Alejandro Melendez (selfie captain), Jennifer Sabogal, Charles Donaghue, and Andrew Bjorge (selfie anchor) at the NJ Comic Expo.

Liberty Science Center STEM educators were among the most popular exhibitors at the New Jersey Comic Expo at the New Jersey Expo Center in Edison, NJ, on November 21 and 22. At the invitation of the organizers, LSC did what it does best: Flex its science muscles and present some cool science demonstrations!

The organizers of the Comic Expo gave LSC a mission: Provide some science demonstrations that link to comic books or pop culture during the expo. Members of the STEM Department presented science demonstrations that were part of Project Alpha: Design a Superhero, a summer camp course from Science Camp at LSC. The premise of the camp was to demonstrate that the superpowers of famous superheroes and supervillains can be recreated with the power of science.

The STEM crew had ten different superpower experiments on constant rotation throughout the weekend. Four of the more popular demonstrations that attendees enjoyed involved the science behind Magneto’s Levitation, how the Venom Symbiote takes over its hosts, how Superman flies by using the Bernoulli Effect, and The Blob’s invulnerability.

Attendees were encouraged to provide suggestions and ideas for brand new demonstrations they would like to see as guests at the science center. Needless to say, the demonstrations were quite a huge hit with a lot of the attendees—even Ultron was impressed!

We had a great time, and organizers of the Comic Expo expressed interest in teaming up again to demonstrate the science behind comics and pop culture in the years to come.

STEM blog by Alejandro Melendez. Alejandro is a Distance Learning Specialist here at the Science Center. He also facilitates Electronic Field Trips and our very popular Live From Surgery Program.