Science and Engineering Festival, Astronomy Night Come to Washington this Weekend

This weekend, one of the largest Science Festivals ever to grace the Nation’s capital will pack into the Washington Convention Center, engaging hundreds of thousands of visitors with hands-on activities, demonstrations, and an evening star party.

The USA Science and Engineering Festival, which in its last year welcomed over 500,000 visitors, builds on the President’s call to action to excite and educate students in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.  Kicked off in 2010 with a few words from the President himself, the festival this year has grown considerably, with more exhibits, sponsors, and special guests than ever before.

Here’s what you can expect from this year’s USA S&E Festival:

• 3000 hands on interactive exhibits (versus 800 last year), with 1500 booths with 1000 volunteers
• 550 Organizations participating 
• 150 Stage Shows
• 50 satellite events across the country (find one in your area!), including Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley, North Carolina, St. Petersburg, Cambridge, Las Vegas, and Santa Monica Mountains
• 40 leading science and engineering authors
• 3 talks by Nobel laureates
• 130 Corporate Sponsors

The event is free and open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, April 28 and 29. For more information, please visit www.usasciencefestival.org.

In addition, on Saturday night, the 3^rd annual Astronomy Night on the National Mall will take place just south of the White House.  This public Star Party is an outgrowth of President Obama’s White House stargazing event in 2009 and is organized by Hofstra University with help from a number of regional astronomy clubs.

Representatives from some of the Nation’s foremost astronomical institutions will be on hand to present exciting demonstrations and activities and to answer questions about careers in science, celestial objects and events, and the latest astronomical discoveries.  Groups participating in the event include the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Astronomy Magazine, Astronomy Outreach Foundation, International Dark-Sky Association, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics/Chandra X-ray Center, Hubble Space Telescope (Space Telescope Science Institute), NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, National Science Foundation, Division of Astronomical Sciences,  and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

So if you’re near the Nation’s capital, we hope to see you out at a science, engineering, and star-filled weekend!

Kumar Garg is a Senior Advisor and Phil Larson is a Communications and Policy Analyst at OSTP