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Education and Outreach Program
well with adults but can also work well for high-school stu- dents to connect with scientists and professionals. Check out http://www.sciencecafes.org/for-organizers/ to learn how to start a new café.
Open Houses
A department or business open house can be a glimpse into the life of a scientist. Acousticians can give tours of their labs and research space to show what they do and how they do it. These events are also good for showcasing applications of acoustics or advertising acoustics education programs. The Brigham Young University (BYU) Acoustics Research Group (https://tinyurl.com/y896xuwa) offers educational tours of their anechoic and reverberation facilities to both school and family groups.
On-Site Demonstration Shows
Your audience will come to you to learn about acoustics through presentations and/or demonstrations. A campus demonstration show can be performed during campus vis- its or campus-wide science day events. The Austin Acoustics ASA Student Chapter (https://tinyurl.com/y77oyhv8) often takes part in University of Texas-sponsored outreach activi- ties for children and families.
Working with a Science Museum
If you are located near a science museum, you may be able to design acoustics-themed outreach for museum guests. By working with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
and other public health organizations, the Oregon Health & Science University created Dangerous Decibels (https:// tinyurl.com/ycg3kghb), a 2001 to 2012 exhibit about noise and hearing loss.
Whatever outreach style or combination of outreach styles you choose, write specific outreach goals. This will help you to decide what kind of audience and activities you want to do and help you find the appropriate funding resources. For example, two goals for the ASA Hands-On Demonstration Session for Middle and High School Students (https://ti- nyurl.com/y7wyeo98) are to (1) expose young people to op- portunities in acoustics and (2) provide young people with an opportunity to interact with acoustics professionals.
With your goals in mind, begin to work out the logistics of con- ducting outreach. Table 1 answers some questions for the ASA hands-on session as an example of how you can get started.
The specific needs of your outreach program will vary. For a lecture series, you will need to secure space to have the talks. You will need to determine if it makes sense to have a fixed location or if the talks should be moved based on the topics. University-based science communicators should consider having the series off campus, which often results in higher public attendance. If a business or community cen- ter is the host, you may need to pay a reservation fee. For demonstration sessions, you can recruit a team to develop content or you can use and expand on preexisting materials (contact kjones@acousticalsociety.org for ASA demonstra-
Table 1. ASA hands-on session Who is your audience?
Young people: middle- through high-school students
Where/how will you recruit your audience?
ASA will contact science teachers and coordinators and confirm attendance at least 1 month before event
How many will be in your audience?
Will you do the outreach alone, or get volunteers? Where/how will you recruit volunteers?
How many volunteers will you need?
Who will coordinate the event/program?
We can accommodate about 50 attendees total ASA member volunteers
Call for volunteers to Society members
At least 20
The ASA Education and Outreach Coordinator
How long will the event be?
The individual session will be 2.5 hours long, with ad- ditional time for setup and tear down
Where will the event/program take place? What type of equipment do you need?
Sessions will be held at the biannual ASA meetings Demonstration materials and signs for 18 stations
What does the budget need to include?
A pizza and soda meal for audience and volunteers as well as discretionary funds to update, replace, or fix demonstration equipment and materials
70 | Acoustics Today | Winter 2017