November 2021 - March 2022 • VIRTUAL SERIES
Get Your Science Moving: Building Blocks to Mobilize Science Engagement
Brought to you by the Lake Superior Reserve Coastal Training Program and Ohio Coastal Training Program, this virtual series is tailored for professionals, practitioners and leaders working on Great Lakes coastal issues.
Series Overview
You have the project - the data - the science to back it up. Now what? This series will cover six components necessary to get your science moving out in the real world so that it can reach the right eyes and ears to make a difference! This series will start with basics such as communication strategies and survey design, and move into more specifics, including how best to depict complex data and how to articulate the value of science-driven actions. Whether you are a researcher, collaborator, grant reviewer, or science advocate, this series will help you build science engagement skills to mobilize your data in the right direction.
Each of these offerings is a standalone course, and we encourage you to sign up for as many as you like. Sign up for the entire series of 6 workshops and receive a $15 discount. Registration fees for each course are $15 to $20, depending on course length.
Registration
Each of these offerings is a standalone course, and we encourage you to sign up for as many as you like. Sign up for the entire series of 6 workshops and receive a $15 discount. Registration fees* for each course are $15 to $20, depending on course length.
*Refunds can be issued up to 48 hours in advance of each training event. We require the full two days notice to issue a refund. Please contact the organizers if you have questions.
Series Schedule
2021
15 Strategies for Communicating Science and Data to Non-Scientists
Cathy Angell, Cathy Angell Communications
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
1:00-3:00pm CT/2:00-4:00pm ET
Capacity: 50
Take this course if you...
- Deliver science-based presentations.
- Ever feel “stuck” when you design PowerPoints.
About the Course
Do you speak at conferences, public meetings, or other events where you need to convey a science-based message? Have you ever felt like you couldn’t quite hold the attention of your audience or communicate your message in a way they could understand? Would you like to learn a simpler, more effective way to design your slides? This popular course will show you how to:
- Present visuals that have impact
- Use techniques that will keep your audience engaged in both a live or virtual setting
- Deliver data in a way that sticks in people’s brains
- Transform the way you do PowerPoint
About the Speaker
Cathy Angell, M.Ed., is the owner of Cathy Angell Communications and specializes in presentation design and delivery for scientists, educators, and public officials. Cathy’s trainings are offered both in-person and online. She was the former coordinator of Washington’s Coastal Training Program, considered to be one of the most successful training programs in the country for coastal managers. Cathy is nationally known for her transformative methods and received a communications award from NOAA which is given out each year in her honor.
Social Science Basics: Writing Effective Survey Questions
Chris Ellis and Brenna Sweetman, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
Thursday, December 2, 2021
10:00am-11:30am CT/11:00am-12:30pm ET
Capacity: 30
Take this course if you...
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Are not trained in survey design but are tasked with administering surveys.
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Would like to develop a more critical eye for what “good” survey questions look like, and how to maximize feedback.
About the Course
Surveys are a popular information collection tool to help coastal managers understand their stakeholders and quickly assess large populations. Unfortunately, because of their popularity, many people untrained in survey creation administer poorly designed surveys that yield questionable results. This workshop serves to provide coastal managers and environmental professionals with best practices to write more effective survey questions. If your background is not in the social sciences but you nonetheless find yourself in the position of crafting surveys, this workshop is for you!
Workshop attendees will learn how to:
- Review and critique surveys, and identify common mistakes in question design
- Incorporate 25 best practices when creating survey questions
- Create appropriate question layout and design
- Identify ways to improve survey questions that yield desired data types
About the Speakers
Chris Ellis, PhD, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
Chris is a social scientist with NOAA’s National Ocean Service, based in Charleston, SC. His training is in environmental sociology, survey design and implementation, recreation and tourism choice behavior, organizational behavioral networks, and social-psychological interaction with the coast. He has extensive experience in working with state and local municipalities to build capacity in coastal conservation, and community resilience. He also has a portfolio of projects that lend technical assistance to the National Weather Service to enhance its social science capacity. Working currently for NOAA, and formerly for both the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, he has gained unique perspectives of how the public and institutions understand, perceive, and use natural resources, particularly in coastal areas. He is an adjunct faculty member at the College of Charleston, where he works with students on an array of human dimensions-based research topics. Chris received his PhD in 2005 from East Carolina University.
Brenna Sweetman, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
Brenna is social scientist with NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management based at the National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, AL. Her work focuses on integrating social science to support sound decision-making to address complex coastal and water resource challenges. Through partnerships, collaboration and the integration of social and natural sciences, she works to better understand the data, tool and information needs to protect and maintain coastal communities, ecosystems and economies. Prior to working with NOAA, she worked in Central America on coastal and marine natural resource management topics and instructed environmental education. She holds a Master’s in Geography from the University of Alabama and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Spanish from the University of Pittsburgh.
2022
Fostering Behavior Change in Coastal Communities
Pam Kylstra, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
Thursday, January 6, 2022
10:00-11:45am CT/11:00am-12:45pm ET
Capacity: 45
Take this course if you...
- Work on behavior change campaigns in your community.
- Would like to understand what motivates people to change.
About the Course
This one-and-a-half-hour, interactive course introduces participants to an effective approach for coastal management projects to influence the way people interact with their environment. Community-based social marketing uses a five-step approach and a set of tools to elicit behavior change in specific audiences in order to address environmental and social problems.
