Check out the video below and continue to vote for us!!!

You are invited to come to the Bray Hollow Nature Conservancy to join A Time for Science and Carolina Skies Astronomy Club for the Fall Equinox 2010 Star Party on Wednesday September, 22 – starting after sundown (Weather and cloud cover permitting.)

Come early (around 5:30 – 6:00) Watch the setting sun through telescopes with solar filters.  You may see sun spots.  Bring the kids early to make a sundial.  Use the setting sun to determine compass points & align the sundial.

Some of the highlights will include:

• See the Summer Triangle and the Summer Constellations
• See Venus,  Mars and Saturn
• Telescopes will be available for viewing
• A tour of the Summer Sky will be presented
• This is your chance to see and touch a Space Shuttle tire
• A flyer for this event is available here:  Fall Equinox 2010 Flyer

While at the A Time for Science Learning Center participants will have an opportunity to see, touch, explore and examine the nose-wheel tire (see above) that went into space and back on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Mission STS-113.  This historic item is on loan from NASA and the Eastern NC Regional Science Center, Inc. (DBA GO-Science).  Bring the kids!  Bring the camera!

Registration for this event is: CLOSED

GO-Science will be hosting the following event:

“Spacetalking with Astronauts”

Friday, September 17, 2010

Free Refreshments at 9 AM / Talk Begins at 10 AM Followed by Q&A

Harvey Hall, Murphy Center
East Carolina University
300 Ficklin Dr.
Greenville, NC

From GO-Science:

Presented by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Astrobiology@ECU, the Department of Biology, and GO-Science. At this exclusive event you will have an opportunity to hear from two astronauts that flew on the Shuttle and visited the MIR and International Space Station. This is a exciting opportunity to learn first-hand what it is like to be in space. Event parking on-site.

For complete details and tickets, visit the GO-Science website here for further information.

A Letter from the Director:

Hello Family, Friends, and Colleagues,

Nancy and I, and Melani Duffrin, need your assistance throughout the month of September.  Please help us.

Our non-profit nature and science learning center, A Time for Science has been working with ECU’s FoodMASTER program in the College of Human Ecology and ECU’s Center for Science, Math and Technology Education on a variety of approaches to use food and agricultural sciences to build a science learning environment and resources for children and teachers in eastern North Carolina.  Among various grant applications we have submitted is one to the Pepsi Refresh Project entitled “Build collaborative science learning environments for Eastern NC.”  Obtaining this grant would provide A Time for Science with $150,000 with which to improve and enhance the infrastructure and facilities at the Center and throughout the conservation lands to better handle these programs and activities.

Now to win a Pepsi Refresh Project grant requires that we receive more votes than our competitors and voting is open daily throughout the month of September.  Here’s where you and everyone in you network of friends and colleagues can help.  Go to this website http://www.refresheverything.com/foodmaster and complete the necessary sign in and vote for our proposal.  Then return every day and vote again – everyday through September.  You can cast 30 votes and we will need each and every one but you must do so only once each day.  By the way, if you have multiple e-mail addresses you can cast a vote from each one.

With your help A Time for Science will be able to make a real contribution to the improvement of science education for students and teachers in this underserved area.  So get out and vote and get all your friends to vote (and their friends, etc – you know the drill).

Finally, one last point: We hope you won’t mind but our grants people will probably be sending out frequent, friendly reminders to help you remember to get out the vote.

Thanks for your assistance in making this happen.

Sincerely,

John and Nancy Bray

(Note: This post updated to remove all interactive voting.  Webmaster – 12/28/2011)

ECU Biology Department Hosts Symposium
in Honor of Retiring Distinguished Professors

Mark Brinson

GREENVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 9, 2010) — On Aug. 28, East Carolina University’s Department of Biology will host a symposium in honor of two Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professors, Drs. Mark Brinson and Robert Christian. Brinson and Christian are retiring this fall.

The free, public symposium, “Wetlands at Risk: New Scientific Insights into Critical Ecosystems,” will feature five guest lecturers from 1 – 4:30 p.m. in the Science and Technology Building, Room C207, and is co-sponsored by the Institute for Coastal Science and Policy.

“With their international prominence in wetlands research, these talented scientists played critical roles in establishing ECU as a leading institution for coastal research. We are delighted to have this opportunity to honor them,” said Jeff McKinnon, biology chairperson. “This symposium will both highlight the important contributions of Brinson and Christian and give the general public a chance to learn about an area of great interest, with recent threats to Gulf wetlands from the BP spill and the longer-term threat of climate change.”

Robert Christian

McKinnon will provide introductory remarks at 1 p.m., followed by 30-minute presentations from each of the speakers and a final question and answer session. Leading off the symposium, professor Pierluigi Viaroli from the University of Parma in Parma, Italy, will present “A Long Journey in Coastal Lagoons and Wetlands Along the Po River and the Adriatic Coast: From Ecology to Friendship, and Back to Ecology.” Following Viaroli, Dr. Linda K. Blum, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, will present “Salt Marshes and Sea-Level Change: Where Millimeters Matter.”

After a short break, Dr. Aaron L. Mills, also from the University of Virginia, will present “Coastal Riparian Forests and Wetlands: The Final Filter.” Mr. Ronald E. Ferrell, senior scientist at PBS&J Corporation in Raleigh, will follow Mills and discuss “Wetlands and the Clean Water Act: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Rounding off the presentations, Dr. Robert R. Twilley, a professor of coastal sciences at Louisiana State University, will discuss “Oil, Hurricanes, Floods and Wetland Loss: Calibrating the Risks of the Mississippi River Delta.”

For additional information, please contact McKinnon at 252-328-5258 or mckinnonj@ecu.edu. Individuals requesting accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should call 252-737-1016 (voice/TTY) at least 48 hours prior to the event.