2020 Virtual Science On a Sphere® Users Collaborative Network Workshop

Celebrating NOAA’s 50 years of science, service, and stewardship.

This figure advertises the 2020 Virtual Workshop for Science On a Sphere Users Collaborative Network. Text reads, from top to bottom, "2020 Virtual Workshop for Science On a Sphere Users Collaborative Network, December 1st through 3rd, 2020." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 50th anniversary logo is on the lower left side of the figure, next to text that reads "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce." All of the text and logo mentioned is
The 2020 Science On a Sphere® Users Collaborative Network was virtual and celebrated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 50 years of science, service, and stewardship. (Credit: Stephen Zepecki, NOAA/IMSG)
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Overview

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NOAA hosted the Science On a Sphere® (SOS) Users Collaborative Network Workshop on a virtual platform on December 1-3, 2020. The pandemic heightened awareness of the fact that we were living in a globally connected society and how the actions of one place affected the well-being of another place. SOS was arguably one of the best tools for promoting global perspectives.

The workshop showcased presentations submitted from participants with a focus on the use of visualizations for education as well as using spherical display systems for providing science educational messages. We opened up the workshop to other groups that worked with NOAA on related topics. The objectives of this workshop were to:

  • Advance awareness of NOAA's global visualizations that are useful for education
  • Share best practices in using visualizations for online learning
  • Support the needs of the user community of SOS

In recognition of NOAA’s 50th anniversary in 2020, the theme of the SOS workshop was “Celebrating NOAA’s 50 years of science, service, and stewardship”. NOAA presentations supported this theme directly. We encouraged presentation proposal submissions that addressed this theme by including the history of their organization, their organization’s role in providing science to society, and/or ideas about the future for how to build a scientifically and environmentally literate society. In particular, we were interested in presentations about how SOS institutions continued the mission of their organizations during this time of restricted visitor access and institutional closures.

Participation in this workshop was limited to members of the NOAA Science On a Sphere® Users Collaborative Network, as well as invited groups who worked on related topics. Invitations to participate in the workshop were sent to all members via the Science On a Sphere® Users Collaborative Network listserv. If you were interested in future participation and/or were concerned that your contact information might not be up-to-date, please check out the “More information” section, below.

There was no registration fee. However, all who participated in the workshop registered in advance.

Resources