The Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS) hosted their annual Visit Lauderdale Science Festival Saturday, March 8. This festival aims to showcase new STEM technologies with events for all ages, and hopes to expose the wonders of science to all, for free. With a plethora of sponsorships, from 4Ocean to the Florida Panthers hockey team, this is MODS biggest event of the year.

At the event, the museum passed out passports to all attendees. All throughout the museum, there were booths where the participants could get their passports stamped. After eight stamps, attendees could then turn in their passport in exchange for a free 4Ocean’s bracelet, made of recycled plastic. 

In addition to the passport, a plethora of speakers, including Dr. Laura Fontanas and Dr. Dave Farina, talked about everything from glia neurons to tech girl power to stingray skin. MODS ended their festival with extreme science experiments involving everything from fire to foam. 

This year, the Broward County Science Fair received an invitation to participate in the festival due to their long standing collaboration. The county then selected five of their county winners to present their work as one of the stations in the event. These students formed the “Future Expo Hall,” where anyone of all ages could come to the students and ask about their experiments. Of these five students, two were from Heritage. 

This is the first time Heritage has participated in the Expo Hall. “MODS was a fun experience in contrast to more formal presentation settings,” junior Aliyah Dania said. “I was able to share my project and connect with younger kids and adults who usually don’t have the opportunity to see exhibits like this.”

_{Senior Emma Colarte Delgado and Aliyah Dania both presented their work at the Expo Hall. Their projects dealt with depression and anxiety disorders, respectively, and aimed to find non-invasive ways to treat the behavioral diseases. In addition to these two Heritage students, two students from Cypress Bay and one student from Pine Crest presented their work as well. (Photos/Leila Dania)}

_{Senior Emma Colarte Delgado presents her work to fifth grader Maxwell Cohen and his mother Helena Leung, who were attendees of the festival. “I’ve been trying to look at projects since I was invited to the research program for sixth grade,” Cohen said. “I missed the school fair, so I’m so glad I ran into you.” (Photo/Aliyah Dania)}