Solar Dynamics Observatory – Conference support

Overview
Program Element / Activity Title:
Solar Dynamics Observatory – Conference support
E/PO Project Name:
SDO
Short Description for Projects Page:

Exploration Station is a program of activities organized by the various American Geophysical Union (AGU) sections and focus groups. Many AGU section and focus group members work for organizations with well-developed education and public outreach programs. Exploration Station is an opportunity for these organizations to bring their exhibits and hands-on activities to the AGU Fall Meeting and interact with the public in San Francisco.

This event is four hours long, free, and open to the public. Participants make their way through an average of 20-30 exhibits offering a variety of easy, family friendly, hands-on activities and an opportunity to interact one-on-one with scientists, engineers, and education specialists.

Program Element / Activity Status
Audience Metrics
Who is the primary audience of your program element / activity?:
Who is the secondary audience of your program element / activity?:
Evaluation
National Priorities and Coordination Approaches as Articulated in CoSTEM:
  • Increase and Sustain Youth and Public Engagement in STEM
What are the goals and objectives of your program element / activity?:
Communicate to the public the excitement and relevance of solar science, its influence on the solar system, and the discoveries of the mission.
What are the main impacts of your effort to date and how do they correlate to the project’s goals and objectives:
In addition to determining whether the attendees had a favorite exhibit, simply asking the attendees if they enjoyed the event as a whole adds to the understanding of the level of engagement. 93% of the attendees gave Exploration Station a “4” or a “5” score for overall enjoyment on a scale from “Did not enjoy” to “Really enjoyed” indicating that overall the attendees enjoyed the event as a whole.
The continued improvements this year besides attendance were the increase in the number and variety of exhibits and the number of groups with minors. There were 30 exhibits registered this year covering the majority of AGU science, a 18% increase in the number of exhibits from last year. The number of groups with minors increased to 53% this year from 47% last year with the average age of the minors being 7.6 years a decrease from last year when the average age of minors was 8.3 years.
The 89 groups represented on the Participant Information Cards averaged 2 minutes 41 seconds per exhibit in the 2012 Exploration Station exhibit hall, while groups with minors averaged 1 hour 30 minutes, or 3 minutes 13 second per exhibit.
Responses to the question, “Can you tell us something new that you learned today?” indicating that 93% of attendees could name something new that they had learned at Exploration Station. There were also 40 responses on the “Today I learned…” wall. The responses to both of these requests were combined for a total of 54 responses.
80% of attendee answered the question “How likely are you to go home and look up more information on something you saw today” with a 4 or a 5 on a scale from “not likely” to “very likely” indicating of a high level of interest in at least one topic.