Standing Committee Meeting Report Education and Public Outreach

September 2017

Action Items  - EPO Standing Committee Meeting

September 26-27, 2017

  • Hold quarterly conference calls with the committee 
  • Blogs & Tweets from the field - send short field videos and text for posting by Wendy Bohon 
  • Put Derek Schutt’s seismology course online 
  • Implement a dashboard of EPO metrics 
  • Ask IRIS Data Services what would be required to stream data to the DMC from the Quake Catcher Network and ask ISTI what it would cost to implement 
  • Create a draft plan for a member spotlight section on the IRIS website 
  • 2018 IRIS workshop
    • Create plan for EPO workshop on Monday afternoon 
    • Consider organizing a Distinguished Lecture or public science café on Monday evening 

Meeting Summary

The EPO Standing Committee met on September 26-27, 2017 at IRIS headquarters. The attendees for part or all of the meeting included: John Louie (Chair), Donna Charlevoix, Stefany Sit, Vince Cronin, Mike Thorne, Maureen Long, Lora Bleacher, Anna Courtier, Bob Detrick, Bob Wegner, Michael Hubenthal, Danielle Sumy, Wendy Bohon, John Taber, and Mladen Dordevic. Remote attendee: Tammy Bravo

The meeting began with a review of the minutes and action items from the previous meeting, followed by a presentation and discussion on EPO program highlights over the past six months and the staff priorities for the next 6 months.  The draft Best Practices for Standing Committees, prepared by the IRIS Board, was discussed and suggested edits were provided by the committee. This was followed by a discussion of interactions with NSF and NSF limitations on IRIS travel. While there was no news on the status of the NGEO proposal, a joint Spring meeting with the UNAVCO ECE committee was considered, depending on the outcome of the proposal, and when the results are announced.  A draft EPO program evaluation dashboard was presented and discussed, along with the new posting of evaluation reports on the IRIS website, and feedback was provided by the committee.  The results of a seismology mobile app usage survey were presented along with a potential storyboard that addresses the interests highlighted by the survey.  Then an alpha version of a replacement for the old USC Station Monitor was presented.

The next section of the meeting focused on potential E&O collaborations with UNAVCO, depending on the outcome of the NGEO proposals.   The committee was given an overview of the UNAVCO ECE program to help see the opportunities for collaborations and synergies.  This was followed by a presentation on EarthScope National Office activities.  The IRIS/SSA Distinguished Lectureship was then discussed, including the question of allowing repeat lecturers after some time period, and looking for ways to broaden the range of venues.   The committee then had a discussion with the GSA education programs coordinator, about GSA’s new K-12 teacher professional development program and how IRIS might participate. Then the Quake Catcher Network was discussed, including potential long-term sources of funding and the status of collaborations with SCEC. The committee was then updated on the status of the Mars InSight mission and the potential role that IRIS EPO can play.  This was followed by a discussion of the online teacher professional development currently being conducted by IRIS in collaboration with University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Alaska Anchorage.   A status report on Early Career Investigator activities was then presented and discussed, followed by an update on the planning for the 2018 IRIS workshop. The final discussion on the first day of the meeting involved how to better highlight and publicize IRIS member activities.

The 2nd day began with an executive session, and then a continued discussion of connecting with IRIS members and highlighting their work. A prioritized list of potential new committee members was created and the meeting concluded with suggestions for an upcoming presentation to NSF geo-education program managers.