Guest blog post by Jake Noel-Storr, InsightSTEM & Sanlyn Buxner, PSI

Jake Noel-Storr of InsightSTEM and attendee during workshop. Photo by Michael Owen Baker, © 2016 American Astronomical Society.

We ran the inaugural “Subject Matter Expert — Broadening the Impacts of your Research” workshop at the 228th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, CA on June 12th, 2016.

A group of participants from graduate students to senior scientists discussed their ideas on how and why people learn outside of the University setting, and left the workshop with plans to move forward with their own education and outreach efforts. The workshop led to engaging discussions amongst the participants (and the event photographer!) on thinking about learning in settings as diverse as Facebook news feeds, K12 classrooms, and even science ‘date nights’ on college campuses!

A participant quoted: “This workshop has given me the tools to take my idea from the hypothetical to concrete. I now have a path forward to see my idea come to fruition”

Sanlyn Buxner of PSI and participants at workshop. Photo by Michael Owen Baker, © 2016 American Astronomical Society.

This was the first in our nationwide workshop series, in person at conference and online, to connect a greater number of scientists and engineers (Subject Matter Experts) to education and outreach projects.

This workshop is organized as a part of the CosmoQuest collaboration and is funded through NASA CAN #NNX16AC68A. This inaugural workshop was facilitated by Jake Noel-Storr, PhD (President of InsightSTEM), and Sanlyn Buxner, PhD (Research Scientists and Education Specialist at the Planetary Science Institute).

Photo by Michael Owen Baker, © 2016 American Astronomical Society.

This workshop will be offered online through CosmoAcademy and will also be hosted in person at the upcoming meetings of the AAS Division of Planetary Sciences (Pasadena, CA; October 2016), the American Geophysical Union (San Francisco, CA; November 2016), and the American Astronomical Society (Grapevine, TX; January 2016). For more information on CosmoQuest training for SMEs interested in Education please contact jake@insightstem.com