Question & Answer Sessions

Overview

One of the most important features of the camp is the synchronous online live-streamed Q&A sessions with scientists and experts. Registered program participants will be part of a Zoom webinar and will be able o ask their questions directly. The session will be live-streamed to YouTube and recorded for those that are not participating in person. The Q&As will run 30-45 minutes each and take place on Wednesdays, October 19 to November 16 at 7 pm Eastern. Topics will include The Sun 101, The Solar System, The Sun & Earth, Solar Weather, and Beyond the Solar System.

Subject Matter Experts

Subject matter experts (SME) are scientists or outreach specialists that will serve as guests for our Q&A sessions. We need at least 5, though more is preferable to create a diverse and engaging experience. The most important factors when selecting SMEs are that they have the content knowledge needed to accurately answer questions on the solar science topic for the week and that they have the outreach or educational background to interact with children and families. We also want to amplify the voices of those traditionally marginalized in scientific fields, such as women and people of color, so I had to ensure that my guests came from diverse backgrounds. And of course, they need to be willing to work for $100 honorarium.

Contracting SMEs ended up being one of the most challenging aspects of the project. I don't happen to know a lot of astrophysicists personally and none of those that I do know are good with kids. That meant I had to do a lot of research to find potential guests.

I started by going through the records of guests that have been on our radio broadcast. Those speakers that seemed like they could speak on the needed topics in a conversational way were added to the list. I also searched through NASA's outreach offices for the Goddard Space Center, JPL, and other outreach missions. I also reached out to others within my organization for suggestions. I then drafted a letter to potential SMEs laying out the program and making a specific request that included a description of the event, the date we were requesting and the honorarium. I sent that to 9 potential guests.

My first attempt got me four SMEs. Some people I contacted simply never replied. Some were already booked or working on intense projects like Artemis. One responded that she preferred not to work with my age group.

So I did more research and reached out to organizations that were not as directly associated with NASA. This ended up being a big win, as I connected the outreach educators from a group, NASA PUNCH, working on connecting ancient Native American sunwatching with modern heliophysics. Their mission was also to work with marginalized youth, so our objectives aligned really well. Three of their scientists offered to be guests.

I also reached out to NASA's Solar System Ambassadors program. That's where I found two more guests. Both are black women with background in astrophysics and astronomy. One made a film about the ancient African astronomy. The other recently became a lead engineer at Space X. They were perfect for the program.

So far I have recruited 8 total guests, 5 women and 3 men. 4 identify as BIPOC and 1 as AAPI. So I hit the goals on diversity too.

Final Panelists

After lots of work, I was able to solidify our panelists for the Q&A session. They were each contracted with an offered honorarium of $100 for their time. Here are the guests for each week, with the text used to promote them on our Sun Camp website. You can see how much I improved both the publicity text and the graphics after the first week. In the weekly newsletter, I included more comprehensive biographies of each guest as well.

Technology

We held two "rehearsals" to work on setting up the Zoom webinar events and testing to ensure that things worked the way we anticipated. Especially because we are working with young children and live streaming the event, we wanted to make sure we were creating a safe place. We also wanted to make sure it was manageable for just a host and moderator to coordinate during the live event.

I consulted first with our Events Manager for input on best practices. She walked me through how she hosts an event and shared some tips for making them successful. She also showed me how to use Zoom to live stream to YouTube, which I had not previously done before without the aid of additional software. I also met with our audio team to make sure that the sound we captured could potentially be used on the radio.

During our rehearsals we did have a number of problems with screen sharing. Those were sorted out by adjusting the Zoom settings. We also practiced making people co-hosts, presenters, or attendees. And we practiced muting and unmuting attendees and other basic functions. We tested the live streaming and recording. Rehearsals took about two hours in total but were worth the input of time because nothing went wrong when we went live.

Update

I met with our events manager at SciFri, who has been hosting similar online Q&A sessions since COVID shut everything down. She provided her scripts, checklists, etc. She also let me sit in an event she ran as an off-camera observer to see how things went. I learned a tremendous amount, and as a result the quality of the following Q&A session really improved. There are some things I'll do differently in the future, especially when it comes to getting questions from the kids and keeping them on topic, but that aspect of the program has been well-received.

