The Maine Science Festival
is a program of
MSF Trivia
Wednesday, March 19th | 6:30pm-8:00pm
Seasons (Downstairs) - 427 Main Street, Bangor
Join fellow trivia players for a night of science trivia created especially for the Maine Science Festival! This is a don't-miss night of fun!
Please note! If you'd like to order food, please come at 6:00 so you don't miss out on any questions!
Event type: trivia
Moderator: Kate Dickerson, Maine Discovery Museum
Recommended Audience: high school and up
Science on Tap presents: Clear Ears, Full Heart, Can’t Lose
How Music and Heart Health Help Heal and Shape the Brain
Thursday, March 21st | 6:30pm-8:00pm
Nocturnem Draft Haus, 56 Main Street, Bangor
Join us for an evening learning about the brain. Brian Harris, Founder & CEO of MedRhythms, will discuss how MedRhythms uses music as a therapeutic tool for brain recovery from strokes and other conditions. Fayeza Ahmed, Associate Professor of psychology at the University of Maine, will share insights from her research on the connection between heart health and the brain.
Event type: Forum
Presenters: Brian Harris, MedRhythms, Fayeza Ahmed, University of Maine
Science on Tap is sponsored by The Jackson Laboratory
Field Trip Day (2025 FTD is full)
Friday, March 21st | 9:30am-12:30pm
Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
Our Field Trip Day is for 7th & 8th grade students from schools in Maine, with the day’s programming specifically designed for this age group.
These events are limited to those schools that sign up in the preceding months. If you are interested in learning more about the 2026 Maine Science Festival Field Trip Day or would like to be notified when sign-ups are open, please send an email to schools@mainesciencefestival.org. The Field Trip Day is provided free of charge to the schools that attend.
2025 FTD is FULL.
Field Trip Day is presented by the
Teen Tech Night
Presented by Project>Login
Friday, March 21st | 4:30 pm-7:00pm
Maine Discovery Museum, 74 Main Street, Bangor
Hey students in grades 6-10 - are you ready to explore the exciting world of computers and information technology? Join us for Teen Tech Night, where you can learn, share, collaborate, and delve into cutting-edge software and web-based tools.
This year's workshops will feature a range of captivating sessions designed to spark your curiosity and creativity like robotics, cyber security and more!
Participants, please remember to bring your own laptop to this event. If you do not have access to a laptop, please email Shelby Bryant at shelby@educatemaine.org.
Teen Tech Night is a drop-off event, and a delicious pizza dinner will be provided at 6 pm for all participants. Don't miss out on this opportunity for maximum engagement and hands-on learning!
Event type: workshops for grades 6-10, hands-on activities, sessions
Audience: middle and early high schoolers
Exploration Stations:
Engage, Examine, Experiment
Saturday, March 22nd | 9am - 4pm
Cross Insurance Center Ballroom, 515 Main Street, Bangor
Roll up your sleeves and learn through various hands-on activities from scientists and practitioners around the state. Make sure to stop in and visit each activity and discover that science is everywhere!
Activities include:
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1 Earth Composting Composting
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BASWG / Town of Orono Stormwater Model
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Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences Plankton Power: Build, Race, and Explore the Tiny Creatures of the Ocean!
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General Dynamics Bath Iron Works Shipbuilding
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Girl Scouts of Maine Math In Nature
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Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust Tree ID activity and Mystery Box
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IDEXX The Colors of IDEXX
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Maine Maritime Academy
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MDI Biological Lab Regeneration and Stem Cells: A Science Mystery to Crack
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Owls Head Transportation Museum OHTM's Lego Derby Race Track
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Rho Chi Society Chapter - Husson University The Science of Pharmacy
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Southern Maine Community College It's a shore thing; exploring Maine's intertidal zone
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The Challenger Learning Center of Maine Hands on STEM with Challenger Maine
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Tyler Technologies and the University of Maine Maine App Challenge: Start Building Today!
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UMaine Space/UMaine AI UMaine Space
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University of Maine - Advanced Structures and Composites Center Introduction to Textiles
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University of Maine at Fort Kent The Photosynthesis-Climate Connection
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University of Maine Cooperative Extension: 4-H Flora and Fauna of Maine (marine & terrestrial)
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University of Maine Society of Physics Students Hands-on physics activities!
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University of Southern Maine - STEM Outreach LEGO SPIKE Coding
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USGS Maine Coop Fish and Wildlife / University of Maine Dept of Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology Maine's Fish and Wildlife
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Versant Power Astronomy Center
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Versant Power Electrical Safety
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Within the Whale Whale Anatomy
Event type: Hands-on
Recommended Audience: all ages
Maine Mobile BIOLAB
Saturday, March 23rd | 9am-4pm
Upper parking lot, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
Senses and Perception
• Discover the fascinating science behind how we perceive the world in this immersive exhibit. Test whether you’re a supertaster and explore how compounds can alter taste. Uncover the connection between smell and memory as scents transport you to the past.
