Astronomy
Exoplanet Imaging
I demonstrate a prominent technique for directly imaging exoplanets using a torch, a mini lamp, a phone camera, and clearly too much time on my hands :))
Ask an Astronomer
Prof Malkan and Prof Shapley will handle all questions about Astronomy.
Our Magnetic Sun
Get acquainted with our magnetic sun by looking through our solar telescopes! Come learn about sunspots, other solar phenomena, and safe sun viewing!!
Planetarium Ticketing
This booth handles ticketing for the Planetarium showings on the roof of the Mathematical Sciences Building.
Our Supermassive Black Hole
Discover the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy and the stars and gas that surround it. See how astronomers use powerful telescopes to study this extreme environment.
Los Angeles Astronomical Society
100 years of looking up for our 100th centennial since 1926!
UCLA Exoplanets
Discovering and Investigating Planets Beyond the Solar System.
Plasma Astrophysics
I’ll be demonstrating many plasma astrophysical phenomena such as solar flares, shocks, magnetospheres, high-energy radiation, etc using a plasma globe, neodymium magnets, light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, and more.
Seeing the Unseen: Explaining Dark Matter
Dark matter and dark energy make up 95% of the universe! DM is invisible – it doesn’t interact with light – so cannot be directly observed! Dark matter provides the scaffolding for the formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters. DM does not “clump” at the center of galaxies like matter Neutrinos are very low mass and very abundant in the universe, and are similar to what dark matter might be! Some names for dark matter particle theories are WIMPs and MACHOs!
Our Magnetic Sun
Discover how the Sun’s magnetic field shapes its atmosphere and drives fascinating phenomena such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and solar wind. Join us for hands-on activities to explore the Sun’s magnetic mysteries and learn how they influence space weather throughout our solar system!
Biology
Chromatography and Microscopy with CityLab
Students will have the opportunity to learn how to use microscopes in order to identify key aspects of different biological material. Additionally, a paper chromatography section will allow students to directly engage with scientific techniques.
Marmoteering 101
Come learn what it takes to study marmots and discover why these chunky hibernators are so cool!
Protein Evolution
Mutation, selection, repeat: the same cycle that shaped life over billions of years also reshapes proteins into molecular machines with new jobs. Come see how it works, and how researchers direct it on purpose to create custom catalysts.
Extract DNA with gBSA
Our booth will introduce kids to DNA, the fundamental code for life, through a fun and hands-on experience. Kids will learn how to extract DNA from fruit and even take their DNA sample home!
Extracting the Secret Code of Strawberries: DNA!
Inside each and every living thing is a hidden code governing how they grow, develop, and survive: DNA. Come extract DNA from strawberries and uncover how knowledge of DNA can advance the future of medicine.
Chemistry
Illuminating the World of Molecules
We investigate the interaction between waves and matter.
Lava Lamps with SPROUT
SPROUT is a STEM education outreach club at UCLA. Today we’ll be demonstrating how to make lava lamps!
Squishy and Sticky Stuff with the Srivastava Lab
Hands-on demonstrations exploring polymers and soap, showing how these materials behave and how soap works through fun, interactive activities.
Make Your Own Lava Lamp with SACNAS
Use everyday items to create a lava lamp using a hands-on science experiment! This interactive demonstration highlights core concepts in chemistry and physics.
AIChE @ UCLA!
We do all things chemical engineering! Our organization aims to provide chemical engineering students with opportunities and resources to thrive both academically and professionally. We accomplish this with four main pillars: invaluable mentorship, meaningful outreach, comprehensive professional development, and innovative technical projects.
Alpha Chi Sigma Elephant Toothpaste
Our booth showcases the miraculous reaction between yeast and hydrogen peroxide. We want to show how chemistry can be interesting and explosive!
Chemical Reactions
Watch a “pufferfish reaction” as citric acid and baking soda inflate a balloon with carbon dioxide.
