Provided

The Hyde Park mammoth skeleton is among the attractions at the Museum of the Earth, celebrating its 10th anniversary Sept. 28.

Celebrating 10 (million) years

The Museum of the Earth holds its 10th Anniversary Celebration Saturday, Sept. 28, with free admission and extended hours, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

With permanent displays on glaciers and coral reefs, specimens like the North American right whale and Hyde Park mastodon, and exhibitions including “Raising the Dead: The Art and Science of John Gurche” (closing Sept. 30), visitors can collect up to 10 stamps in a “Journey Through Time” passport. Other attractions include “Rock of Ages, Sands of Time” by local artist Barbara Page, and hands-on learning activities in the Discovery Labs.

Have birthday cake and sing “Happy Birthday” to Cecil, the museum’s mascot, at 1:30 p.m.; and learn all about about the museum and the Paleontological Research Institution. A concert by Sally Lamb McCune at 5:30 p.m. will feature an original musical composition written for the occasion.

The museum and PRI are at 1259 Trumansburg Road (Route 96), Ithaca. Information: 607-273-6623 or www.museumoftheearth.org.

Sensation in music

Cynthia Johnston Turner conducts CU Winds in its first concert of the season, Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Free and open to the public.

During the concert, Johnston Turner and Tyler Ehrlich ’14 will present a brief demonstration of CU Winds’ Google Glass project, outline their ongoing research and seek audience input via Poll Everywhere, an application allowing the presenters to engage the audience in real time.

The concert’s theme is sensation and movement, with a variety of works for the full 70-piece band and chamber wind ensembles. The program includes Michael Gandolfi’s “Vientos y Tangos,” commissioned for the 70th birthday of former (1953-1967) Ithaca High School music teacher and band director Frank Battisti, now conductor emeritus of the New England Conservatory of Music Wind Ensemble; as well as “Aue!” by Christopher Marshall, “Tempus Fugit” by Cindy McTee, Eric Whitacre’s “October” and H. Owen Reed’s “La Fiesta Mexicana.”

Information: www.cuwinds.com

‘Body Against Body’

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane dance company performs “Body Against Body,” Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $27 for students and senior citizens, $32 for the general public.

The innovative postmodern dance company will stage intimate duet pieces from throughout its 30-year history, as reimagined by Jones, a two-time Tony Award winner for his choreography of “Spring Awakening” and “Fela!” on Broadway.

The show opens the 2013-14 season at the Schwartz Center. Upcoming events include the first 10-Minute Play Fest, Oct. 4-5 at 7:30 p.m., with student playwrights, directors and actors.

Subscriptions and a four-show flex pass ($32 students/seniors, $42 general) are available for other shows this season. Visit the box office at 430 College Ave., open noon-4 p.m. weekdays; call 607-254-2787 or order at schwartztickets.com.

Address to staff

President David Skorton will deliver his annual address to Cornell staff Tuesday, Oct. 1, from noon to 1 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Skorton’s remarks will be followed by a question-and-answer period, and lunch will be provided at the end of the program.

The event is coordinated by the Employee Assembly, which will also conduct a poll of staff in attendance.Questions for the president can be submitted in advance by writing to ea@assembly.cornell.edu.

Sci-fi and missionaries

Faculty member Anindita Banerjee will discuss her study of science fiction and technological imagination in Russia, “We Modern People: Science Fiction and the Making of Russian Modernity,” in a Chats in the Stacks book talk, Oct. 1 at 4:30 p.m. in 106G Olin Library.

The book won Banerjee the 2012 Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies Book Prize. She is an associate professor of comparative literature and a member of the Institute for European Studies, the South Asia Program and the Visual Studies Program, and a fellow of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. Information: news.library.cornell.edu/booktalks.

Also, Anna Schatz will discuss the missionary school that Cornell hosted from 1933 to 1960, and her book “Fixing Family Problems Around the World: Home Economics at the Cornell School for Missionaries,” Oct. 2 at 4:30 p.m. in 160 Mann Library. Schatz is the 2012 Dean’s Fellowship recipient in the History of Home Economics in the College of Human Ecology. Information: mannlib.cornell.edu/events-exhibits or 607-255-5406.

Light refreshments and book signings will follow the talks.

Critical conversation

Editor and literary critic John Freeman will be featured in conversation with faculty authors Ishion Hutchinson and Ernesto Quiñonez, Oct. 2 at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Free.

Freeman served as president of the National Book Critics Circle from 2006 to 2008 and was editor of Granta from 2009 to 2013. His criticism has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. The author of “The Tyranny of E-Mail” (2009), Freeman has a second book, “How to Read a Novelist,” being published in October.

Presented by the Barbara and David Zalaznick Reading Series, the Creative Writing Program and Department of English. Information: english.arts.cornell.edu/creative/readings/

Gardening conference

A conference, “Organic and Sustainable Gardening in a Warmer World,” will provide in-depth information on adaptive and innovative gardening methods to help meet challenges brought on by climate change, Oct. 4-5 in Cornell Plantations’ Nevin Welcome Center and Kennedy Hall.

Hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Garden-based Learning project (www.gardening.cornell.edu/), the conference features horticulturists, climatologists, ornithologists and plant pathologists, sharing scientific insight and practical pointers.

Registration is $75. Information: blogs.cornell.edu/gardenconference/