2013 Bay Area Science Festival Brings Thousands to Ballpark

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Bay Area Science Festival capped its third annual run with a huge turnout for Discovery Day at AT&T Park.

About 30,000 people flooded the ballpark on November 2 to check out more than 150 interactive science exhibits, including a virtual reality experience, a tour of human organs in the Giants dugout and an opportunity to build your own Legoscope, a working microscope made from toy building block pieces.

David Chiu, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, welcomed the crowd at 11 a.m., with an official ribbon-cutting by a member of the Robot Zoo. The robots, on display in Willie Mays Plaza, were later pitted against each other for a Frisbee-throwing challenge.

Produced by the Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP) at UCSF, the 10-day festival involved a number of science institutions, including UC Berkeley, Stanford University, the California Academy of Sciences, the Chabot Space and Science Center and the Tech Museum.

 While the festival culminated with the AT&T Park event, families got a chance to play and explore science throughout the Bay Area, with Discovery Day-North Bay at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and Discovery Day-East Bay hosted by Cal State East Bay.

In total, nearly 70,000 people participated in this year’s Bay Area Science Festival events, according to festival director Kishore Hari.

The 2013 festival may now be over, but the fun doesn’t end there: Check out http://www.bayareascience.org/calendar/  for related events throughout the year.