The Shafaat Group
Our booth showcases the miraculous reaction between yeast and hydrogen peroxide. We want to show how chemistry can be interesting and explosive!
DIY Spectrometer
Build your own spectrometer and see the hidden colors inside light! Test colorful dyes, then split sunlight into a rainbow.
Chem Kids
This booth will feature connections between chemistry and the world around us. Visitors will learn about the awesomeness of organic chemistry, participate in interactive activities, and enjoy a few souvenirs. This booth is brought to you by the Garg Lab at UCLA (https://garg.chem.ucla.edu/) who created and teach the UCLA “Chem Kids” summer camp.
Exploring the Nano World!
Come learn about the ways that invisible science makes visible fun!
The Case of the Missing Bruin Bear
The Bruin Bear has been stolen! 5 suspects left their favorite marker at the crime scene: now use the science of chromatography to catch the culprit!
CNSI Technology Centers
Come explore the nano world and see the tools scientists use to manufacture and analyze nanomaterials.
Community Partners
Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded by the Mercury 7 astronauts that provides annually more than 70 scholarships to the brightest and most talented college students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Office of the City Clerk
The LA City Clerk’s Office will provide Exploring Your Universe attendees with knowledge about the 2027 Neighborhood Council Elections and how to participate.
Earth Science
Volcanoes and Magmas
Learn about magmas and lavas — in Southern California and elsewhere! How do volcanoes form? Where can you see ancient magmas and recent lavas in Southern California today?
Explore Earth's Surface
Explore how rivers form and change over time through a hands-on sandbox activity! Participants can shape landscapes, create flowing rivers, and discover how water erodes, transports, and deposits sediment to form river channels.
Glacier Flow
Glaciers may look frozen in place, but they’re actually flowing rivers of ice.
Make Your Own Earthquake
Come learn about how earthquakes occur in an earthquake country!
EFMP Stratigraphy in a Jar
Visitors will be able to create their own “stratigraphy in a jar” using colored sand and small jars that they’ll get to keep.
XEP in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Explore the science behind the Earth’s air and water through hands-on activities at our booth! You will learn about density, important forces that move air and water, the layers of the ocean and how scientists measure the atmosphere.
DIYnamics
Engineering
Science Experiments with Tau Beta Pi
Join TBP for fun, hands-on science experiments for all ages! Learn how to make magic paper-towel flowers and your own harmonica!
Bruins Encouraging Active Minds
BEAM is a community service oriented club focused on teaching STEM lessons in Title I elementary schools through project based learning! We want to encourage the next generation of kids to love STEM!
Circuit Circus
Explore electricity with Women+ in the Physical Sciences! Learn about circuits by making a piano out of bananas, a clock powered by a lemon, and even becoming part of a human circuit!
IEEE
Student branch of IEEE here on campus. Premier electrical engineering club with year long projects and workshops available to all interested students.
Theme Park Rides
See how engineers make theme park rides that are safe and fun! We’ll have a model of a theme park ride to demonstrate.
Ping Pong Ball Launchers
Participants will be able to build their own launchers with designs for all age levels. Participants will also be able to test their launcher by shooting ping pong balls at a target.
Materials Research Society at UCLA
Join us for a fun introduction to materials science and engineering! Make your own polymer goo worms from a sodium alginate-calcium chloride reaction.
Society of Women Engineers – Los Angeles (SWE-LA)
Hands-on engineering activities for K-12 students: a “Match Her Innovation” matching game celebrating women engineers, snap circuits, and Future Engineer photo props. Plus information about SWE-LA and SWENext LA.
Society of Women Engineers - Wind-Powered Sail Boats
We are a passionate group of UCLA students dedicated to inspiring the next generation of Women in Engineering. During the school year, we host several events for local students to learn various engineering concepts, and we would love to see you there!