• Challenge your vision with mind-bending illusions and experience the McGurk Effect, where sight and sound combine to change what you hear. Visualize sound waves on an oscilloscope and see how vibrations create the sounds we hear.
• Finally, explore touch by experimenting with temperature perception and experiencing the "Pinocchio Effect," where it feels like your nose is expanding or shrinking. This hands-on exhibit reveals how your senses work together to shape your reality.
BIOLAB is located in the upper parking lot at CIC.
Event type: hands-on
Presenters: Educate Maine
Recommended Audience: all ages
Scrollathon
Saturday, March 22nd | 9am - 4pm
Meeting Rooms 3&4, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
The Maine Discovery Museum is thrilled to host Steven and William Ladd’s National Scrollathon®! The Ladd brothers, renowned artists with work in major museums worldwide, bring their collaborative art project to Maine as part of the 10th Maine Science Festival.
Join us for one of four Scrollathon sessions, where you'll create your own fabric scroll to keep before contributing to a larger collaborative piece. This artwork will be permanently displayed at the museum, with a high-quality photograph featured in Washington, D.C., for America’s 250th birthday in 2026. Be part of this nationwide celebration of creativity and unity!
We will be running 4 sessions and highly recommend that you sign up to guarantee a spot.
There are 25 spots per session. S
Sessions run at 9am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm
Click here to sign up for a session!
You must check in/arrive five minutes before the session starts
or your spot will go to those on the wait-list
Event type: Hands-on activities/art exhibit
Recommended Audience: all ages
Immersive Audio
Saturday, March 22nd
All day drop-in event
Meeting Room D, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
Explore the cutting-edge world of immersive audio! In this exhibit you will experience a 3D sound field from a twelve loudspeaker, 7.1.4 immersive sound system. Listen to immersive musical examples, film clips, and soundscapes, and learn about Dolby Atmos, Spatial Audio, surround sound, and more.
Event type: Workshop
Presenter: Eric Ferguson, Husson University
Recommended Audience: all ages
Immersive Audio sponsored by Maine Community College System
Maine Invention Convention
Saturday, March 23rd | 10 AM - 2 PM
Prefunction Area, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
The MIC Awards Ceremony will take place in Meeting Room 5 at 1:45pm
The Maine Invention Convention (a program of the Maine Discovery Museum) is a statewide competition that promotes innovative problem-solving and inventing by Maine middle school students. Students work with their peers and teachers to identify and solve problems using the Innovation Engineering process. At this event, students from each participating school compete for the top invention awards and for the chance to represent Maine at the National Invention Convention at The Henry Ford Museum in June.
Event type: Poster Session
Moderator: Lia Davido-DaSilva, Maine Discovery Museum
Recommended Audience: all ages
AORTA: Human Anatomy and Medicine
Saturday, March 22nd | TWO SESSIONS 10-11:30am & 12:30-2pm
Meeting Room A, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
The University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine’s AORTA Program is offering a hands-on anatomy lab experience! A short introduction of the AORTA program, UNECOM, and body donation will be provided at the beginning of the session. Participants will rotate through 3 stations exploring the body’s organ systems, healthy vs. unhealthy tissues, and surgical interventions. We utilize isolated organs from human body donors who have gifted themselves to medical education. The workshop leaders will do their best to involve participants as much as possible, as your questions and preferences direct the progression of the session.
Event type: Workshop
Presenter: Tyler H. Redway, Assistant Professor of Anatomy, AOTRA Program, University of New England
Recommended Audience: all ages
We will be running 2 sessions and highly recommend that you sign up to guarantee a spot.
There are 30 spots per session
Click here to sign up for Session One (10am)
Click here to sign up for Session Two (12:30pm)
You must check in/arrive five minutes before the session starts
or your spot will go to those on the wait-list
Power Play: Exploring Muscle Strength with Biomechanics
Saturday, March 22nd | 10am - 11am
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
Demonstrating the use of biomechanics equipment to show muscular power and discuss why having powerful muscles is important for both athletes and general populations.
Event type: Hands-on activities/art exhibit
Presenter: Jonathan Houck, Husson University
Recommended Audience: all ages
Power Play is sponsored by Epstein Properties
Exploring Light Pollution
Saturday, March 22nd | 11:00am-12:00pm
Meeting Room B, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
Participants take a deep dive into the growing issue of light pollution! This workshop starts with a discussion of what light pollution is and how it affects humans and the natural world, and culminates in an engineering design challenge to create a design for a model streetlight that minimizes light pollution, while still allowing for safe lighting for streets and neighborhoods.
Event type: Workshop
Presenter: Sarah Raymond-Boyan, The Challenger Learning Center of Maine
Recommended Audience: all ages
Exploring Light Pollution is sponsored by Colby College
Immersive Audio: Historical Overview, Essential Terminology, and an
Introduction to Dolby Atmos
Saturday, March 22nd | 11:30am-12:30pm
Meeting Room C, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
In this presentation, the exciting world of immersive audio will be introduced, including technologies such as surround sound, immersive audio, spatial audio, ambisonics, and binaural audio. The talk will investigate historical uses of immersive in film and music production, and special attention will be paid to Dolby Atmos and its current dominance as the immersive format of choice.
