Posted on 7 December 2020 by BaerbelW

Due to the Corona pandemic, this year's Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) is being held online. Instead of happening over the course of one week as is the case when it's held in person, its been stretched out from Dec. 1 to 17, making participation across the globe and timezones easier. While I wouldn't have travelled to San Francisco to participate in the meeting, it being offered virtually made it feasible for John Cook and me to submit an abstract to one of the sessions.

SY043 - Communication of Science - Practice, Research and Reflection is being convened by Heidi Roop, Priyanka Kushwaha, Kristin Timm and Erin Leckey and will happen on Friday, Dec. 11, 2020 from 4 pm to 5pm PST. It seemed a good fit to submit "The Story of Skeptical Science" to, something we had also done earlier in 2020 for a comparable session at the European Geosciences Union (virtual) meeting. The EGU-presentation consisted of a "display" - basically a PDF created from a PPTX-presentation accompanied by a live chat-session. At AGU it'll be an "eLightning" session, which is a combination of a 3 minute talk and an interactive "iPoster". So, while the content is basically the same, the format of the presentation is completely different. But check it out yourself here (please note that AGU Fall Meeting login is currently required), or by clicking on the poster's screenshot for a "mock up" PPSX-version:

The nice thing about the iPoster format is, that you can include as much text as you like, links to online resources, images, animations, videos and audio. So, there's a lot to click on, read through, watch and listen to. Give it a try!

Here is the abstract for the session:

Do you consider yourself a science communicator or science communication researcher? Does your research group or institution participate in public engagement activities? Have you ever evaluated, studied, or published your education, outreach or engagement efforts? Scientists and communication practitioners engage non-peer audiences through numerous pathways including websites, blogs, public lectures, media interviews, and educational and research collaborations. A considerable amount of time and money is invested in these activities and they play an important role in how different publics come to understand scientific topics, issues, and the research process. However, few opportunities and incentives exist to optimize science communication practices and to evaluate the effectiveness of different engagement approaches. This session, run at both AGU and EGU, encourages critical reflection on science communication best practices and provides an opportunity for the community of science communicators and researchers to share best practices and experiences with evaluation and research in this field.

I'm looking forward to the session and just hope that I'll be awake enough at (around) 1:43 am my Saturday "morning" to tell our story of Skeptical Science coherently!

There are three other sessions for the topic "Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection" which should lead to a wide-ranging and rich conversation: An oral session on Thursday, 10 December 2020 from 19:00-20:00 (which includes Katharine Hayhoe). A poster session on Thursday, 10 December from 04:00-20:59 and a second eLightning session on Friday, 11 December from 04:00-05:00 (all times PST).