By Shane M Hanlon

This week was fun. Week one was great but honestly pretty nerve racking. We in Sharing Science had a bunch of events, some technical difficulties, and were piloted some new ideas. While last week went really well, this week we found out stride and, with some experience under our belts, had some fun with it. Check out our recap below. 

• Science Engagement with Faith Communities: Every year we host the folks over at AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) who carry out a workshop on engaging with religious communities. It’s always incredibly informative and engaging and this year was no different. 
• The Up-Goer Five Challenge: Explaining Big, Important Things in Simple Words: Up-Goer Five is always one of our favorite events. Every year we ask scientists to explain their science in the 1000 most common words in the English language, inspired by physicist & cartoonist Randal Monroe‘s description of the Saturn V rocket. Definitely check out the presentations and watch our discussion about folks’ processes, inspirations, and views on the utility of the exercise!
• Science and Society: Science Policy: Along with its companion poster session, this session focused on communication and engagement practices that enable effective collaborations between scientists and policymakers.
• AGU Cinema Filmmaker Panels: Discussion on IODP Expedition 358: In our second filmmaker panel, we did something a little different. The IODP Expedition 358 didn’t go as planed, i.e., the objective failed. In this panel, we heard from not only the filmmaker and journalist who documented the expedition, but also the scientists who were there who talked about the importance of showing the science doesn’t always go according to plan. 
  
• Sharing Their Science: Enabling Scientists in Public Engagement and Virtual Engagement Efforts: Along with its companion session, this session sought to discover the variety of ways in which scientists are sharing their science, with an additional emphasis on how they are conducting public engagement virtually, during this year of social distancing. 

That’s it for week two! Be sure to check out our week one recap and our list of scicomm events at AGU20!

–Shane M Hanlon is Program Manager of AGU’s Sharing Science program. Find him on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.