UTILIZING THE POWER OF AUDIO FOR GEOSCIENCE OUTREACH AND EDUCATION - THE PLANETGEO PODCAST AND RELATED PROJECTS

The Geosciences are often undervalued by society relative to similar fields. For instance, most people have some idea how biology or physics directly benefits their everyday lives, and have some idea what scientists in those fields study. The same is not true for the Geosciences. Here we present preliminary results from a high school-university partnership focused on conveying the passion, intrigue, and importance of the Geosciences to everyday life in society. This project entails the publication of PlanetGEO (https://www.planetgeocast.com/), a discussion-based podcast that highlights key concepts in the Geosciences, explores common misconceptions, and interviews top academics and leaders from the geoscience community. This partnership has also produced CampGeo (https://geo.campcourses.com/), an audio-based textbook and study guide that covers content typically found in an introductory Physical Geology course. As this outreach initiative continues to grow and mature, we will present and update on the strategy, lessons learned throughout the process, best practices in creating educationally valuable audio content, and a discussion of principles for success using existing feedback. We look forward to discussions and feedback from colleagues in education and research.