Lab Crawl 2025

The Oberlin College Lab Crawl is an annual open house that offers a fun, informal way to explore the vast research across campus! This year’s event features over 60 interactive stations, giving you plenty of opportunities to engage with exciting projects and go into lab spaces. Be sure to pick up your Lab Crawl passport—collect stickers as you visit each station to earn rewards. Plus, join in the festivities with our costume contest in Mudd Library and enjoy trick-or-treat at almost every station! 

Ready to snag some prizes? Follow one (or more!) of our crawl structures below during the event:

• The Mini Crawl: visit 6 stations - Grab some pizza!
• The Minor Crawl: visit 8 stations - Get a special edition sticker (1 per building visited)
• The Major Crawl: visit 12 stations across 3 different buildings - Get a special edition t-shirt OR tote (your choice!)
• The Exploratory Crawl: visit 16 stations across any of the buildings - Earn a raffle entry for a fun prize bundle!

*Pizza and prizes will be located in the Science Center and the Art Museum

Check out our list of participating stations and where to find them across campus! Each building will have different disciplines represented, such as:

• Allen Memorial Art Museum: Arts, Music, and Humanities
• AJLC: Environmental Studies
• Bosworth Hall: Data Science
• Carnegie: Geosciences
• King: Sociology, Anthropology
• Mudd: Libraries, Media, Resources; costume contest photo location
• Science Center: (Bio)Chemistry, Biology, Neuroscience, Computer Science
• Severance: Psychology
• Wright: Physics

Click on a station to view more information below:

Pathways

These pathways offer suggestions of different research stations to visit depending on your interest. 

Independent Research

Are you interested in pursuing your own research interests? These research opportunities and resources will help you get started!

Research Ambassadors (Perlik) —> Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (AMAM) —> College Archives (2nd Floor Mudd) —> Strength+Research= Success (Mudd Garden Level)

Community-Based Research

What can you learn from your community? These research opportunities provide access to interact with the Oberlin community, Northeast Ohio communities, and beyond.

Ethnomusicology (AMAM)—> STEM Educational Outreach (Perlik)—> Bonner Center (Mudd Garden Level)—> CED (Mudd Garden Level)

Research to Create

Do you want to make something in your research process? Check on these on-campus resources for creation!

Letterpress Studio (2nd Floor Mudd) —> DigiLAB (2nd Floor Mudd) —-> CELA Micro Maker Space (Mudd Garden Level) —-> Machine Shop (Wright 004) —> Oberlin Creative Music Lab (AMAM) 

Campus Resources

Not sure where to get started with your research? Visit these resources to learn about all the resources we have available to help you through these processes.

Research Ambassadors (Perlik) —> Lab Safety (Perlik) —> The Center for Learning, Education, and Research in the Sciences (Perlik) —> OH5 SURE Program (Perlik) —> Winter Term (Mudd Garden Level)

Engage with Your Resources- Archival & Physical Sources

Oberlin has amazing resources to utilize in the research process. Check out some of them below.

Living Machine (AJLC Atrium) —> Oberlin College Libraries Interns (2nd Floor Mudd) —> Archaeology Lab (King 322) —>  Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM)

The ART of Science

See where the visual and musical arts meet science. You will begin in the sciences, explore the intersections of music, art, and science, then finish in the art museum.

L. Kwakye Lab (SC A257) —> Gardner Music Cognition Lab (AMAM)—> Comparative Literature & Literary Translation (AMAM) —> Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM)

Explore Cognition

Learn about the different ways to investigate cognition across different angles and disciplines.

Gardner Music Cognition Lab (AMAM) —> Cognition and Memory Lab (Severance Lobby) —> Early Cognitive Development Lab (Severance Lobby)

Students In Research

Want to meet students who are pursuing careers in the sciences and humanities? Not sure about research but know you want to be involved with students in your major? Visit the student major committees!

The Majors Committees in the Science Center and Allen Memorial Art Museum

Public and Global Health

Interested in pursuing public or global health? Want to pursue pre-med in college? Check out these labs that investigate the intersections of chemistry, neuroscience, and biology.

Behavioral Pharmacology Lab (SC A242)—> Gaybe Lab (SC A129) —> Ryno Lab (SC N282) —> G. Kwakye Lab (SC A245) —>  SES & Health Lab (Severance Lobby)

Diseases: Implications and Impact

Explore how diseases interact with the brain, body, and your genetics in this pathway!

Alex Pike's lab (SC K218)—> Johnson Lab (SC A248)—> Howard Lab (SC A236) —> G. Kwakye Lab (SC A245)

The Environment and Global Change

This path is perfect for people interested in plant studies, geology or investigating climate change. Learn about the interactions between humans and the environment.

Hilpman Lab (SC A141)—> Oberlin Structure & Tectonics Group (Carnegie 416)—> Gleditsch Lab (SC A141)—> Living Machine (AJLC Atrium) —> Pike lab (SC A138)

Quantitative Research Across the Disciplines

Numbers, figures, and data, oh my! Explore using quantitative methods across the disciplines in this pathway.

The Data Dive (Bosworth 208) —> Critical Tech Lab (Perlik)—>  The Stalnaker Lab (Wright 104) —> Blatnik Research Lab (SC K211)—> LOLA Lab at Oberlin for Laser Ablation (Carnegie 304)

Human Rights in the Social Sciences

Interested in the impact of sociological factors, sexual orientation and gender, early development, carceral experience, and transportation? This path allows you to explore these intersections.

Sociology Department (King 303)—> Professor Totton's lab (Severance Lobby)—> Early Cognitive Development Lab (Severance Lobby)—> ISSRL Prison Phone Project (King 303) —> Davidson Lab (Bosworth 208)

Is Science/STEM for me?

Not sure what you want to major in? Want a taste of all of the various areas of Science/STEM? Never heard of research or considered doing it? This is the perfect path for you!

How muscle works (SC K214) —> Belitsky Lab (SC N386)—>🚀 Our Universe-Sized Physics Lab: Discovering the Cosmos, Discovering Ourselves (Wright 208)—> Sommer MEND Lab (SC K104)—> EEG Lab (Severance 226)

Underground Systems

Some research at Oberlin goes beyond what we see above ground - explore the different types of research projects taking place beneath the Earth's surface and off land.

Bowers Lab (SC N391) —> Life Underground (SC A132)—>  Carnegie Fossil Collection (Carnegie 3rd Floor) —> Trace fossils and sedimentology (Carnegie 414)