On April 11, the Morgridge Institute hosted Exploration Stations at the Discovery Building as a part of the 2026 UW–Madison Science Expeditions Campus Open House. The event, which covers three days every April, invites the community to explore science in hands-on settings at several buildings across the campus.
With 49 different interactive booths spanning science topics such as horticulture, rockets, and sleep health, the Exploration Stations highlighted a variety of scientific fields and their real-world applications. Morgridge welcomed hundreds of visitors throughout the event, including families, students, and youth educational groups.
Felipe Gomez and Val Blair, on the Morgridge Community Engagement Team, are part of a nearly twenty-person organizing group spanning several schools and departments.
“I think this is a really cool event because we get to give accessibility to folks who are not normally here at the university,” Gomez says. “The kids seeing themselves in these programs and not feeling intimidated by science — it’s amazing.”
This year, Gomez rode the elevator with an elementary school-aged visitor who asked how he could become a volunteer. That conversation turned into a conviction to one day become a UW student: “I’m gonna do that!”
Gomez said he was also impressed with another young visitor who, initially grossed out by a preserved human brain on display at a neuroscience station, “got out of their comfort zone, got their gloves on, and got curious — ‘Oh my goodness, this is a brain!’” That interaction turned into questions for the volunteer about what kind of research they do and its relation to real life, like what happens to our brain during video games.
“I think this curiosity is really cool,” Gomez says.
The institute’s mission to encourage scientific curiosity drives our community engagement work. At every learning level, we strive to create meaningful opportunities for the public to connect with science.
Check out some of the brightest faces of discovery at the event! Credit SV Heart Photography
