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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382     
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.      
   
News Release: 2003-042                                     
March 27, 2003
      
JPL Participates in Two Community Events This Weekend

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will bring the
stars down to Earth in two free community events this weekend. 

On Sunday, March 30, JPL will join several companies and museums at
the "Celebra la Ciencia" science fair at San Fernando Recreation
Park, 208 Park Ave., in San Fernando.  The mission of Celebra la
Ciencia, which means celebrate science, is to increase awareness
among Hispanic youth and parents of science opportunities and
activities. 

The event is in conjunction with the 10th annual Cesar Chavez
commemoration. Hours are from 1:30 to 5 p.m.

Students from San Fernando and urban schools in South Central and
East Los Angeles will have opportunities to design and build their
own working robots, launch rockets and participate in a variety of
other hands-on activities and exhibits from museums and institutions
from across Los Angeles.

The event will include information on NASA's missions to search for
planets, particularly Earth-like planets, around other stars.  The
ultimate goal of the missions is to answer the age-old question:  Are
we alone?  The missions include the Terrestrial Planet Finder, Space
Interferometry Mission and Keck Interferometer.

The Celebra la Ciencia program comes at a time of regional and
national concern about low science test scores among Hispanic
students.  Results from the 2002 California Standards Test showed
that only 5 percent of Hispanic high school students were rated as
proficient in science.  Thirty-three percent fell into the below or
far-below basic performance categories, the lowest in the five-tier
scoring system.

Further information on the Celebra la Ciencia, science fair is
available at www.celebralaciencia.org
http://www.celebralaciencia.org/ .  Information on JPL's
planet-finding missions is available at
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

On Saturday, March 29 and 30, JPL will participate in the Pasadena
Cherry Blossom Festival at Victory Park, 2575 Paloma St., in
Pasadena.

The festival celebrates Japanese and Japanese-American cultural arts
and history.  Its goal is to raise scholarship funds for students in
the Pasadena school system and surrounding communities for
cross-cultural education trips to Japan.  Festival hours are 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

A JPL display and activity will feature NASA's Stardust mission,
which will fly by a comet in January 2004, collect samples of comet
dust and return them to Earth.  Participants will be able to see
aerogel, the world's lightest solid, which is being used on Stardust
to capture the comet dust.

The festival will feature arts and crafts, cultural demonstrations,
martial arts demonstrations, entertainment, a fashion show, food and
exhibits. On Sunday, there will be a parade from 1 to 2:15 p.m.

Cherry Blossom Festival information is at
http://www.pasadenacherryblossom.org/ .  Information on JPL's
Stardust mission is available at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

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