North-Central Section - 57th Annual Meeting - 2023

Paper No. 6-1
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM

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


REIMINK, Jesse, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State, Department of Geosciences, State College, PA 16803 and BOLHUIS, Christopher, Science Department, Hudsonville Public High School, Hudsonville, MI 49426

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.