Early career scientists share research on weekly live streaming show, Science @ SOEST

Starting this semester, SOEST is advancing its public outreach efforts, and at the same time providing some of its graduate students and postdocs with first-hand experience in talking live on a streaming program.  In partnership with ThinkTech Hawai‘i, the new 30-minute show, Science @ SOEST, is hosted by Pete Mouginis-Mark from the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.

“ThinkTech Hawai‘i is a not for-profit organization based here in Honolulu that hosts many topical shows of interest to our community,” said Mouginis-Mark. “The goal of this new series is to have SOEST junior scientists describe their research in a manner that is informative to the general public, as well as showcase many of the research efforts that are relevant to our State.”

Through the series, students and postdocs practice several skills including preparation of the information that will be shared during the show, as well as “thinking on their feet”.

This semester the show is presented over Zoom and the format is such that registered viewers can send in questions during the show using the Zoom chat function. The initial shows have focused on ocean color and regolith (“soil”) development on the Moon. Future shows will cover the breadth of research conducted within SOEST, including ocean engineering, renewable energy, and atmospheric sciences.  It is hoped that this may become regular series beyond the Spring semester, although details on future plans are still being discussed.

“Our hope is that our early career scientists gain additional skills and confidence to share science and develop a plan to communicate clearly about technical information,” said Mouginis-Mark.

A predecessor ThinkTech Hawai‘i show, Research at UH Mānoa, highlighted a variety of research and education activities at SOEST and beyond. An archive of over 150 past shows is available on ThinkTech YouTube.

The show goes out live at 1:00 p.m. every Tuesday this semester, and will be archived on YouTube for future viewing.  Faculty and students who want to participate in the upcoming episodes via on-air questions must first register with ThinkTech at:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ieZ6OanbSCuTrZLQ9B4Wtg. Students interested in appearing on the show should contact Pete Mouginis-Mark at pmm@higp.hawaii.edu.

It is hoped that this may become regular series beyond the spring semester.