2024 Environmental Literacy Program and Science On a Sphere Joint Workshop

For the first time, we are hosting a joint workshop with NOAA’s Environmental Literacy Program (ELP) grantees and NOAA’s Science On a Sphere (SOS) Users Collaborative Network. Users are coming together to share knowledge of engaging communities around the global-to-local issues we face. The Wild Center offsite link, our location host, is a leader in informal science education and has both a SOS exhibit that is integrated with their new climate solutions exhibit and they are also a two-time recipient of funding from ELP for their youth climate resilience work. 

Our theme for this workshop, “Global to Local: Using data and visualizations to build community resilience,” builds off the strengths of both the SOS network and ELP grantees. Tackling global challenges like climate change and pandemics require an understanding of how planet-scale dynamics manifest at a local level.  It also requires skills in local implementation of equitable solutions that address resulting impacts. These two groups exemplify these types of efforts. We think the members of the ELP resilience education grantee community of practice and SOS Network members will enjoy interacting with each other and learning about approaches they’re each using to engage audiences. 

Workshop objectives

• Share ideas and strategies for how global data and data visualizations and local community resilience efforts can complement each other.
• Help users communicate climate change effectively in order to increase resiliency, sustainability, climate solutions, and actions.
• Learn about novel methods for engaging the public with data and participatory science.
• Create personal and professional bonds among individuals, projects, and institutions across the SOS networks and ELP grantee community.
• Build knowledge of NOAA’s data visualization and climate resilience tools and resources.
• Showcase the versatility of the SOS technology. 
• Promote adoption of new approaches for climate resilience education highlighted in the ELP Theory of Change.
• Inform future NOAA direction for supporting these programs and funding solicitations.