Abstract
Since 2017, the education and public engagement team at the Lunar and
Planetary Institute has conducted seminars for planetary scientists
(including early career scientists and planetary engineers) interested
in engaging public audiences. Sharing Planetary Science seminars address
some of the challenges in effectively interacting with audiences.
Seminars include current educational research and incorporate the
participants’ knowledge and experiences in engaging public audiences.
Sessions include invited speakers with expertise in science education,
science writing, journalism, communicating with policy makers, and
social media. The seminars are hour-long sessions, on over a dozen
topics including understanding audience needs, common planetary
misconceptions, engaging culturally diverse audiences, and more. While
those conducted in 2017 were limited to in-person participants, by 2019
scientists were welcome to join online. Resources, powerpoints, and
recordings are available online, along with information about upcoming
seminars, at www.lpi.usra.edu/education/scientist-engagement. The number
of participants has increased over the past 18 months. Post-session
surveys have been conducted after each seminar; participants find the
seminars useful and interesting. This poster will include further
details of these professional development sessions, which topics and
aspects of the seminars are most popular, and the findings of the
evaluation to date.