Participants will learn how to:
- Identify the steps involved in community-based social marketing projects
- Describe how the approach can improve project design
- Practice applying the first three steps of the method
- Explain key considerations in applying steps 4 and 5, piloting and implementing the strategy
- Describe common tools used in this approach to foster behavior change
- Become familiar with examples of social marketing applied to coastal management issues
About the Speaker
Pam Kylstra, is a program development specialist with the NOAA Office for Coastal Management. Through training and coaching, she builds capacity for project planning, conducting collaborative processes, and managing visitor impact. She serves as an evaluator of coastal programs and National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERR), and provides facilitation services for the coastal resource management community, including Sea Grant, NERRs, and other federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. Pam enjoys exploring coastlines and working with coastal professionals near and far. Before joining the Office for Coastal Management, she worked in Oregon with the South Slough NERR to coordinate a public involvement program. As a faculty member with the School for Field Studies’ Center for Coastal Studies in Baja California Sur, Mexico, Pam collaborated with local educators to develop bioregional environmental education curricula, and explored the interaction between the coastal communities and the marine resources of the Magdalena Bay region as they related to the fishery and conservation challenges in that area.
The Art of the Chart: Simple Tips to Improve Your Data Viz Game
Karina Heim, Coastal Training Program Coordinator, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve
Thursday, January 27, 2022
10:00am-12:00pm CT/11:00am-1:00pm ET
Capacity: 50
Take this course if you...
- Turn data into charts for public audiences.
- Spend a lot of time trying to make charts ‘easy to understand’ - and look good!
About the Course
Have you ever felt that your charts are cluttered or confusing for your audience? Do you struggle to tell a compelling story through data visualization? Data is everywhere and charts and data graphics have never been easier to make, thanks to programs like Excel and Tableau. But as you may have experienced in your own work, designing elegant charts that tell a clear story can be surprisingly challenging!
Fortunately, we can borrow lessons from cognitive brain science and graphic design best practice to help us improve the way we display data to our audiences. This short course will provide you with some quick pointers and tips to help you improve your charts and graphics design. In this mini-workshop, you will learn to:
- Recognize common chart design pitfalls
- Use handy tricks to “cut the clutter” from charts and focus your audience’s attention
- Think about every element of chart as part of a clear story
About the Speaker
Karina Heim is the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, and a data viz enthusiast. She first became enamored with the art of clean chartmaking in graduate school where she realized that every graph and table can stand alone and tell its own story if it is designed well. Later, Karina applied lessons and best practices of data viz design in her work as a comprehensive plan writer, revising public documents to reflect current data trends in a clear, accessible way. In her current position, she works with decision-makers in the Lake Superior basin on coastal issues, where important ideas are spoken through data all of the time. Karina is originally from Fairbanks, Alaska and lived in the western United States for several years before landing in the Midwest. She has a professional background in land use planning and program coordination.
How to Develop and Deliver an Engaging Virtual Conference Presentation
Cathy Angell, Cathy Angell Communications
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
1:00-3:00pm CT/2:00-4:00pm ET
Capacity: 50
Take this course if you...
- Are looking to translate good presentation practice into a virtual setting.
- Get a lot of virtual presentation requests.
About the Course
What are the best practices for developing a presentation for a virtual conference? How do you engage an audience that you can’t see? What are strategies for drilling down to a crystal-clear message? What if your presentation is pre-recorded? This training specifically addresses the successful design and delivery of a science-based virtual conference presentation. It covers best practices for slide design, as well as effective approaches for honoring a diverse audience and keeping them involved and engaged. This training will teach you how to:
- Develop and deliver a virtual presentation appropriate for a conference
- Engage your audience without having to be in the same room as them
- Successfully frame the message your presentation aims to achieve
About the Speaker
Cathy Angell, M.Ed., is the owner of Cathy Angell Communications and specializes in presentation design and delivery for scientists, educators, and public officials. Cathy’s trainings are offered both in-person and online. She was the former coordinator of Washington’s Coastal Training Program, considered to be one of the most successful training programs in the country for coastal managers. Cathy is nationally known for her transformative methods and received a communications award from NOAA which is given out each year in her honor.
Economic Guidance for Coastal Management Professionals
Kate Quigley and Lauren Knapp, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
Thursday, March 10, 2022
12:00-1:30pm CT/1:00-2:30pm ET
Capacity: 75
Take this course if you...
- Want to learn some basics of economic valuation.
- Play a role in writing and selecting proposals for coastal projects.
- Would like to advocate for the value of a project, program, or tool, but unsure where to start.
About the Course
When coastal managers need to estimate project value and incorporate economic data, they have several approaches to consider. This training provides information about a benefits-cost analysis, economic impact analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and more. Understanding these basics will help participants identify the appropriate approach and the data needed.
Participants will learn how to:
- Recognize and understand basic economic terminology
- Recognize relevant economic approaches and analyses
- Identify the approach to use based on project objectives, level of expertise, and funding
- Locate support tools and data
- Conceptualize appropriate questions to ask an economist or an expert
About the Speaker
Dr. Lauren Knapp holds a Ph.D. and postdoctoral training with 5 years of professional experience and 280+ citations on peer-reviewed publications. By training, she is an environmental economist and employs various methods from cost-benefit analysis to ecosystem services valuation and stated preference estimation. On contract to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management (OCM), she helps on efforts to value marine economies, train local communities on how to use economics to inform their decision-making, capture benefit data for natural coastal infrastructure, comprehensively value U.S. coral reefs, and use economics to inform other related efforts.
SERIES QUESTIONS
Karina Heim, Coastal Training Program Coordinator
karina.heim@wisc.edu
Emily Kuzmick, Ohio Coastal Training Program Coordinator
Emily.Kuzmick@dnr.ohio.gov
