Despite the bad weather - the first Long Night of Science was a success.
The most-clicked app last week was the weather forecast - at least among those who were involved in planning the long night of science "OHA! Science Adventure". Would the weather hold, would we be able to enjoy a beautiful summer evening?
For six months, we had been working and tweaking for this day. After all, a program had to be created that included two cities, nine research institutions and many other external offers. An event website was set up, photographers hired, marketing measures devised and commissioned.
Unfortunately, the weather fairy was not kind to us (or someone had not emptied their plate the day before) - in any case, we made the difficult decision for Görlitz not to use the LED wall and wooden stage we had set up ourselves and to move the final event to the Bluebox. Despite the inclement weather, the events, which were spread across both cities, started punctually at 4 pm. After just under an hour, Martin Laqua from CASUS on Untermarkt made his first call for help: "The stamp cards for the children are running out!" Not the worst sign. Fortunately, we were able to get supplies in time.
Christian Düker from Senckenberg also had a lot of good news to report: New faces who came in for the first time, lots of children, long dwell times, intensive discussions. Prof. Meinert from the HSZG said that the staff at his station could hardly take a break. There were similar crowds at many other stations in Zittau and Görlitz from 4pm to 8pm.
From 8 p.m., all the curious people gathered at the two university locations. In Görlitz, the evening event started in the large lecture hall. There was an experiment show to puzzle through and three science slam presentations. But before that, there were official greetings and a prize draw for the successful stamp rally participants.
In Zittau, people were braver. Despite the approaching rain clouds, the event got underway outside on the campus grounds at 8 pm. The dramaturgy could not have been better chosen. Just in time for Prof. Weber's science slam "Superficially exciting! Or: A story about water droplets." they arrived - the water droplets. And as they could not only be seen on the LED wall, but also felt on people's heads, they were quickly relocated to the nearby lecture hall to save the day. The science quiz and science slams were successfully completed, the guests were visibly entertained and then enjoyed the fine sounds under the lecture hall canopy - even though it was no longer raining.
A beautiful evening, a beautiful event came to an end. We are also satisfied with the number of visitors - around 400 in Görlitz and 500 in Zittau. It was simply wonderful to see how many committed employees the nine participating research institutions in the region have and how many interested people live here.
Of course, there were one or two hitches - as is the case when you do something for the first time. So if you, as a guest or co-organizer of the event, still have valuable feedback on "OHA! Adventure Science", please send it to kristin.sprechert(at)hszg.de.
If you would like to take another look at what a great offer we had: www.abenteuer-wissenschaft.de. Here you can find nice impressions of the event from both cities.
All employees of the Senckenberg Museum, CASUS, IZS, Fraunhofer IOSB, Fraunhofer IWU, Fraunhofer IEG, DLR, IHI and the HSZG, who contributed great offers and helped with set-up and dismantling. The Dezibar, Bierblume, Vinyl, the student councils of F-E and F-S and Jenny Böttcher for food and drink. Laura Jankowski, Marcel Schröder, Anass Halime and Sven Müller for the beautiful pictures and videos of the event. Lord Mayor Mr. Zenker, Dr. Nicke, Lord Mayor Mr. Ursu, Prof. Xylander, Prof. Kratzsch and Prof. Kollmorgen for their words of welcome at the opening. Christian Düker and Julian Dutschke for their charming moderation of the evening events. The VHS Dreiländereck, the Dresden Chamber of Crafts, the MINOS network, VDIni, the Erfinderkiste and ENSO for their support with further offers. Public Relations and the Department of Technology and Facility Management at the university, especially the building supervisors and electricians and Ms. Grundmann. Thank you.
