Public Science with Real-Time Experiments

One of the best ways for professional scientists to engage in public outreach is to get outside of the university and/or lab walls and go out into the public. That is, go to public spaces to do some science experiments with the public - this includes students of all ages that constitute that public. Technological advance in portable measurement gear now allow one to do real, or near real, time experiments in outdoor, public spaces. We have been running a meta-experiment of this sort, aimed at the public display of science, for about a year now in Houston TX at the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark. The project goes under the title of Sk8Lab Houston and has introduced students of all ages to the power of scientific experimentation. We bring a portable science pack with us to the park. The pack has a range of wireless measurement gear that allow experiments to be done on the spot. Some of the experiments are designed by us but many are designed on by whoever suggests them to us that day. Over time the Sk8Lab scientists have built up a level of "trust" with the people who frequent the park (no one feels like we are gonna grade them at the park and they know that the learning is not on some regimented clock). This has broken down some learning walls and allowed for a more informal mode of exploration and a more genuine mode of experimentation (as compared to what often happens in class labs when students feel like they are just being forced to reproduce some known result). We will describe some of the test case experiments we have run and also discuss some of the trials, tribulations, and happy successes (many unplanned) along the way.