Free, family-friendly science events come to San Francisco

Joint Release

WHAT: (1) Public lecture: Panel discussion on the hopes and excitement of exploring Mars through a robot’s eyes, presented by scientists working on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity.

(2) Exploration Station: Free, family-friendly program with more than 20 hands-on science activities, including making clouds in a bottle, creating earthquakes and being “seismic detectives,” building edible models of the upcoming Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, and a full-sized inflatable model of the rover Curiosity—among many others.

(3) Children’s book reading: Author/scientist Catherine Morley will read her book, Where Do Mountains Come From, Momma?, which explains an amazing geological process in easy-to-understand language.

WHEN: Sunday December 2, 2012

1. Lecture: 12:00pm-1:00pm
2. Exploration Station: 1:00pm-5:00pm
3. Book Readings: 1:30pm-2:15pm and 3:30pm-4:15pm

WHERE: Moscone Center South

1. Public Lecture: Room 102
2. Exploration Station: Rooms 103-104
3. Book Readings: Room 102

WHO: All event are free and open to the public.

(1) Public lecture: Michael Meyer, Lead Scientist for the Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters; John Grotzinger, Program Scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; and Rebecca Williams, Participating Scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory, Planetary Science Institute.

(2) Exploration Station: Over 25 exhibitors, including NASA and the SETI Institute

(3) Reading: Author/Scientist Catherine Morley reads from her children’s book.

WHY: The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is committed to communicating scientific information to the public and highlighting the value of Earth and space science. As part of this goal, AGU’s annual Fall Meeting offers several events on some of the most exciting aspects of Earth and space science that are free and open to the public. These events are designed to spark inspiration and instill in children an appreciation of and enthusiasm for the amazing science of the world above, around, and below them. For more information on AGU’s Fall Meeting, visit the Fall Meeting website: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2012/.

The American Geophysical Union is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization with more than 61,000 members representing over 146 countries.  AGU advances the Earth and space sciences through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. www.agu.org