New Science, New Media, New Engagement: Scientist-Driven Public Engagement Programming With the Dark Energy Survey

• In Event: 18.045 - Science Capital => STEM Capitxl: Practicing Theory in a Science Museum Youth Informal Learning Program

Abstract

As large-scale international collaborations become the standard for astronomy research, a wealth of opportunities have emerged to create innovative education and public outreach (EPO) programming. Development and implementation of these EPO programs has varied widely across collaborations; while some create infrastructure for dedicated EPO staff, others rely on partnerships between collaboration scientists, government agencies, and/or institutions of formal and informal learning. We present a case study of the online EPO strategy and products of The Dark Energy Survey, currently one of the largest international astronomy collaborations actively taking data. The DES EPO program is unique at this scale in astronomy, as far as we are aware, as it evolved organically from scientists' passion for EPO and is entirely organized and implemented by the volunteer efforts of collaboration scientists. We briefly summarize the strategy and implementation of five informal astronomy education programs and present evidence-based recommendations for future projects. Specifically, we discuss the strengths and challenges of maintaining and growing an EPO program which relies on scientist participation. We find the greatest difficulty of the online DES EPO program was sustaining scientist participation and collaboration support; the most successful programs in this regard are those which capitalized on the hobbies of the participating scientists. For content distributed via social media, we also present reach and user statistics over the 2016 calendar year. We find that 94% of DES-EPO product users indicate a predisposition to science-related interests. We find no obvious correlation between post type and post reach, with the most popular posts featuring the intersections of science and art and/or science and popular culture. For each program discussed and DES EPO overall, we present lessons-learned and recommendations, along with observations from individual experience, as a potentially instructive resource for other scientists or EPO professionals interested in organizing EPO programs and partnerships for large science collaborations or organizations.

Author

• Rachel Wolf, Stanford University