LESSONS LEARNED FROM THREE YEARS OF SCIENCE IN THE VIRTUAL PUB

In January of 2020, Buffalo Science in the Pub debuted with a respectable crowd at Resurgence Brewing Company. The monthly program was conceived and coordinated by Ken Zidell as a class project for the University of Buffalo’s Seminar in Informal Science Education, taught by Haas in Fall 2019. February 2020 featured another successful session. Then March of 2020 was March of 2020 and the Buffalo Science in the Pub became Science in the Virtual Pub and went from once a month to every other week.

The program now runs twice monthly from September to May and remains mostly online. Some early attempts to return to the actual pub were thwarted by resurgence of the pandemic. Today, some special events are hybrid, but the simpler logistics of online sessions keeps most sessions fully virtual. This session will share lessons learned from three years of programming and more than 70 sessions.

While evolution, paleontology, climate change and energy have been the most frequent topic areas addressed, subjects have varied broadly, from the science of puppetry to the social life of ants. Presenters have included a Nobel laureate, high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, documentary filmmakers, and a wide range of scientists and educators.

Lessons learned are related to starting and running such programs, including insights into managing hybrid events, technology troubleshooting, choosing engaging titles, time demands for coordinating and running sessions and more.