Sharing science on the road: Bringing a traveling exhibit on extreme weather and community resilience to Alaska through community and private sector partnerships

From professional radiosonde data to information from a backyard rain gauge, observation is key to understanding extreme weather and our local environment. Resilient Earth, Resilient Communities, a traveling exhibit collaboratively designed by the Center of Excellence for Education, Engagement & Early-Career Development (EdEC) at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s Center for Science Education (UCAR SciEd), explores how we use this foundational concept of observation to gather information on extreme weather patterns and subsequent impacts on local environments in order to build more resilient communities. Since 2019, the exhibit has traveled to 19 locations across the United States, including public libraries, cultural centers, and universities. With each host, we co-design one exhibit display of content to contextualize the exhibit within specific extreme weather events experienced by the host community and adaptation strategies being employed by community members. In 2025, the exhibit team collaborated with hosts across Alaska to bring the exhibit to five different locations. Additionally, we partnered with a private company to bring a smaller version of the exhibit to passengers on an expedition cruise ship traveling throughout coastal Alaska. In this presentation, we address our co-design process for collaborating with and engaging communities and the private sector. We will also discuss results from a recent evaluation of the effectiveness of the exhibit in sparking dialog and creating emotional connections to the content, as well as provide actionable insights to designing a traveling exhibit.