July 10 event draws 600-plus
Neutrino Day drew about 550 people to the Yates Dry and the Yates Shaft hoist room on a Saturday morning.
Add 65 people for the standing-room-only crowd at Friday?s night?s Science Cafe at the Stampmill and about 30 for an art-and-science lecture downtown on Sunday, and we reached well over 600 people for the third straight year. Lecturers Jaret Heise and John Scheetz of the Sanford Lab, Kara Keeter of BHSU and Tom Durkin of SDSMT each spoke to near-capacity crowds in the old ERT room.
More than 40 volunteers from our staff, BHSU, the Lead Chamber of Commerce and other organizations worked the event. That?s too many to thank individually here. Instead, we?ll single out our EH&S staff, which turned an aid station into a dual purpose exhibit (above right) that proved to be one of the most popular of the 20-some activities and displays. In the photo, Sanford Lab Construction Safety Specialist Woody Hover explains the Dr?ger breathing apparatus to a couple of future ERT recruits. Safety Officer Tom Regan, left, and Health and Safety Manager Brendan Matthew observe Woody?s spiel.
Go to http://bit.ly/RCJNeutrino to see a Rapid City Journal story about Neutrino Day, which is held the second Saturday in July.
Activities at the Sanford Lab included:
- Hands-on science activities.
- Exhibits related to underground science.
- Science lectures for general audiences. (9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon)
- Q&A's with scientists. (After the science talks.)
- Walking tours of the Yates Shaft hoist room. (All morning. Wear sturdy shoes.)
- Videos about the Sanford Lab and underground science.
- An EROS Center "Earth as Art" photography exhibit downtown.
- A science-and-art lecture, "The Geometry of Visual Space," downtown by Spearfish, S.D., artist Dick Termes.
In the photo at right, the crowd at the Yates Dry inspects some of the 20-plus exhibits. (The Yates "Dry" building houses a former locker room for gold miners, so named because the locker room's temperature was kept high to dry miners' wet clothing between shifts.)
Below right, Steve Rokusek of South Dakota Public Broadcasting demonstrates Bernoulli's Principle to future scientists.
In addition, SD Public Broadcasting held a special Neutrino Day "Science Cafe" on Friday, July 9, at 7 p.m., at the Stampmill on Main Street in Lead. Husband-and-wife physcists Jaret Heise and Kara Keeter explored that mysterious particle, the neutrino, for which our day is named.
Neutrino Day this year included a Neutrino Arts Festival on Saturday and Sunday, July 10-11, on Main Street.
The Lead Chamber of Commerce is our partner in Neutrino Day. Major sponsors include Black Hills State University and South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Other sponsors included the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, the USGS, ITT, the Lead Mining Museum and the the Homestake Adams Resource and Cultural Center.