NSF Grant Announcement: $3M to Support Science Festivals Nationwide

The grant award follows the highly successful first annual San Diego Science Festival, held March-April 2009. The San Diego Science Festival strives to highlight San Diego as a national and global leader in scientific innovation, focusing heavily on improving pre-workforce development through math and science education. UC San Diego will work with a group of collaborators dedicated to increasing the number of college graduates across all fields of science, technology and engineering to benefit both regional and national economic interests. In addition, the university will focus on presenting unique opportunities for local San Diego businesses to become involved in program and pipeline development for future scientists. “We’re thrilled that the National Science Foundation views the 2009 San Diego Science Festival as a national model,” said UC San Diego Vice Chancellor Penny Rue. “The San Diego community warmly embraced this inaugural initiative highlighting education in the sciences—in fact, the Festival drew 50,000 attendees to its signature Expo Day, making it the largest single-day celebration of science in the nation. We look forward to expanding our outreach efforts as the Festival grows, and encouraging San Diego’s youth to pursue careers in science, engineering and technology.” With the support of many local community members and national coalition partners, UC San Diego secured the three-year (2009-2012) NSF grant for the purpose of: Funding the 2010 San Diego Science Festival to reach out to San Diego’s youth and encourage them to pursue careers in science and technology; Creating year-round Science Festival Educational Enrichment activities for students of all ages across the San Diego region, culminating in an annual week-long celebration of science and technology; and, Establishing the National Science Festival Network to extend and support the growth of Science Festivals and year-round educational enrichment activities throughout the nation in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Museum, The Franklin Institute (Philadelphia) and UC San Francisco Read the full story here.