In collaboration with the SETI Institute, the Bay Area Earth Science Institute at San Jose State University will offer one regular semester unit for teachers who attend SETICon, Saturday and Sunday, August 14-15. To earn credit, participants must attend all day on both days and will need to complete a brief assignment. Attendance requires conference registration ($35 per person) with tuition ($44 for one unit) paid separately to SJSU. Note that there are optional Friday evening events for additional fees, but that credit is awarded for attending Saturday and Sunday. Dr. Ellen Metzger is the professor of record. Registration will be taken care of at the registration desk when you first arrive at the conference. (Please be sure you bring a check with you to pay the $44.)

When you pre-register for the convention, be sure to enter "BAESI: I am a teacher requesting credit." in the "How did you hear about SETICon" box at the bottom of the page.

SETICon is a public conference that focuses the search for life in the universe as seen through science and fiction. Presenters will include noted scientists, including Dr. Frank Drake, who performed the first modern SETI experiment; Dr. Jill Tarter, on whom the character Jodi Foster played in the film Contact is based; Dr. Michael Brown, the co-discoverer of Eris and many other dwarf planets beyond Pluto; Dr. Debra Fischer, the first woman to discover a planet around another star; and astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who is working on plans to save the Earth from asteroid impacts.  Also speaking will be science fiction authors, television and film stars, and many others who have a passion about the universe.  Other talks will focus on topics teachers will find especially intriguing, such as the top tourist wonders of the solar system, why the world won’t end in 2012, and how we are crafting messages that alien civilizations could decipher. 

This year brings the 50th anniversary of SETI research, the 25th anniversary of the SETI Institute, and much growing momentum in the scientific community about the likelihood of life beyond Earth.  NASA's orbiting Kepler mission is poised to discover earth-like planets circling other stars.  Dr. Simon "Pete" Worden, astronomer and Director of NASA Ames Research Center, was recently quoted in the press: "The fundamental question is: Are we alone? For the first time, there's an optimism that sometime in our lifetimes we're going to get to the bottom of that.  If I were a betting man, which I am, I would bet we're not alone and there is a lot of life."

Join your fellow educators, interested families, and the public at an educational event that will benefit you and your students for years to come.