2022 Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival

Carnival Day for Kids at UCCS

Library STEAM Events

The 2022 Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival • Sep 24 - Oct 9

Scroll down for the full schedule of events

This year we're trying something new - expanding the festival to 16 days to make it easier for you to enjoy more of the events. The 2022 edition features 16+ days of exciting, educational and engaging special events designed to showcase STEAM where it's taking place in Colorado Springs and around the Pikes Peak Region. We're kicking it off this year with two big family events on September 24th: first spend the day at the Space Foundation Discovery Center for some fun with Newton's Laws of Motion; then in the evening you can enjoy a Community Stargazing Night at Thomas MacLaren School. There will be food trucks, the Mobile Earth & Space Observatory (MESO), plenty of telescopes and of course Cool Science at both with fun activities an information about the rest of the festival's exciting events, including the biggest event of all- Carnival Day!

Of course our biggest and most popular event, the Cool Science Carnival Day for Kids at UCCS will be Saturday, October 1st from 10 am to 4 pm. We'll have dozens of exciting science magic shows, laboratory tours and demos, rockets, drones, live animals, liquid nitrogen ice cream and lots of other hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) activities and exhibits for kids (primarily K-8th grades). It's all FREE (including parking) and fun for all ages!

New events this year include a special behind-the-scenes tour of the new Pikes Peak Summit House Complex, an engineering marvel constructed in extreme conditions at over 14,000 feet. Learn how it was accomplished on October 7th. If you're into bugs you won't want to miss "Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs" at the John May Museum on Sep. 25th. Also new to the festival is "Rock Climbing Physics 101" at CityROCK (Oct. 5th), where you'll learn hands-on how to you can harness friction to take outdoor activities to a new level! Or you can relax and tour the Flying Pig Farm (Oct. 9th) to see how they work to reclaim relationships between people, planet and plants!

Pikes Peak Summit House Tour

Climbing Physics 101 at CityROCK

Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs!

Several favorite events are also back this year. Cave of the Winds is once again offering their very popular and deeply discounted family-friendly underground cave tours (Oct. 6th). Watch trainees test their skills at the CSFD fire training tower and learn how you can join them at "Fire-Fighting Science" (Oct. 7th). Learn how amazing gourmet mushrooms and micro-greens are grown indoors at Microvora (Oct. 9th). You can also experience the wonders of the universe indoors at the USAFA (Oct. 4th) or Challenger Learning Center (Oct. 5th) planetariums, or the wonders of geology outdoors on a "Springabout Tour" of Manitou's famous mineral springs (Oct. 1st).

Cave Tours at Cave of the Winds

Fire-Fighting Science

Mushroom Farming at Microvora

Manitou Springabout Tour

There are events for all ages- adults, kids, teens and families - and most are absolutely free (some events may have a fee to help the hosts cover their costs). Kids will enjoy "Marble Run Mania" at the Monument (Sep. 27th) High Prairie (Sep. 28th) and Calhan (Oct. 4th) libraries and "Human Body Experiments" at the Sand Creek library on Oct. 6th. Or meet live birds of prey during the "Talon Talk" with Nature's Educators in Florence on Oct. 5th and wander into a Jurassic themed corn maze in Cañon City (and learn the math trick to get out every time) Oct. 7th. There's also "Ghost Fish: The Legend of the Lake" at Fountain Creek Nature Center (Oct. 8th) and "S'Mores Under the Stars" (Sep. 29th), "Kids Night Out: Mad Scientist" (Oct. 7th) at Bear Creek Nature Center and "Brilliant Bats Evening Hike" at the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center in Pueblo on Oct. 7th.

"Talon Talk" with Nature's Educators

"Ghost Fish" at Bear Creek NC

"Brilliant Bats" in Pueblo

For adults there are informative talks like "Nikola Tesla and Gilded-Age Science in Colorado Springs” at the Manitou Springs Heritage Center (Oct. 1st) and "The Case for Mars" with Dr. Robert Zubrin at UCCS (Oct. 6th), or if you're looking to combine science education with alcohol we'll have "Bristol Brewing Beer Science" (Oct. 6th), "Science Behind Your Wine" at Brush Hollow Winery in Penrose (Oct. 8th) and "Science on Tap: Wine Chemistry" (and Harvest Festival) at the Winery at Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City on Sep. 24th. We also have several nature hikes just for adults.

Science on Tap: Wine Chemistry at Holy Cross Abbey

Beer Science at Bristol Brewing (Oct. 6th)

These are just a few of the 70+ special events you can enjoy during the 2022 Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival!

Below is the full calendar of festival events. You can view it as a list (default) or by week or month. You can also select which events are displayed by target audience (that's the little down arrow on the right side at the top). Click on any event title for a detailed description and a link to pre-register or purchase tickets. Note that most events require a reservation (so we know how many people to expect) and some also require a small reservation fee to insure that the reservations only go to those who really intend to show up. [If you wish to bring a school or other group contact us and we may waive part or all of this fee.] You may also choose to show up without a reservation on the day of the event in case there is space available, but we can't promise that you will get in.

You can find even more information about the special events and let us know what you think about the festival on our Festival Facebook page.

You can also join our mailing list to keep updated on the festival (or read any emails you've missed here).

Download Festival Poster (680KB PDF)

2022 Festival Events Schedule
Download printable version (454KB PDF)

Find out how your company or organization can host a special event during the festival.