There are many ways to involve the public in geoscience beyond talks, posters and traditional outreach. Museums, research projects and science centres are increasingly experimenting with interactive exhibitions, games, virtual and augmented reality, hands-on activities and citizen science. These approaches can make processes that are difficult to see or understand more tangible, and can give people a more active role in exploring geoscience and the research behind it.
In this session, we would like to bring together people who are developing or using these kinds of approaches. We welcome contributions on interactive exhibitions and installations, digital and immersive experiences, citizen science projects, games, hands-on activities and other forms of public participation in geoscience. Contributions can focus on finished projects, work in progress, or simply on what was learned during development and testing.
We are also interested in the practical side: What works with different audiences? How do you involve stakeholders in developing an activity? How do you balance scientific content with an engaging experience? And how do you know whether an activity actually works? Examples that did not work as expected, or that changed substantially after testing with users, are just as valuable.
The aim of the session is to exchange ideas and experiences between geoscientists, educators, science communicators, museum professionals and developers, and to learn from approaches that have already been tried in different settings. We hope it will also provide a place to find potential connections between projects working on similar forms of public engagement and citizen science.