Event type: Talk
Presenter: Eric Ferguson, Husson University
Recommended Audience: all ages
Worlds Beyond Our Sun: Exploring the Architecture and Evolution of Alien Planetary Systems
Saturday, March 22nd | 1:30-2:30pm
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
A general overview of what we know about multiplanetary systems outside our solar system and how we connect that information to our own past.
Event type: Talk
Presenter: Nikita Saini, University of Maine
Recommended Audience: middle school and up
Worlds Beyond Our Sun is sponsored by Versant Power
Fish Printing - freshwater fishes of Maine
Saturday, March 22nd | 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Meeting Room B, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
Learn about common freshwater fishes and the art of gyotaku. Paper will be available or bring cotton (shirt/sheet/fabric) to print on.
Event type: Workshop
Presenter: Christina Murphy, University of Maine Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology / USGS Coop Fish and Wildlife Research Unit / American Fisheries Society University of Maine Student Subunit
Recommended Audience: all ages
This session can accommodate 25 participants.
We highly recommend you sign up to guarantee your spot.
You must check in/arrive five minutes before the session starts
or your spot will go to those on the wait-list
Immersive Audio: Auditory Localization, Psychoacoustics, & Binaural Audio
Saturday, March 22nd | 2:45pm-3:45pm
Meeting Room C, Cross Insurance Center, 515 Main Street, Bangor
It's amazing that despite only having two ears, humans can localize sound from all directions. Wouldn’t it be exciting to watch a movie, listen to music, or play a video game and hear sound in front, behind, and above you? In this presentation, the methods used by the human auditory system to localize sound will be examined. Binaural audio will also be introduced, and its use in new technologies such as Dolby Atmos, Apple Spatial Audio, and immersive audio will be discussed.
Event type: Workshop
Presenter: Eric Ferguson, Husson University
Recommended Audience: all ages
5 Minute Genius™ - 2025 MSF Headliner
Saturday, March 22, 2025 | 7:00pm
Gracie Theatre, 180 College Circle, Bangor
5 Minute Genius™ features short, sharp talks by some of Maine’s finest scientists with 5 minutes per talk, plus 5 minutes for questions. Presenting a sprint through some of the most remarkable, cutting-edge science in Maine - you will feel like a genius in no time! Want more? Stick around for a reception after the event in the lobby.
Presenters:
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Brian Beal, Downeast Institute
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Damian Brady, University of Maine Darling's Marine Center
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Kortney Collum, College of the Atlantic
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Cory Johnson, MDI Biological Laboratory
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Asheesh Lanba, University of Southern Maine
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Danielle Levesque, University of Maine
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Chuck Lubelczyk, MaineHealth Institute for Research
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Kristen O'Connell, The Jackson Laboratory
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Mac Stetzer, University of Maine
Event type: Presentation
Moderator: Kate Dickerson, Maine Discovery Museum
Recommended Audience: high school and up
5 Minute Genius™ is a hugely popular event.
We highly recommend you sign up to ensure your seat
Click here to reserve your seat!
You must check in/arrive five minutes before
or your spot will go to those on the wait-list
5 Minute Genius™ is sponsored by Maine Technology Institute
Downtown Bangor Scavenger Hunt
Sunday, March 23rd | 11am-1pm
Maine Discovery Museum
A downtown science scavenger hunt! Pick up your sheet/ information at the Briar Patch, and go find the science the clues lead you to. Once done, return your signed slip to the Briar Patch. The top finisher receives a prize, and all who finish will be entered into a drawing for a goodie bag. The hunt has to be completed between 11 am -1 pm.
Audience: all ages
Invisible Lines, Tangible Impacts: The Anthropology of Borders
Sunday, March 23rd | 11:30am-12:45pm
PTC's Dramatic Academy, 51 Main St., Bangor
Professor Dan Sandweiss will be presenting on the historic and archaeological border situation in Peru and Obie Casperson will be presenting her research on Cyprus' green line.
Event type: Panel
Presenter: Dan Sandweiss, University of Maine & Obie Casperson, Undergraduate student at the University of Maine
Moderator: Kate Dickerson, Maine Discovery Museum
Recommended Audience: high school and up
PFAS and Agriculture
Sunday, March 23rd | 1:00pm-2:00pm
PTC's Dramatic Academy, 51 Main St., Bangor
In this session, we will give an introduction to PFAS and how it came to be introduced in some agricultural soils in Maine. We will also share the results of a recent research project where we worked with a commercial farm that had contaminated soils to test PFAS uptake into vegetables. Co-presenters will include UMaine researchers, graduate students, and farmers.
Event type: Panel
Presenter: Rachel Schattman, University of Maine; Alexandra Scearce, University of Maine; Susan Hunter, Hunter Farm, Unity
Moderator: Kate Dickerson, Maine Discovery Museum
Recommended Audience: high school and up
