EPO - California Academy of Sciences
Sandy Dueck, Lead Co-Investigator
The Ames Team has created an institutional partnership with the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), San Francisco, that serves as a portal for large segments of the public to explore the science and excitement of astrobiology.
The Ames Team's relationship with CAS represents a rich and productive collaboration that developed over the past five years and demonstrates that astrobiology-themed content creates a compelling draw and an effective teaching tool for a broad range of audiences.
The oldest scientific institution in the West, CAS has reinvented itself in a new building at Golden Gate Park, which is the largest green building in the world that is also open to the public. The new Academy is a single structure but contains multiple venues, including the aquarium, the planetarium, the natural history museum and the 4-story rainforest. In addition, there's a new 3D theater, a lecture hall, a Naturalist Center, two restaurants, an adjacent garden and aviary, a roof terrace, and an Academy store. The new building also houses the Academy science labs and administrative offices, including an extensive library and scientific archive consisting of more than 20 million specimens. This presents an excellent opportunity for our team to leverage NASA astrobiology and mission content and share its science and research with the public.
CAS expects to welcome more than 1.6 million visitors to the new building in its first year of operation, offering a venue for diverse audiences of all ages to explore and connect with the world of astrobiology and the scientists who study it. By creating this strong partnership with CAS, the Ames Team's astrobiology research and science content will be disseminated in a variety of venues to a wide and unique audience.
The Academy's Education Division reaches more than 400,000 K-14 students, many of whom come from urban disadvantaged backgrounds, through tours, outreach, teacher workshops, lecture series and special classes. The Ames Team will participate in CAS's Dean and Pritzker lecture series, as well as new endeavors in science cafes and informal presentations. CAS will also disseminate NASA Ames teacher materials through the CAS Naturalist's Center. Each of these venues provides an opportunity for our team and CAS to evaluate content, which will allow for assessment and refinement of the full range of programs.
The new facility offers expanded space for floor exhibits, a uniquely flexible full dome planetarium, and a variety of new media and venues in which to develop astrobiology content for visitors. Currently, the team is focused on the Morrison Planetarium. Several layers of content development are in the works. Initially we will contribute substantially to "Science in Action," a frequently updated exhibit that conveys newly emerging scientific results and stories in a newsy format. This exhibit will provide opportunities for visitors to dig deeper for related content and also presents a novel way for the team to publicize the specifics of their research on early habitable environments.
Planetarium programming will offer an opportunity to help visitors visualize ongoing NASA missions in relation to their place in the universe. The Ames Team will collect raw data that are specific to the active research activities of team members and can be used in scientific visualizations. For example, information about the exploration for rocky planets by NASA's Kepler mission could be incorporated into a planetarium star tour, which highlights the star systems being targeted. This also could be combined with interactions between the public and mission investigators who would present lectures or participate in shows.
The Ames Team will contribute to the development and display of modular content that can be utilized across multiple platforms within the museum or by other planetariums and museums. For example, a five-minute segment combining descriptions of the Mars Science Laboratory and our team's role in the mission, developed and screened to coincide with its landing on Mars.
For additional information about the California Academy of Sciences, visit www.calacademy.org.
AMES TEAM EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH
---Sandy Dueck, Lead Co-Investigator
Educational Resources
National Park Service: Lassen Volcanic National Park and Yellowstone National Park
California Academy of Sciences
Choctaw Nation's Jones Academy
NASA Digital Learning Network
University of California, Santa Cruz, Astrobiology Course
and Accessibility Certification