OAKLAND, Calif. USA /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Chabot Space & Science Center’s innovative youth volunteer outreach program, Galaxy Explorers, has been chosen by the Association of Science & Technology Centers (“ASTC”) as one of ten science centers worldwide to participate in SCEnaRioS: Science Centers Engagement and the Rio Summit. The program is collaboration between ASTC, UNESCO and the Foundation FIOCRUZ, intended to engage young people around the world in a discussion around major topics central to the deliberations at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro this June.
Chabot’s Galaxy Explorers will work with youth teams from Canada and Denmark to create a web-based discussion and presentation concerning Clean Alternative Energies and the Green Economy. Youth teams from science centers in Brazil, Mozambique, Australia, Singapore, China, Florida and Colombia will address water and health topics. Their combined work will serve as the core of a virtual library of online activities and exhibitions to provide science center/museum experience to places in the world that do not yet have such centers.
“The Galaxy Explorers demonstrate the importance of studying STEM core curricula as a springboard to higher education, and public involvement, and the importance of science literacy to an understanding of critical issues facing the world today,” said Lisa Hoover, Youth Development Manager at Chabot Space & Science Center. “We look forward to showcasing their work on a global scale.”
Since 1997, hundreds of Galaxy Explorers from Chabot have gone on to study science, technology, engineering, and math at premier universities around the country. Many are currently employed in STEM careers and point to their experience as teen volunteers as a launching pad for their occupations helping people through scientific discovery.
The Galaxy Explorers’ work will also be presented at the 6th Science Center World Congress in Cape Town, South Africa in September and at the “Planet Under Pressure” conference, which brings leading scientists from around the globe to London in March 2012 to discuss the science behind the Rio+20 priorities. The final results from the teams will be featured during the Rio+20 conference in June, to illustrate the unique contributions science centers can make to the implementation of UN and UN agencies’ global policies.
