Graduate students put on their eye patches and practiced their best pirate talk on Feb. 7 during this year’s Hands-On Family Night at the Alabama Natural History Museum in Smith Hall. This year’s event was pirate themed. For two and a half hours, elementary school students and their parents walked through the museum and the various displays graduate students in different departments had set up.

The math department’s graduate students made a math pun by being the “pi”-rates. They had a coloring table for younger students, a subtraction race and even a plank to walk as participants challenged each other in a math duel.

The event was designed to promote learning for kids in a fun way. This year a record-breaking 556 people came to the event and 100 graduate students volunteered for various departments. With door prizes for students to win and a raffle for graduate students, there was something for everyone.

“We all had a great time,” said Kaitlyn Perry, a graduate student in the math department.