BROOKINGS – In its nearly nine years of existence, Science at the Pub has been an advocate of scientific discussion and education, both for the people who attend its monthly gatherings at Jim’s Tap and those who use equipment and kits bought with their donated funds to the Brookings Public Library.

Before there was Science at the Pub, there has been Science Visions, a Brookings-based nonprofit that’s been around since 2006. Made up of community members, Science Visions put on a few programs under the two categories of research and education. One of its educational programs was called Science Café, a gathering of people at the Brookings Public Library for lectures, and that is what evolved into Science at the Pub when they were looking for a new place to host the lectures.

Science at the Pub has been going on at Jim’s Tap since January 2010. It was a fine setting for what the Bob and Cindy Swinson and Fedora Sutton had in mind: a quiet, casual place where guest speakers could give lectures on a scientific topic.

“It’s quite the difference when you’re there, sitting in a bar with a drink and listening to a lecture and it’s quiet. They don’t even ring the cash register while the speaker’s speaking. They’ll get you your drink, but they don’t make noise at the register. They’re really accommodating to make sure that they don’t interrupt. It’s kind of a different atmosphere,” Cindy Swinson said.

Ever since 2010, Science at the Pub has been a free, monthly gathering open to the public. Its scheduling convention sets meetings at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month from September to April, although that wasn’t the case for their December meeting. That was scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 11. The topic for the night was potential treatments for breast cancer, as presented by Dr. Shanta Messerli, a Sanford Cancer Center cancer researcher.

The Swinsons and Sutton have strived to provide a variety of topics from month to month, some more technical than others. One examined the efficiency and safety of transporting oil by train versus pipeline, while another was all about bats and another about falconry.

Trevor Reinesch, who took over coordinating Science at the Pub along with Kaitlyn Stern at the start of 2019, said the variety of topics were what drew him back to each meeting.

“It’s really neat that you don’t know what the next month is going to bring. It’s such a wide variety of different speakers. Some topics, you don’t even know would interest you or you wouldn’t even know that that field of study even exists. They’ve done a really good job of tracking down experts in those fields and those experts, like we previously mentioned, are able to put it into laymen’s terms so anybody sitting at the bar can understand,” Reinesch said.

He also liked that attendees like to stay behind after the lecture is done to continue talking about the subject.

Even though speakers can make use of a projector and a microphone, it’s still a casual setting, a feature to the program that its leaders take pride in. They like that attendees can interact with the lectures in a laid-back setting and ask questions, even during the presentations, if they’re so bold.

The speakers themselves come from a variety of places, mostly in the region. Some have a connection to South Dakota State University; others, like Dr. Messerli, are a bit further out, coming from Sioux Falls to speak. Sometimes a person from out-of-state is in town for an event on campus around the same time as Science at the Pub, so they’ll be invited to come and speak there, too.

Science at the Pub also works to raise funds for children’s science programs, donating money raised to the Brookings Public Library. During their gathering, they’ll pass a fishbowl to take donations from attendees, who usually put in anything from $1 to $50. With a typical gathering of 35-45 people, that adds up.

The only stipulation they have for their donation to the library is that the funds are used for children’s science education. Otherwise, the folks at Science at the Pub have no say in how the money is used.

One of the things the money funds at the library include Family Science Night, a monthly gathering at the library where families can learn and sometimes experience first-hand such things as coding, water tension and robotics. 

The library is excited to be able to soon purchase, thanks to $1,500 in Science at the Pub donations, six telescopes. They will be purchased before the start of the library’s summer reading program in June, which has the theme of “A Universe of Stories.”

Since the program will have a space theme, the timing couldn’t have been better, according to Brookings Public Library Director Ashia Gustafson.

Another $2,000 from the South Dakota Community Foundation has also allowed the library to make this purchase.

Rules on renting out the telescopes have yet to be drafted, but Gustafson envisions people who want to use one of the telescopes having to go through a brief instructional session or watching an instructional video on their use and parts.

“We really enjoy that Science at the Pub supports what we’re doing and that we can get that STEM education to youth because it all starts young. When you think about early literacy, a lot of people just think of reading, which, yes, is a major component of literacy, but there’s also early math literacy, early science literacy and exploring all of that,” Gustafson said.

Science at the Pub is also something of a unique event for the region. A group in Sioux Falls was inspired by the success Science at the Pub has found in Brookings and will soon start hosting one. Beyond that, Cindy Swinson believes the only other area options are in Morris, Minnesota; Duluth, Minnesota; and Iowa City, Iowa.

Stern started attending Science at the Pub soon after she moved to Brookings a year-and-a-half ago after coworkers encouraged her to go with them. She works as a good laboratory practice chemist at SGS. She also talked Reinesch, an engineer for Valero’s Aurora ethanol plant, into attending.

When they take charge of managing Science at the Pub, they won’t change the gatherings, but they will work to get out the word through more modern means by setting up a Facebook page. At the moment, it relies on a combination of posters and word of mouth, and participants are alerted to the upcoming meeting date and topic through an email list.

“When we mentioned that we were interested in doing this to our friends, they didn’t even know that this existed. They love going to Jim’s Tap, but they didn’t know that this was out there because unfortunately, people our age aren’t the greatest about reading posters and things because they’re constantly on their phones,” Stern said.

But the core of what makes up Science at the Pub will remain unchanged.

“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” Reinesch said. “I think they have a good thing going, so we’ll try and keep it on track.”

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.