YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - This year's edition of Silly Science Sunday will feature new exhibits, including an exhibit from the Armstrong Air and Space Museum, but visitors to the event still will be able to enjoy some old favorites, Katie Seminara-DeToro assured.
That includes walking on a fluid-filled trough that children - and some adults - enjoy running across.
"People have been calling all week asking about the Oobleck run to make sure we're doing it," the executive director of Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children's Center for Science & Technology said Thursday.
The 15 Silly Science Sunday will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Wean Park for the second consecutive year. It will feature more than 40 displays, Seminara-DeToro said.
Conceived as an event focused on the STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - Silly Science Sunday has grown over the years to encompass the arts with the inclusion of participants such as Smarts Community Arts School and The Butler Institute of American Art, as well as reading with the participation of the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County the past several years.
"So we are technically calling it a STREAM festival this year," Seminara-DeToro said.
The science-themed festival had taken place at Central Square, near Oh Wow's downtown building, since the first one in 2011 but relocated to Wean Park last year.
"The additional space and having the grass option opens us up for different kinds of activities," Seminara-DeToro said. "We can have some different types of vendors, whereas downtown [at Central Square] you're a little bit prohibited with space and the buildings being all around." Among this year's exhibitors is Diversified Drone, which does drone animal rescues.
The Wean Park site also offers convenient parking at the nearby Covelli Centre, she said. One downside is that Oh Wow itself has to close for the day.
"I know a lot of people look forward to making a day of exploring inside our facility," she said. To mitigate that, Oh Wow distributes passes that can be used to visit the science center another time.
On Wednesday, the Youngtown Marathon Foundation donated $10,000 to Oh Wow specifically for the passes distributed at the event, said Ellie Platt, chairwoman of the Oh Wow board of directors.
"That's enabling us to continue to provide free admission to everyone that comes to the event. Right now, we have about 1,000 kids already registered, and we're expecting over 3,000 people that day," she said.
Platt, owner of Platt Insurance in Howland Township, has been involved with Oh Wow for about 12 years.
"It's been amazing to watch it grow since the beginning, not only in the number of attendees and the people that the event brings downtown, but also the number of community partners and vendors that participate," she said.
Jones Wealth Management in Canfield is one of two title sponsors for the event, along with David and Caroline Jones.
Sid Jones, managing director, said his family and his team discuss what is important to the community, and several of his teammates have children. Influencing people at an early age "has a huge impact," which is why they focus on things like Making Kids Count and the Boardman Schools Fund for Educational Excellence, he said.
"These are the kind of things where an impact now can impact them for 70, 80, 90 years," he said. "Quite frankly, I think we all agree we need better education in America."
He also praised the work being done by Seminara-DeToro. "She is the perfect person for that job. I like what she's doing down there," he said.
The Armstrong Air and Space Museum, located in Wapakoneta, will bring a model of Curiosity, one of the rovers currently looking for signs of life on Mars, said Ellen Engle, museum education coordinator.
"We always look to go to different places around Ohio to promote our museum," she said. "We will also have another person there that will be dressed in an astronaut costume for pictures."
The museum's namesake, astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, took his first airplane ride from an airport in Warren. A replica of the Apollo 11 lunar module was built on the site of that flight more than two decades ago.
The Wapakoneta museum features a painting of Armstrong and his father after they took the airplane flight, Engle said.
Platt said this year is a special one for her. She has brought her son, Jake, to Silly Science Sunday "since he was a little kid," and this year he will be volunteering for the first time with members of his Poland Interact Club.
"So that'll be kind of a full-circle moment, to see him there working alongside me," she said.
Other exhibitors will include PBS Western Reserve, Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor and Youngstown Model Railroad Association, which will bring its 12-foot traveling display.
This year's event also will feature a "dinosaur dance party," with inflated dinosaurs and face painting.
"We're keeping it extra silly," Seminara-DeToro said.