Terzian urges public support of science at NASA Day for NYC schools

By David Brand

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Cornell astronomy professor Yervant Terzian told a rapt audience of nearly 800 students from 90 schools across New York City Saturday, "In the future, we expect a miracle from young people like yourselves."

Terzian, who is chair of Cornell's astronomy department, was speaking at the city's first "NASA in New York Day," a celebration of science and space that had become the hottest ticket among high school science and math students in recent weeks. So keen was the competition to attend the April 25 event that schools awarded tickets only to the top 10 winners of an essay contest giving reasons for attending the lectures and displays at City College of New York (CCNY).

The highly successful program, which produced the rare sight of hundreds of silent and attentive 10th- and 11th-graders, was organized on a budget of only $25,000 by the New York Space Grant Consortium, of which Terzian is director. The program was also sponsored by NASA, Cornell, CCNY and the New York City Board of Education.

The purpose of such an event, said Terzian, is to educate the public, and particularly young people, about the role of science in their lives and even to excite young people enough to become scientists. In this vein, his talk to the students, "Stars and Galaxies Through the Hubble Space Telescope," began with an exhortation to "understand and celebrate science." He told the high schoolers that "even educated people fall through the cracks on science education, and that makes me very sad."

Despite the work of NASA and the Hubble telescope's vista on the universe, "there is a lack of connectedness" between science and public understanding, he said. One cause of this, he noted, is that many people are simply "not friendly with the sciences; most don't, for example, understand what Darwin was trying to say." As a humorous example, he related the story of the philosopher who was asked, what is more important, the moon or the sun? Continued Terzian: "The moon, of course, said the philosopher. It's light everywhere, who needs the sun?"

The role of the high school students, he said, was to use science to "build new tools" and to advance human survival "in a happy and confident way."

The speakers who followed Terzian were Gerald Soffen, director of university programs for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; astronauts Mario Runco and Ellen Baker; and Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Following the morning's talks, the students spent the afternoon exploring NASA-related exhibits, including a one-third model of the Gemini spacecraft that took the first Americans into space, and a large-scale model of today's space shuttle.

Terzian noted that the New York Space Grant would like to make this an annual affair in the state. Future events, he said, could be in a number of large cities. But liaisons with local universities would be necessary to coordinate and organize the events.