Rocket Project at UCLA
Launching stomp rockets and learning the basic principles of rocketry
FTC Robotics: Team Curiosity 11770
FTC Curiosity 11770 is a robotics team of girls and gender minorities from Marlborough School. The purpose of our booth is to introduce robotics to a larger audience of students and provide the opportunity for kids to gain hands-on experience in robotics and for families to have an opportunity to ask any questions they may have about joining FIRST or FTC robotics.
Magnetic Levitation
The laws of magnetism make it so that it is impossible for ferromagnetic materials to levitate in a stable equilibrium point. To get around this, we can actively control magnetic fields to levitate a small ferromagnetic mass, counteracting the force of gravity!
Health and Medicine
The Wonders of DNA: How to Build an Animal
The DNA in your cells contain the instructions for building life on Earth. Join QBio-EDGE to learn how DNA codes for different traits, and use what you’ve learned to build a DNA strand and your own animal!
Bead Lab: The Chemistry of Medicine & Memory
Turn seaweed into squishy, colorful gel beads using real chemistry, then discover how scientists use the same gel to deliver medicine and study cells. Build your own bead neuron, test your memory, and learn how proteins that clump together in the brain are linked to Alzheimer’s disease, from UCLA neuroscience researchers working to understand memory loss.
Emergency Medicine
Learn fun and crucial emergency medicine concepts such as tourniquets and CPR using real EMS supplies.
Department of Pathology & Lab Medicine: Mini-Pathologists PlayLab
Step into the exciting world of pathology at UCLA’s Mini-Pathologist PlayLab! Through fun, hands-on activities, children and families will explore how pathologists and laboratory professionals use science to uncover clues, diagnose diseases, and improve patient care.
Transplant Matchmakers!
Finding a transplant match is a little like finding a science superhero! Come learn how genes, the immune system, and laboratory testing help connect donors and patients for life-saving transplants.
Understanding how Wildfires Spread and Impact our Homes
As wildfires become increasingly common and catastrophic due to climate change its important to understand how they spread and impact us. Explore the chemistry behind wildfire exposures, smoke production and indoor air quality.
Psychology in Action
Psychology in Action is a graduate student organization dedicated to describing psychology concepts to diverse audiences. Visit our booth for some fun activities about memory, language, neuroscience, and willpower.
Dermatological
Stop by Dermatological at UCLA’s booth to learn about skin health, sun safety, and simple ways to keep your skin healthy! Meet our members, explore helpful dermatology resources, and learn more about our work promoting accessible skin health education in the community.
Twist and Treat Candy Bones
Come build a model of the spine and learn more about how important the spine is in your body!
The Science of Staying Well: How the Immune System Works
Join us in learning about the immune system and how bacteria behave! Fight off bacteria and viruses in our custom interactive video game! Discover how microbes evolve with our original card game! Prizes also included!
Be a Brain Hero!
Come visit our booth and become a Brain Hero! Discover how your brain works, ways to keep your brain healthy, signs and symptoms of a stroke, and how quick action can help save lives.
Wonders of the Brain with InterAxon
InterAxon is excited to teach students how the brain takes in information to help you understand the world! Visit our booth to look at the brain up close under the microscope, make a brain cell model, and learn about your senses!
Inventor's Alley
Bruin Racing Baja
Bruin Racing Baja at UCLA is a college team dedicated to designing and manufacturing a single-seat off-road dune-buggy style vehicle to compete in the Society of Automotive Engineers’ Baja competitions against 150+ colleges internationally.
Bruin Formula Racing at UCLA
Bruin Formula Racing at UCLA is a team of engineering students who build a new fully-electric, Formula-style racecar to compete with other universities each year at the Formula SAE EV competition in Michigan. Our car is designed and built by students, including our 400V battery pack and complete aerodynamics package.
UCLA SPACE Institute
Showcasing the technologies for crewed space flight and deep space exploration.
ANACO TINYLAB: A Laboratory for Anyone
Smart microwell plates: Affordable 96-well plates that have integrated sensors and features.
