Alumni Park “After Dark” and the park’s illuminated exhibits. Thanks to UW-Madison Wonders of Physics and Department of Astronomy for partnering on this program.

Alumni Park and One Alumni Place will also be a stop on the Wisconsin Science Festival Science Cab rides, starting from the Discovery Building (330 N. Orchard St). Hop in a cab with a scientist as your science-trivia host while you ride to One Alumni Place and other stops to complete mini-adventures. You will earn points for answering trivia and completing adventures, and you can also get to know the scientist who’s along for the ride!

Then at 8 p.m.

There will be a Wisconsin Science Festival panel at the Discovery Building (330 N. Orchard St.) with park-featured alumna, astronomer and astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull ’98. Learn more >