The event will give visitors the opportunity to participate in activities such as planting a garbage garden by using scraps and seeds from other foods to create new food, making art from recycled materials and watching various artistic performances.
“We view the festival as a great opportunity for us to engage with the community and to connect with our visitors about all of the different facets of what it means to go green,” Katelyn Coyne, a gallery programming specialist for the museum, said. “We hope to equip people with the resources to live a greener ?lifestyle.”
Along with speakers and demonstrations from more than two dozen environmentally focused businesses such as BlueIndy and Fall Creek Gardens, the event will also showcase some of the state’s youngest environmentalists.
Through its partnership with Earth Charter Indiana, the Indiana State Museum has added the Eco Science Fair to the festival’s programs. Last year only eight student projects were submitted to the fair. This year, after increasing its outreach, the museum received 52 student entries.
“When I’m looking at global climate change and a growing population and growing consumption, it’s easy to have dark thoughts and get sucked into a kind of vortex,” Jim ?Poyser, the executive director of Earth Charter Indiana, said. “By working directly with kids and seeing their positive reactions, their great ideas and their diligence, I start to feel more positive. Seeing this kind of work in kids can give adults a sense that anything is possible.”
Entries are accepted from kindergartners through high school seniors.
The projects range from building cardboard models of sustainable homes to demonstrating the benefits of vertical gardening.
John Brady, an environmental science teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, has been one of the key organizers of the Eco Science Fair ?this year.
“The creativity and ?outside-the-box thinking that students bring to this fair really open my eyes and allow me to get more excited about the future,” Brady said. “They’re looking at these problems with a fresh set of eyes and saying, ‘Why are things this way, and how can we make them better?’”
The students presenting projects are not the only young people benefiting from the festival.
More than 1,000 school children are scheduled to come to the State Museum with their schools Friday, and the museum hopes to welcome many families to the exhibit Saturday.
“It’s great to see so many kids come through the museum,” Coyne said. “To see their eyes opened up to these issues and hear their optimism is a really special part of the event.”
Leaders of the festival said they hope the exhibit will effect residents of all ages from all around the state.
“In Indianapolis we’ve started to see more bike lanes and increasing efforts to create a cleaner and more sustainable city,” Coyne said. “So I see a lot of change happening in the center of our state, and I’d love to see that sort of change reverberate through our entire state.”