Nanotech Energy: How Batteries Power Our World
Nanotech Energy is a company spun out of UCLA research that develops advanced lithium-ion batteries. Our booth introduces visitors to the batteries that power phones, laptops, electric vehicles, and large energy-storage systems. Through battery samples and simple models, visitors will explore how rechargeable batteries work and how new materials can help them store more energy, last longer, and improve safety.
ASCE @ UCLA - Seismic Design
We design, analyze, and construct balsa wood skyscraper models to withstand simulated earthquakes on a shake table for the annual EERI Seismic Design Competition. Through hands-on outreach, we also introduce hundreds of elementary and middle schools students across the LA area to structural engineering by helping them build their own structures with K-NEX pieces.
Physics and Math
Ping Pong Particle Accelerator
We show 3 demonstrations of increasing complexity on how particle accelerators work.
What does sound look like?
We always hear sound, but what does sound look like? We use a chladni plate to visualize the resonance patterns created by sound.
Math: You Can Count On It!
Try out fun math games and puzzles! We will have a variety of activities appropriate for all ages!
UCLA Department of Statistics and Data Science
Estimation of the number of trials needed to exit a labyrinth.
Planetary and Space Science
Space Weather: Explaining the Invisible
Space weather involves the study of the Sun and its electrical and magnetic effects on Earth and our Moon, which can negatively impact our satellites, astronauts, and electrical grid. Solar storms can erupt any time and flood our environment with harmful radiation, while also powering the beautiful northern lights. Thus it is critical to understand and predict how space weather will affect humanity’s future in Earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond.
Venus - Our Mysterious Neigbour
Why is Venus still a planet of Mystery?
Diviner: The Moon in Infrared
Our Moon can get hotter than boiling water and colder than Pluto. Come see how UCLA scientists measure it from orbit, and use a thermal camera to watch lunar materials heat and cool.
NEO Surveyor: Finding Asteroids Before They Find Us
NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor led by our very own Dr. Amy Mainzer, aims to discover, track, and characterize at least two-thirds of potentially hazardous asteroids (>140-meters in diameter) that could come close to Earth’s orbit in the next 10-20 years so that we can do something about it and Find Asteroids Before they Find Us!
Meteorites as Cultural Heritage
We delve into the illicit trade in meteorites of significant culltural heritage value.
UCLA Meteorite Museum
We will open our Meteorite Museum during the day to host the public. Additional meteorites will be available for visitors to touch and volunteers will attend the event as docents that help interact with visitors.
Meteorites: Under Troubled Asteroidal Skies
We will display a variety of meteorites, most of which can be touched/handled, to illustrate the fascinating aspects of this field. We will display locally-found specimens, and can give advice on hunting for meteorites.
Sustainability
California Climate Stewards
UCLA’s cohort of California Climate Stewards information will have interactive demonstrations and information for kids and families about effects of climate change, political action, and the CCS program.
Electrolysis!
We will be demonstrating how you can extract hydrogen from water with a simple science experiment.
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Our booth will have hands on activities to learn about the ecology of various flora and fauna. These activities will encourage visitors to learn about nature and the local environment.
Algae Ingenuity: Make Your Own Sustainable Polymer!
Come explore sugar science — create your own algae-based “water bottle” and learn about sustainable materials!
Machines in Action!
Have you ever wondered how cars work, how bullet trains travel so fast, or how is it that you can ride a bike without falling off? Come and join the UCLA Science Lab Teaching Club to explore the amazing world of mechanics through our interactive demonstrations! We will teach you about how motors work, how energy is transferred in machines, and how smart engineering designs can focus on efficiency and sustainability for a greener future!
Mathias Botanical Garden
This booth handles ticketing for the Mathias Botanical Garden. Volunteers hand out tickets to guests, direct guests to the Garden, and keep track of Garden capacity/entry.