The educational outreach team from Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography offers an experiment in making 'slime' with alginate (a product made from kelp).

San Diego's largest celebration of science returns to offer thousands of students and their families the opportunity to "excite their minds." Today (Nov. 10), the San Diego Science Festival announced that, in addition to year-round K–12 programs, the 2010 event will bring a week of science activities and exploration to San Diego County with hundreds of free events beginning March 20, 2010 and culminating in Expo Day at PETCO Park on March 27, 2010.

The San Diego Science Festival will feature citywide events at venues that will include Balboa Park, public libraries, San Diego State University, private companies, UC San Diego, K–12 schools, PETCO Park and other locations throughout the region. The closing event, Expo Day, will be an interactive exploration of science offering attendees more than 150 hands-on exhibits and experiments by science and technology firms, research labs, universities and local schools.

The first San Diego Science Festival, held last spring, featured activities that impacted more than 250,000 individuals, including 50,000 who attended the inaugural one-day Expo at Balboa Park. In 2010, thanks in part to lead sponsor Life Technologies, the San Diego Science Festival will continue to raise awareness on the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The events will inspire San Diego’s youth to become excited about science and to pursue careers in these rewarding fields.

The San Diego Science Festival is organized by the University of California, San Diego with the support of community collaborators to educate students across the region. Recently, UC San Diego was awarded a $3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to fund the year-round San Diego Science Festival efforts. In addition, the NSF grant will be utilized over a three-year period for three other festival sites: San Francisco through UC San Francisco; Cambridge, Massachusetts, through the MIT Museum; and Philadelphia through the Franklin Institute.

"The San Diego Science Festival is the model by which other science events globally will be judged, and we are tremendously proud to facilitate this great festival with the support from community collaborators," said UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. "Attendees of the San Diego Science Festival Expo Day at PETCO Park will once again be wowed and thrilled to see how science impacts their everyday lives."

"As home to one of the country’s leading science-research centers, the San Diego Science Festival celebrates our region's strengths in biotechnology, clean technology and telecommunications," noted San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. "Promoting science and engineering in education ensures a solid future for San Diego's technology sectors and the well-paying jobs they provide for our citizens."

"The Padres and the Padres Foundation are committed to being positive role models in the San Diego community. Our support of the region’s students and our belief in the importance of higher education is evident through Padres Scholars and Teacher Appreciation Night programs," added Tom Garfinkel, San Diego Padres president and chief operating officer. "The Padres and PETCO Park strongly believe in giving back to the community and our support of the San Diego Science Festival and UC San Diego is a testament to this endeavor."

Initially inspired by international science festivals that draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands, the goal of the San Diego Science Festival is to increase community awareness of science and inspire our nation's youth to consider entering science-related careers. A fitting location, San Diego is at the forefront of scientific research and development and is home to many leading biotechnology and technology corporations. 

The San Diego Science Festival is partnering with more than 120 collaborators — leading businesses and organizations in the community that wish to offer their guidance, financial support and time to help teach the scientific leaders of tomorrow. Collaborators include BioBridge, a science outreach program at UC San Diego; Cleantech San Diego; General Atomics; and UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, to name a few. For a full list of collaborators, visit www.sdsciencefestival.com/collaborators.

The 2010 San Diego Science Festival is made possible by generous corporate sponsors and individual donors, including Life Technologies, the National Science Foundation, COX, Agilent Technologies, KPBS, Celegene, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., You Can Do the Rubik’s Cube, San Diego News Network, UC San Diego Extension, NuVasive and Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, among others.

Learn more by visiting the San Diego Science Festival online or follow on Twitter.