farmer

Farmer Public Outreach

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General Outreach Events

Earth Sciences Day at Arizona State University

Dr. 'Rock' participates annually in the ASU Department of Geology's Earth Sciences Day, a full day of activities devoted to teaching elementary school children about the different fields of geological sciences. The event is held every year in October in conjunction with nationwide Earth Awareness Week. Dr. Farmer hosts a rock identifying session for the students,and members of the public, encouraging them to bring in their collections and learn how to identify the names of the samples they had found.

For more information about this event, please visit ASU's School of Earth & Space Exploration or call (480) 965-5081.

House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
Hearing on Life in the Universe

On July 12, 2001, Dr. Farmer participated in the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Hearing on Life in the Universe in the U.S. House of Representatives. More information about its findings is available on the House's webpage the House Subcommittee's webpage. A webcast of the meeting on July 12 is also available.

Educational Outreach

Co-Organizer, Third International Conference on Early Mars: Geologic and Hydrologic Evolution, Physical and Chemical Environments, and the Implications for Life (May 21–25, 2012, Lake Tahoe): As part of the meeting, I also organized and ran a field trip to Mono Lake and other points of geological interest. For this trip, I produced a 35-page guidebook, with road log. The fieldtrip (which was held on Wednesday, May 23) had ~85 meeting participants.
NHK Japan Public Broadcasting Corp. "Space Exploration: The New Solar System"(110 min.); aired 2012. Show. introduced current missions exploring the solar system, including Mars, Jupiter/Titan, comets (Deep Impact, Stardust).
NHK Educational Inc., (a subsidiary of NHK Japan Public Broadcasting Corp). Web-cast appearances on the program called "The New Solar System” through NHK ON DEMAND, Spring 2012. (Segments originally aired in 2006)
NHK Japan Public Broadcasting Corp. Filmed segments for about MSL and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction event. Interview filmed in my lab at ASU and in the field at the K-T site in Trinidad State Park, Raton Basin, Colorado. (Aired Sept. 1, 2012).
Organized and led a Public Fieldtrip, representing SESE in the Arizona Science and Technology Festival. The trip was conducted in Papago Park, Tempe, AZ. And introduced participants to the local geology, using story boards to illustrate how rocks of Papago Park fit into the regional geological context and history of central Arizona.
Invited videocon lecture presented to Endeavor Fellows enrolled in NASA’s Astro-Venture with Astrobiology; Web-Ex lectures entitled: “NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover”; follow-up questions and answers by email. (Spring, 2012).
Invited lecture, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Earth and Space Sciences: “The search for past or present Martian life” (Nov. 28, 2012)
Invited lecture (ELS 501): “Patterns of Biodiversity and Extinction in the Fossil Record Phanerozoic Marine Invertebrates” (Nov. 21, 2012)
Invited lecture, Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists, Tempe (Dec. 6, 2012): “Roving Mars with Curiosity”
As the former head of the Astrobiology Department at ASU, Dr. Farmer was a participant in web chats held by the NASA Astrobiology Institute. To view his past chats and journals, as well as participate in an online chat with other NASA scientists, visit the Space Science On-line homepage
From September 1996 through December 1997, Dr. Farmer participated in weekly online chats designed to introduce students to the scientists on the front lines of Mars exploration. View the transcripts of all these chatsthe Live from Mars Archives Sept '96 - Dec '97
Dr. Farmer is a contributor to the Jason Project, the nation's leading provider of experienced-based curriculum and professional development for science educators. To see his most recent contribution on Earth & Mars was a part of Jason 8.
In collaboration with the Ames Research Center, Dr. Farmer contributed to the Virtual Mars Project, an interactive CD-ROM and webpage to simulate a spacecraft's approach to Mars.
In October of 1994, Dr. Farmer appeared on an episode of the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers, hosted by Alan Alda, entitled "Life's Big Questions." Still pictures are available on the Farmer Images Page.
Activity Guide
Video Transcript
Watch the show online
Dr. Farmer is a contributor to the New York Times Science Q &A, a segment in the newspaper dedicated to answering questions about science that children may have.
In 1998, Dr. Farmer appeared on an episode of the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers entitled Journey to Mars: Why go to Mars.

Interviews

Dr. Farmer has been the subject of many interviews about his work as a geological scientist and his contributions to mankind's journey to Mars. Below are links to some of those interviews conducted by publications across the nation:

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