Over 50 faculty members of Cal State East Bay and more than a hundred students are expected to volunteer for the Bay Area Science Festival on Oct 26.

All nine departments from the CSUEB College of Science; including biology, chemistry and biochemistry, nursing, health science, psychology, math and computer, physics, earth and environmental and engineering will be participating in the science festival, said Administrative Support Coordinator for the College of Science Charlene Lebastchi.

“This is one event I can count on everyone to participate,” said Lebastchi.

The Bay Area Science Festival is a 10-day event that includes three Discovery Days; two will be held simultaneously at CSUEB and the Sonoma County Fair Grounds.  The third Discovery Day will be held on Nov. 2nd at AT&T Park.

Lebastchi said she expects to see a lot of families with young children grades K-12 and expects between five to six thousand attendees.

According to Lebastchi, CSUEB has held science festivals since 1974.  Four years ago, the Science and Health Education Partnership at UCSF, approached CSUEB College of Science to collaborate and host a Bay Area wide science festival.

According to the Bay Area Science website, SEP is a consortium of influential academia, leading scientific, corporate and non-profit institutions that aim to showcase the Bay Area as an international leader in science and innovation.

Under the direction of Bruce Alberts, biochemist professor emeritus for UCSF — CSUEB collaboratively kicked off the first Bay Area science event in 2011 along with other program partners.

This year’s event on the CSUEB campus will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the science building’s Valley Business and Technology Center.

Lebastchi said there is a lot of excitement and involvement from the science department and that there is no shortage of volunteers.

“They are doing it out of their own time and no one is getting paid” said Lebastchi,  “There is a lot of work for all of us but I tell you, it’s really rewarding.”