The Geological Society of America and American Geophysical Union Team up to Exhibit at the USA Science & Engineering Festival
Free Event 6-8 April in Washington, D.C., to Inspire Young People to Explore, "Where Can STEM Take You?"
Boulder, Colo., USA: The Geological Society of America (GSA) and American Geophysical Union (AGU) will be exhibiting at the 5th USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo (https://usasciencefestival.org/) in Washington, D.C. The festival is a free, family-friendly expo allowing kids and adults to participate in thousands of exhibits, experiments, and stage shows designed to inspire the next generation of scientists, inventors, and innovators.
The USA Science & Engineering Festival (SEF) will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in D.C. Invited school groups, as well as homeschool and military families, will get a preview of the festival exhibits on Sneak Peak Friday, 6 April, before SEF opens to the general public on Saturday, 7 April, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 8 April, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
SEF fills the entire convention center with more than 3000 hands-on activities show casing how STEM Can Take You (https://usasciencefestival.org/stem-can-take-you/ [STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math]) into the ocean, into nature, through the Earth system, to outer space and beyond. The Festival expects to draw more than 350,000 visitors.
The USA Science & Engineering Festival is the nation's largest science event and was developed to ignite the next generation's interest in pursuing careers in science and engineering. "Our nation's future relies on encouraging more kids to go into STEM careers. By hosting the nation's largest science festival, we are hoping to capture their imaginations by introducing them to science rock stars and engaging them in real science projects," explained Marc Schulman, Festival executive director.
Both GSA and AGU believe improving public earth science literacy is important to help society achieve an informed citizenry empowered to make science-based decisions while helping to recruit the next generation of geoscientists. To that end, their booth will help visitors explore the Rock Cycle -- connections between different rock types and how processes change sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks from one type to another over geologic time.
The activity challenges students to place actual rock samples on a diagram of the geologic environments where they form, tying rock identification activities used in middle school curricula with plate tectonic theory discussed in high school and introductory college courses. It is an activity anyone from five to 105 can enjoy and is especially valuable for K-12 teachers and geoscience educators.
The Festival features explorers, astronauts, physicists, inventors, and experts in fields like oceanography, climatology, robotics, medical research, neuroscience, space exploration, artificial intelligence, and more. Participating celebrities (https://usasciencefestival.org/attend/2018-festival-expo/stage-shows/) include:
- Danni Washington, TV host and ocean explorer (https://usasciencefestival.org/performers/danni-washington/);
- Explosive Science's Dr. Kate Biberdorf (https://usasciencefestival.org/performers/dr-kate-biberdorf/);
- World Champion of Magic Jason Latimer (https://usasciencefestival.org/performers/jason-latimer/);
- America's Science Teacher Steve Spangler (https://usasciencefestival.org/performers/steve-spangler/); and
- Emily Callandrelli, host of Fox TV Xploration Outer Space (https://usasciencefestival.org/people/emily-calandrelli/).
To learn more, visit USAScienceFestival.org.
ABOUT THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Geological Society of America (GSA, www.geosociety.org) is a scientific society with 25,000 members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. It is our mission to advance geoscience research and discovery in service to society, stewardship of the Earth, and the geosciences profession.
ABOUT AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
The American Geophysical Union (AGU, https://sites.agu.org/) is an international non-profit scientific association with 60,000 members in 137 countries. Our mission is to promote discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity and to ensure a sustainable future.
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