Page 74 - Summer 2021

ASA OUTREACH
We invited AnnMarie Thomas (see bit.ly/30pOeEE), author of Making Makers: Kids, Tools, and the Future of Innovation; David Carreon Bradley (see bit.ly/3ekyCKX), a member of the Board of Directors for SACNAS; and Nicole Holliday (see bit.ly/3v73PqQ), who has written for NPR, Bloomberg News, and The Washington Post. This diverse set of speakers was invited as a way to welcome them into our Society and to uplift their voices within the field of acoustics. Andrew Morrison, the series co-organizer, kindly filled in when, David Carreon Bradley was unfortunately unable to present. Each event was well attended, and the recorded videos (available at bit.ly/38a58vq) have been viewed over 2,000 times. We intend to continue this speaker series, and because all of the previously invited speakers were from academic institutions, future invitees will likely be industry professionals.
The last online event I want to describe took part during the ASA Acoustics Virtually Everywhere online meet- ing in December 2020. The Education in Acoustics Committee developed Acoustics at Home, a virtual demonstration event to replicate the features of a typical hands-on session. The one-hour Zoom meeting consisted of short demonstrations constructed from everyday household items designed to help people experience and understand various acoustic properties. Our reasoning for taking this approach was that participants could and would be encouraged to build their own demonstrations and keep exploring at home. In the future, we could plan a follow-up event asking for viewer-submitted videos to really engage attendees.
Because ASA members have very busy meeting schedules, we asked our volunteers to film their demonstrations in advance. We advised them to explain the acoustic phe- nomenon of their chosen demonstration in a fun and engaging way and to avoid scientific jargon and the use of PowerPoint slides. We didn’t want our volunteers to be in lecture mode or for our guests to feel as if they were taking a class. As with the IYS Speaker Series, we also pro- vided our volunteers with a few video examples. In the end, we collected nine 5-minute videos in topics such as how to make music using glass bottles, how to build a model of the speaking apparatus using a duck call, and
ways to explore harmonics with an electric razor. After all the demonstrations were shown, attendees were encour- aged to interact with the volunteer demonstrators. They asked for teaching tips and book recommendations and even shared some of their own demonstration ideas. Even though the event took place on a Wednesday afternoon in East Coast time, it was well attended, with just under 100 live viewers and, at the time of writing, the recorded videos (available at bit.ly/3e4ALKG) have been viewed 349 times. We received some feedback that the timing wasn’t ideal for teachers and students still attending (virtual) school or those in other time zones. If we do this or a similar event again, I will schedule it for an evening or weekend slot in hopes of gaining more live participants.
In the future, you will see that there are a lot of virtual ASA events not strictly limited to the education outreach realm; however, many of them do serve a similar outreach capac- ity by making acoustics more accessible to the public, such as the ASA Webinar Series (available at bit.ly/3kTK8yc) and the East and South East Asia Regional Chapter Acous- tics Masters Lecture Series (available at eseaasa.org) that provide ongoing learning and engagement opportunities for ASA members and nonmembers. I am planning on working with the Member Engagement Committee to create a new site to list all national, regional, and student chapter and technical committee events in one place so that everyone can see all of the exciting online ASA pro- gramming happening around the world. Until then, check out this listing of virtual events on the Explore Sound website (available at bit.ly/3v9hLAW). With what we have learned this past year, I hope that our outreach website, social media, and future online and in-person program- ing will continue to improve and motivate the public to explore sound.
Contact Information
L. Keeta Jones kjones@acousticalsociety.org
Education and Outreach Coordinator Acoustical Society of America
1305 Walt Whitman Road, Suite 300 Melville, New York 11747-4300, USA
74 Acoustics Today • Summer 2021