Hello all,

 

It's once again time for one of our largest outreach events of the year... National Engineers Week at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh!  Last year was the first time we participated in this event, and it was a tremendous success.  Throughout the weekend visitors and CSC staff kept complimenting our exhibit as one of the best on hand... and this year's exhibit is shaping up to be even better.  This year's event will take place Friday, February 18 and Saturday, February 19.

 

For those of you not familiar with this event, every year the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh hosts it in conjunction with the National Engineers Week.  More than 60 engineering organizations from the local community put together hands on exhibits that teach visitors about engineering concepts.  More than 5000 children and their family members attend annually.  This is an excellent opportunity to excite many future engineers about Mars exploration.

 

This is also an excellent event for any novice outreach volunteers.  The folks from the Penn State chapter will be helping out at this event, so there will be more experienced "outreachers" to help show you the ropes.  This years exhibit will feature:

Posters and images about the Mars Society, as well as the Mars Exploration Rovers

The ever popular Mars Yard, where children can drive their own Lego rovers around the surface of Mars

and a new addition for this year...

The PSU chapter will be bringing down its VR glove controlled rover!  This will not be a hands on activity for the kids, but will at least be a fun demo for them.

 

Exhibit times:

Friday, February 18, 9:00am - 5:00pm

Saturday, February 19, 10:00am - 5:00pm

 

Setup will start Friday at 8:00am, and Saturday at 9:30am.

 

Between myself and the PSU folks, we should have setup under control... however this would be a great time for other volunteers to get a quick run-through on the ins and outs of the exhibit.

 

Volunteers will not need to work over this entire two day span; you can work any/all times that are convenient for you.

 

Please let me know as soon as you can if you will be able to volunteer at all during the weekend.  I'd like to know your available times soon, as well, however I can wait on specific times if you do not know them now.

 

Specific details will be sent out to the volunteers after I hear back from them.

 

Any other questions?  Let me know!

 

Kevin Sloan

PA Chapter, The Mars Society