The 2024 Collectors Tour: A Case Study in Field-Based Geoscience Communication

The “2024 Collectors Tour” was a field-based science communication initiative that employed narrative structure, place-based explanation, and methodological transparency to bring Critical Zone science alive for a non-specialist audience.  The Collectors Tour consists of a 21-episode video series produced during an 18-day, 4,500-km field campaign to empty mineral dust collectors deployed across Utah, Nevada, and Idaho in the southwestern United States.  This work was part of the DUST^2 project, funded by the US National Science Foundation to investigate the role of mineral dust erosion, transport, and deposition in the geoecological functioning of Earth surface environments (i.e. the “Critical Zone).  Each video of the Collectors Tour was anchored to the location where a specific dust collector is deployed, and used that location to introduce concepts related to mineral dust, soil formation, snow hydrology, climate variability, ecosystem function, and human influence.  In this way, the Collectors Tour embedded scientific explanation directly within active fieldwork, inviting viewers to observe how geoscience knowledge is generated in real settings.  The strategy of multiple sequential videos, produced and distributed in rapid succession, emphasized authenticity, continuity across episodes, and visual engagement with landscapes, transforming the routine annual campaign to service the dust collectors into a coherent outreach narrative.  The Collectors Tour also reflected lessons learned from long-term communication efforts, including the value of consistency, the power of storytelling grounded in genuine field practice, and the importance of acknowledging collaboration, logistics, and uncertainty.  To date the videos have received more than 2600 total views, making this a broadly successful and lasting science outreach success.​  As a case study, the Collectors Tour offers a replicable model for integrating science communication into ongoing field research and contributes to broader discussions on effective strategies for communicating science to diverse audiences.