Colorado mountains
From Long-Term Data to Understanding: Toward a Predictive Ecology
2015 LTER ASM Estes Park, CO - August 30 - September 2, 2015
 

Facilitating the communication of LTER graduate student research with the public using online tools

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During a recent cross-site meeting between graduate students at the CCE, SBC, and MCR sites, the students held a session to share ideas for a collaborative cross-site outreach product that could be developed during the ASM.  We decided to create a website with the goal of sharing current graduate student research at our sites with the public. This site would be a tool not only to maintain interaction between marine-focused LTER graduate students, but also to foster cross-site research, and provide a valuable educational resource for teachers. During the initial brainstorming session at our April meeting, many possibilities for unique and modern ways of communicating our research with the public were presented: Ask Me Anything (AMA) videos with student researchers about their projects, regular blog posts about graduate field research, and short lesson plans or field guides for educators to use in their science classes. There was clear enthusiasm for the project among the students and we aim to use the working group time at the ASM meeting to solidify our plans and begin organizing the website. Our goal is to have a functional website with some material that we can continue to add content to in the future by the end of our working group meetings. We also encourage participation from graduate students throughout the LTER network and will discuss the working group goals with other attendees during the Graduate Student Symposium on the 30th. We are requestions two session times, preferably one day apart. During the first session, we will solidify our plans for the website and divide up labor and content creation among the participants. In the second session, we will add the content students have created to the new website and set up a schedule for future additions and posts.

Organizer: 
Alexandra Freibott
Co-organizer(s): 
Christie Yorke
Co-organizer(s): 
Stella Swanson
Number of 2 hour sessions requested: 
2
Working Group Reports
Room Assignment: 
Longs Peak Keyhole – (Capacity 110)