There are so many great events to participate in at EGU26 this year, in both on-site and virtual formats, that it can be very easy to feel overwhelmed. Whilst we encourage you to make good use of your Personal Programme to help organise your activities, we also reached out to several of EGU’s Committees that are responsible for specific other aspects of EGU’s activities, including the Outreach Committee and the Education Committee to ask them for their recommendations as to what not to miss during EGU26!
If this is your first time hearing about the Outreach Committee or the Education Committee you may have questions about what the difference is between the responsibilities of these two groups of highly motivated and creative volunteers! Well, although there is some overlap between the two in that they both work together to promote all things geoscience communication, at it’s most basic the volunteers of the Education Committee are focused on training educators and those who teach geoscience at all levels,whereas the Outreach Committee volunteers are focused on supporting anyone who wants to learn about geoscience – any age, any experience level.
Read on for their tips on how you can dive into geoscience communication, outreach, engagement and education activities during EGU26!
Outreach Committee
One of the main things the EGU Outreach Committee organizes each year are the Education and Outreach Sessions, indicated by the ‘EOS‘ tag in the programme. These sessions cover everything from primary research being conducted on geoscience communication, ethics and outreach, through to researchers in the Earth, planetary and space sciences sharing their experiences of new outreach, engagement and educational practices that they have tried. If you are a person interested in sharing your work, or in understanding how people in different public or non-expert audiences perceive and understand you work, head to one of these fascinating sessions! You can find all of them in the EGU26 programme here.
The Outreach Committee also issue two EGU medals with the Union, the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award for geoscience outreach and engagement, and the Angela Croome Award for Earth, planetary and space science journalism. Both the award winner will be giving lectures this year, so don’t miss out!
MAL9: Angela Croome Award Lecture by Joshua Howgego “Sleepy cat and the cosmic dust: Lessons for non-fiction writing from 10 years as a magazine editor” Tue 5 May, 11:55–12:25 CEST, Room 0.15
MAL11: Katia and Maurice Krafft Award Lecture by Philip Heron “What we’ve learned from teaching people in prison to Think Like a Scientist” Mon 4 May, 11:55–12:25 CEST, Room D3
In addition the Outreach Committee run a public event in the city of Vienna each year, called the EGU-ÖAW Public Lecture, which is a talk in German for residents of the city of Vienna to participate in a free event giving them access to a speaker presenting their research at the meeting. This year the speaker is Dr Kristine Asch from Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR), who will give a talk entitled “Von der Tiefsee bis zum Mars: Geologische Kartierung unter extremen Bedingungen (From the Deep Sea to Mars: Geological Mapping Under Extreme Conditions)”, find out more about how you can attend here (in German).
The EGU-ÖAW Public Lecture will take place on Tue 5 May, 18:00-19:45 CEST, at the ÖAW building (Dr. Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien) and online.
The Outreach Committee also co-ordinate the EGU26 Peer Support activities, so if you have signed up to the Peer Support programme, or you are curious about it, don’t miss the Peer Support meet up (NET9) on Tue 5 May, 12:45–13:45 CEST on the Rooftop Foyer on the Blue level. You can also read more about EGU’s mentoring programme here.
Lastly if you want to Meet the Outreach Committee and ask them some questions about what volunteering for EGU is like and how you can get more involved with outreach, science communication or public engagement, come and say hi at the ‘Meet the Outreach Committee’ session at the EGU booth in Hall X2 (Purple level) on Wed, 6 May, 11:30–12:30 CEST.
Education Committee
One of the key events that the Education Committee runs during the General Assembly isn’t even a part of the main meeting – they co-ordinate the GIFT, or Geoscience Information For Teachers event, a huge training event run concurrently with the General Assembly each year to help school level teachers get access to the most current scientific information, as well as learn the best ways to teach geoscientific topics in the classroom. Find out more about the EGU26 GIFT here.
If you want to meet the Education Committee, there are plenty of opportunities during the meeting, from a special poster session, connected to the GIFT Workshop, EOS5.5: GIFT – Geoscience Information For Teachers – Projects on Natural Hazards, Human Impact and Earth’s Resources at School , Tue 5 May Apr, 16:15–18:00 CEST in Hall X5 and a poster presentation in session EOS5.1, Fostering Earth Science Education: The Contribution of the EGU Education Committee, on Wed 6 May, 10:45–12:30 CEST, Hall X5, poster number X5.272. Or you can meet the Education Committee at the EGU Booth (Hall X2) at the EGU booth in Hall X2 (Purple level) on Wed, 6 May, 14:00–15:00 CEST.
Teacher-Scientist Networking Event
One of the big events that is run by both Committees together is the annual Teacher-Scientist Pairing Scheme. To help any scientists/researchers or educators at the meeting (for GIFT or any other reason) to establish the kind of connection that helps run a Teacher-Scientist pairing event, why not come to the special Teacher-Scientist Networking Event (NET21) that is being held on Wed 5 May, 12:45-13:45 CEST, Room -2.33. Anyone is welcome regardless of your experience level (or lack of) in science communication and education activities.
Did you miss the other recommendations from the Science for Policy working group, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee or the Early Careers Scientists (ECS)? Head over and read them now!
