SESDA Supports JWST at SXSW

South by Southwest (SXSW) is one of the largest cultural festivals in the country, with activities related to music, film, and interactive technology that runs for two weeks in Austin, TX. And this year, NASA was there! During the Interactive Festival weekend on March 8-10, NASA and its partners (including several SESDA 3 Outreach Specialists) hosted an array of activities and exhibits. The star was undoubtedly the full-scale model of JWST, which was set up near the NASA Experience tent. The model, like the actual spacecraft, is four stories high and as big as a tennis court.
The NASA experience tent was full of demonstrations, activities, student projects, and a 30-foot visualization screen. A program of speakers ran all three days focused on the James Webb Space Telescope. The SXSW event was capped by a successful attempt to break a Guinness World Record for largest astronomy lesson, teaching 526 people a hands-on lesson about astronomy for a half hour.
NASA received a very positive reaction both online and in traditional media. Wired said NASA brought its ‘A’ game, while another reviewer complimented the event for being about pure science rather than corporatism. We were very proud to help educate the public about this most important of NASA’s upcoming missions.

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