The award supports a two-day planning workshop that will bring together members of the geoscience community interested in outreach. The purpose of the workshop is to share and analyze experiences in order to identify patterns of success, difficulties, and needs and to delineate current working models. The overall goal will be to initiate the design of a larger network to engage the geoscience research community and to identify resource/support systems that will prove helpful for geoscientists struggling with how to do effective outreach without detracting from their research. Since the advent of Criterion 2 in 1997, plans for education and outreach activities have been encouraged as a pre-requisite for successful NSF proposals. Little effort has been made to identify successful models and to offer more concrete guidance and support to the research community. This workshop will identify successful Criterion 2 projects and identify both the hurdles faced and the benefits resulting from these outreach efforts. By documenting these case studies, proven skills and models for effective outreach strategies can be shared with other research scientists. This workshop will be an important first step in providing science researchers with the contacts, tools, and ongoing support to plan and implement valuable and viable outreach programs, developing a network that can serve as a resource/support group for geoscientists struggling with how to do effective outreach without detracting from their research, initiating a cultural shift within the geoscience research community, in which there is increased recognition of the value of outreach, and providing guidance to the geoscience community regarding the requirements of the NSF Criterion 2.
