Look out for falling pumpkins this Parent’s Weekend at the 18th Annual Pumpkin Drop from 9 a.m.–noon Saturday at the Webster Physical Science Building. There will be additional entertainment and activities on-site as well.

As a nod to Galileo’s gravitational experiments, the WSU Physics and Astronomy Club hosts this pre-game event to celebrate the fun side of science, vice president Alexus Harris said. The 12th floor of Webster is the highest point in Pullman, which makes it the perfect spot for the demonstration.

In addition to the main attraction, there will be concessions and an assortment of stations with pumpkin decorating, physics demos, scavenger hunts and more in the building lobby.

The pumpkin decorating is a major draw to the event, Harris said. Among the dropped pumpkins are ones decorated by event attendees at the pumpkin decorating station.

“Personalizing gives kids a way to identify their own pumpkin when it’s getting dropped,” Harris said. “You can tell by their excitement that they enjoyed the process of being able to create their own pumpkin and see it thrown out of this giant building.”

Apart from the usual demonstrations, which are meant to put kids in the scientific process and teach them critical thinking, there will also be a new presentation this year featuring interactive speakers posing as significant physicists giving fun facts and jokes about themselves, Harris said.

“This event is extremely important because topics like astronomy and physics aren’t covered a lot in school,” Harris said. “Having a way for kids to get involved and the opportunity to expose children to these subjects early on can inspire the next generation of scientists that will change the world.”