UC San Diego Teams Up with Padres, City for Second Annual San Diego Science Festival
PETCO Park to serve as 2010 Expo Venue
Judy Piercey | November 16, 2009
(Left to Right) San Diego Science Festival news conference speakers included Honorable Jerry Sanders, Mayor of San Diego; Loren Thompson, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Education Advancement at UC San Diego; Merrilyn Datta, Global Leader, Innovation Management and Scientist at Life Technologies; Marye Anne Fox, UC San Diego Chancellor; and Tom Garfinkel, Diego Padres President and Chief Operating Officer.
It’s not every day that you see San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young in a lab coat, kids making slime out of kelp and the mayor of San Diego sharing his excitement about science—all against the backdrop of PETCO Park.
But that’s exactly what happened Tuesday when UC San Diego, the City of San Diego, and the San Diego Padres/ PETCO Park united in celebration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics exploration at a press conference to announce the second annual San Diego Science Festival.
San Diego’s largest celebration of science returns to offer thousands of students and their families the opportunity to “excite their minds.” In addition to year-round K-12 programs, the 2010 event will bring a week of science activities and exploration to San Diego County with hundreds of free events beginning March 20 and culminating in Expo Day at a new venue—PETCO Park—on March 27.
Event speakers included Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and San Diego Padres president/chief operating officer Tom Garfinkel, among others. Science demonstrations featured the educational outreach team from Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, offering an experiment in making “slime” with alginate (a product made from kelp); San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young took part in a science lesson taught by students at the School of Science and Technology at San Diego High School; while Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff caught balls from an electromagnetic launcher.
“As Chancellor of UC San Diego and a scientist myself, I can tell you that we’re very excited to be involved in this science festival again this year and take the lead in bringing this extraordinary event to the region,” Chancellor Fox told attendees. “We have to encourage our young people to be much more active in science if, as a nation, we are going to continue in a leadership position.”
At the Nov. 10 San Diego Science Festival news conference, the educational outreach team from Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, offered an experiment in making “slime” with alginate (a product made from kelp).
Added Mayor Sanders, “We’re here to announce an exciting partnership and one that I think is going to be great for the sciences—the City of San Diego, UCSD and the San Diego Padres/PETCO Park working together for the 2010 San Diego Science Festival. Science is great for the regional economy. When we train world leaders in science and technology, we build these industries, provide revenue and grow more jobs for San Diego.”
Goals of the annual science festival include inspiring our nation’s youth to enter science- and technology-related careers, generating community awareness of science and the role it plays in our lives everyday, and showcasing the unique and amazing amount of science that takes place across the San Diego region.
The San Diego Science Festival is organized by UC San Diego with the support of community collaborators to educate students across the region. Recently, the university was awarded a $3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to fund the year-round San Diego Science Festival efforts. In addition, the NSF grant will be used over a three-year period for three other festival sites: San Francisco through UC San Francisco; Cambridge, Massachusetts, through the MIT Museum; and Philadelphia through The Franklin Institute.
San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young had fun with science at the news conference announcing PETCO Park as the Expo venue for the San Diego Science Festival 2010.
The first annual San Diego Science Festival, held in Spring 2009, featured activities that impacted more than 250,000 individuals—including 50,000 who attended the inaugural one-day Expo at Balboa Park. In 2010, thanks in part to lead sponsor Life Technologies, the San Diego Science Festival will continue to raise awareness on the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
To access a video of the Nov. 10 press conference, please visit here:
Learn more by visiting the San Diego Science Festival online at www.sdsciencefestival.com and www.twitter.com/SDScienceFest.
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