Staff, faculty and graduate students participate in numerous activities and events throughout the year providing information to the community about the Astrobiology Program at ASU. Brochures and other print materials regarding the field of astrobiology and the NAI are available through the ASU Astrobiology Program office. These materials are availaible to prospective students, K-12 teachers and the general public.

The following are the most recent events involving the ASU Astrobiology

Earth Sciences Day – October 18, 2003 –
On October 18, the ASU Astrobiology, in conjunction with ASU's Department of Geological Sciences presented its Sixth Annual Earth Sciences Day on ASU's main campus, coinciding with National Earth Science Week, organized by the American Geological Institute. This was part of an international effort to educate people on the importance of the sciences that study the Earth.

Earth Sciences Day is a free event that opens the doors of ASU's Department of Geological Sciences featuring activities, displays, lectures and more that is of interest to the general public.

This fall, approximately 800 young students, parents and science teachers participated. Astrobiology Program faculty, staff, and volunteers manned displays and an interactive display about microbial mats and stromatolites. To view pictures of this and previous events, follow this link.
For additional information about...
The Europa Project at ASU
National Earth Sciences Week

SEE ASU Event – March 28-29, 2003 –
SEE ASU is a free, yearly open house where ASU scientists take the stage to entertain, enlighten and spark interest in science, research and technology in young K-12 students’ minds. It also provides the opportunity for ASU, teachers, researchers and students to interact with K-12 students, teachers and the general public. It is held at the Wells Fargo Arena on the ASU main campus (map). The event features many hands-on activities and displays as well as open labs to see how scientists do their experiments.

To read about the event, please follow this link, http://www.asu.edu/asunews/community/seeasu_031903.htm

To see photos from the event - http://www.asu.edu/ia/photogallery/seeasu/1.html

Valley of the Sun Science Festival – March 15, 2003 –
The first American woman in space Sally Ride brought her Science Festival to the Barrett Honors College at ASU. The festival targets 5th-8th grade girls to inspire them to persue science, math, engineering and technology. Activities included presentations by Ride, workshops and a street fair where the Astrobiology program participated with a display featuring ASU women scientists.

http://www.sallyridefestivals.com
http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/96may/ride.html

2003 NAI Astrobiolgy General Meeting
– February 11, 2003–
ASU hosted the NASA Astrobiology General Meeting which included a special workshop for invited Arizona science teachers. The workshop began with lectures highlighting NASA's Astrobiology program, then teachers were invited to learn about the newest Astrobiology classroom activities: Astro-Venture and Voyages Through Time. Each activitiy was presented in a hands-on session with a national trainer. A special catered dinner followed where teachers were able to engage key invited scientists in one-on-one conversations.

The evening concluded at Gammage Auditorium with a public lecture from international keynote speaker Dr. Antonio Lazcano of the National University in Mexico City.

To see more about the 2003 General Meeting, please follow this link.

Jonathan and Maxine Marshall Distinguished Lecture Series
– September 26, 2000–
ASU and the Astrobiology Program were pleased to host Dr. Baruch Blumberg in September. Dr. Blumberg (a 1976 Nobel Prize recipient) is the Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) headquartered at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. During his stay he met with faculty, students, and the media. A very successful public lecture entitled "Astrobiology: Discovery for the 21st Century" was held at 7:30p.m. September 26 at ASU's Gammage Auditorium. Tickets to the lecture were free and available at the door or the locations listed on the Jonathan and Maxine Marshall Lecture Serie site.

A special reception for teachers interested in teaching space sciences preceeded the lecture. It featured representatives from the ASU Astrobiology Program, the NASA Space Photography Laboratory, the Challenger Center, the Center for Earth and Space Science Education, and the ASU Mars K-12 Education and Outreach Program. To view pictures of the event, follow this link.

This lecture series is funded by grants from Jonathan and Maxine Marshall and the Marshall Fund of Arizona to ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Every year, the series brings nationally known individuals concerned with promoting culture through the humanities and also better understandings of the problems of democracy.

CASE Media Fellowship Program
The ASU Astrobiology Program is a participant in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Media Fellowhip Program. This program strives to connect journalists with university professors in the hope that lay articles about scientific research will be published. Participants are given laboratory tours and allowed the time to understand complex scientific research so that they can build their science writing skills. In the spring of 2000, the Astrobiology Program sponsored Faye Flam, science journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. An article written by Faye appears in the front page of the June 22, 2000 issue regarding the evidence of water on Mars. In the article, Drs. Ron Greeley and Laurie Leshin are cited. In addition, Faye is presently working on a series of articles on the origin and early evolution of terrestrial life based on extensive interviews with NAI astrobiologists.

Public Displays
Future plans for education and outreach include the installation of information displays at Columbia University's Biosphere 2 facility in Oracle, Arizona and at Robert Ballard's Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut. These displays will be interactive and assist the general public in understanding NASA's Astrobiology Roadmap and the research being conducted at ASU.

In conjunction with this we will also develop traveling exhibits that can be taken to local grade schools to assist teachers and to explain topics such as how the universe is being explored. This fall (2003) a field trip is being planned to Meteor Crater in Northern Arizona to review the geological and environmental effects of the impact. The goal is for this to be the first in a series of virtual field trips to exciting astrobiological sites in and around Arizona.

Our goal is to continue to captivate the public with the exciting research and discoveries from this comprehensive field of science!