2015 Philadelphia Science Festival kicks off this weekend, Pulse fans gear up for science challenge

Dr. Frederic Bertley, senior vice president of science/education at the Franklin Institute, gives us a quick preview of the 5th annual event. 

The fifth annual Philadelphia Science Festival starts up this weekend and joining us on The Pulse for a quick preview of what’s to come was Dr. Frederic Bertley, senior vice president of science/education at the Franklin Institute.

To start things off, we first asked him why Philadelphia is the best place for this type of large-scale science event.

“Philadelphia is the first city of science in this nation. This is where Benjamin Franklin did his great work, this is the city that had the first hospital in the nation, this is the city where the computer was invented. So Philadelphia has this rich and robust history around science, technology, engineering and math,” he said. “We specifically didn’t call it the Franklin Institute science festival because we wanted to embrace the city of Philadelphia.

Bertley says part of the mission of the Festival is to make science more accessible, make it fun and make it relatable through hands-on, interactive events that stimulate your senses, get you excited and, most importantly, make you want to learn more about science. 

For a full list of this year’s events, click here. 

This Sunday, The Pulse will be sending out three contestants who will try to go to as many Philadelphia Science Festival events as possible in one day.  So we asked Bertley for a bit of a sneak peek by telling us about a few of his favorites. 

“I hope your three Pulse folks lace up their Nikes because we have 19 events in and around Philadelphia,” he said. “You can go to Jefferson University for the “Is there a doctor in the house?” and there, you can actually experience some amazing stuff that you can normally not see.. the robots that teach surgeons how to do the surgery.”

Or, he says, you can go to Rowan University where planetarium shows combine with learning how to code and break down video games.

“You can also go to Riverbend,” Bertley said. “They’re hosting Sustainability Sunday – Simple Steps to a Naturally Greener Life, looking at environmental sciences, climate change but also composting and what you can do as a person in the city or the suburbs in terms of impacting climate change.”

You can hear about these events and more next week on The Pulse as our challengers tell us about their biggest takeaways and we’ll find out who wins ultimate science festival nerd glory.