That day at the museum that it was so quiet, you could hear Steve's lunch chirping.

Next up in the springtime outreach/recruitment frenzy was a Science Saturday at the RMSC (Rochester Museum and Science Center) today! I was first invited to participate in Science Saturdays last fall, and it was actually by mistake. A new coordinator had taken over organizing the series, and for some reason had my contact info on behalf of CIS. I had actually never presented as part of the series before (at least not in my current role; I did help out at one when I was an undergrad about a million years ago...), so once I passed on the e-mail to the Insight Lab (who I assume the e-mail was intended for, as I know they participate regularly) I seized my chance. The dates they were hoping to have me in were either May 4 or May 11, and since the 4th was ImagineRIT, I gladly accepted 5/11. Well... you know what else is 5/11? The first Saturday of the Lilac Festival. Oh.

Now, I didn't realize the significance of this until, oh, 1 o'clock this afternoon. Why? Well, to put it plainly: RMSC was a ghost town. I couldn't believe it. You mean there is a SATURDAY that you can go to a science museum and have the place to yourself?! Under any other circumstances, this would have been a dream come true - but given that I was there for outreach, well, this dream turned out to be a nightmare. Okay, that's being way over dramatic; actually, today was pretty awesome. I just wish we could have shared it with more people.

Anyways, the plan was to set up a table with the FLIR, some objects to interact with in front of the camera, and the printer so that people could take pictures of their IR-selves back home. I asked for a screen to project onto and instead was given a huge plasma TV, which made me nervous because I wasn't sure whether I would have the right connections, but it ended up working just fine and looking superb. (Now I just wish I didn't bother lugging the projector around.)

For a while it was just me and Phil. And by that, I mean, JUST me and Phil. After a half hour or so the rest of the students who had volunteered to help showed up. Thank goodness, because if we didn't have any general public wandering by to entertain, we could at least entertain each other...

...which then at least started attracting some other people who wanted to see what all the cool kids (I'm referring to us, obviously) were doing.

a-HA! She's gonna bite.

More takers!

Then things died down again, so Chris and Phil went off exploring while Jess, Jon, and I held up the fort. Then we got a txt saying that Chris and Phil were stuck in an obstacle course...

..so I took this picture of them, then left them to perish.

I came back and the same group was still there, but this time they put one of their kids in a trash bag.

Classic.

Then there was a squirrel.

Then it was Jess's and my turn to go off on an adventure while the boys (who did safely make it out of the obstacle course eventually) manned the table. First we found a FLIR hidden up in a quiet corner on the top floor.... awwwwwo. Our display wasn't even unique anymore. (Why didn't anyone tell me?) Then we wandered into the Carlson Inquiry Room (obviously we should go there, Carlson being CIS's namesake and all) and inadvertently ran into Lauren from Alumni Relations, who also works at the museum. She gave us a special personal mini-tour and introduced us to the animals that kids who do birthday parties there get to play with. (WAIT - kids can do birthday parties there??!? Is there an age limit?)

This is Steve.

Jess with the corn snake (sorry I can't remember her name), who I caught with her tongue out.

Corny getting fresh.

When we got back to the table, there was only a half an hour or so left before our time was up. I was hoping for a mad last-minute rush, but it never came - especially because the weather was ever-improving, meaning even more people would go to the Lilac Festival instead. All in all, we probably saw around a dozen groups/families throughout the day. Unfortunately, the kids that were there for birthday parties were only interested in presents and cake, so they never even stopped by; and many other people just passed us by without even looking on their way from the mastodon to the rock climbing wall. I was shocked that the attendance was so light (note to self: in future, patronize museum on first Saturday of Lilac Festival), but I am still glad that we participated. At least WE had a lot of fun! And the fact that I had a bunch of students help out and that they didn't feel like they wasted their Saturday sets a really good precedent. Hopefully when they share their experiences it will encourage more students to get involved in outreach, and with any luck we'll foster a culture of giving back to CIS (and actually being a part of the Ambassador Program!).