I now have a checklist that helps me make sure that all the right boxes are checked, so to speak. That really helps me feel confident when the Q&A starts. And I've set myself reminders to check the settings and all the technology on Monday morning rather than waiting until Wednesday to ensure that things are working. That was really important for the last week because I discovered that a recent Zoom update had removed the webinar feature from my account. It took some time to get that all sorted out. I was really glad I knew about it two days in advance.

One issue we still struggle with is the sound quality. I now send a message reminding guests to use a headset and microphone, but not all have that available. I think that may need to be something we stress in advance next time. I can also request and use a technology budget next time to send headsets to guests if needed. There just wasn't time in the schedule for that during theround of programming. And of course, not everyone has great internet accessibility, especially if they are participating from home. I'm not sure there is much I can do about that. I am meeting with the production team later this year to learn from their best practices so that we can include their methods in the model for next time,

Scripts & Media

I drafted a sample script for the event that made introductions and went over housekeeping. I also compiled bios of the SMEs to use for introductions. I wrote the synopsis to go in the YouTube video description box. I also compiled a list of easy to cut-and-paste promotional items about the next Q&A and the projects we were doing. And I prepared lots of Sun facts and other resources that could be shared during the Q&A. These can be especially important if you need to "waterfall" and basically push an objectionable chat comment off the screen.

I also made a thumbnail for the video as well as a short video intro with music to play while we switched on live stream and started recording.

For the next round of scripting, I want to make the ways someone can ask a question clearer in the introduction. And I want to make sure I get pronunciation for the guest names and include it in the document as well, because I tripped up on a guest name.

Update

The script has evolved some, thanks to the collaboration with our events coordinator. Following her advice, I now send a "How To" document to panelists in advance that goes over basic logistics, how to create a good setting, sound tips, etc. so that they are prepared in advance. I have also developed a short checklist or script of things to tell the guests before we start. Going over the procedure for the Q&A in about 5-10 minutes with the guests really makes things run more smoothly. I check how to pronounce their names and write that down. I ask about their preferred topics or expertise, so that I can funnel appropriate questions their way. I review logistics like recording, live streaming, when to turn on and off the cameras/microphones, when they can introduce themselves, and how we'll screen share. I review best practices for using the host/panelist chat. And I let them know that when we are done, there will not be a chance for us to chat, because I need to close the webinar to end the session for participants.

For participants, I now have a short presentation that visually shares how to ask questions with the Q&A feature. This has made a HUGE difference. With that little bit of training, the participants are now asking questions in the Q&A box consistently, upvoting questions they want to see answered, and better understanding how to ask questions "on air." I also have included multiple references to the essential question for the day, which has helped focus participants on the topic, which has resulted in better quality and less repetitive questions being asked.

I suppose both for guests and participants, it's important to teach how to use a tool so that they have the knowledge and skills to best interact in a project.

Below you can see the presentation I share with participants to guide them in asking questions.

The First Q&A

For the first Q&A we had 46 participants, 1 guest and 135 views on YouTube. We didn't have any trouble with the chat and did not need to remove anyone. We did have a LOT of questions though and it was difficult to manage both the chat and the Q&A boxes while also sharing graphics for the guest and keeping the conversation going. We had a few times where kids asked a question that had already been answered, so we need to think through how to vet questions better for the next Q&A.

We also discovered that quite a few people either had not gotten or did not read the email with the link to Zoom. So I was dealing with many emails from participants while also trying to get the Q&A launched. I don't think people understood that this is basically a one-woman show and that I was trying to run the Zoom at the time. In this week's newsletter, I plan to my other Zoom link more obvious and place it on the top of the email, as it seems many participants didn't real the entire thing. I also plan to send a reminder on Wednesdays with the link again.

Overall it was a great first effort and participants seemed very happy with the experience. I think we have a solid start and can improve as we go. I have a meeting set up for Friday to debrief and discuss ways to make the next session even better.

Update

We have absolutely improved the Q&A sessions. They run much more smoothly now, and most of the glitches have been worked out. Our guests have been excellent and participants have really enjoyed the sessions. The most important thing to me is that we have created a model for this kind of program offering for SciFri Educate that I hope we can use again in the summer.

Unfortunately, attendance has dropped For Week 4, we only had 19 families in the Zoom event. However, viewing on YouTube has increased. Is that an issue with the recent Zoom update, the result of scheduling challenges as we get closer to the holidays, or attrition from a multi-week program? I'm not sure at this time. I hope to get an idea as to why this trend has occurred when we send the survey to participants after the program is over.

Luckily everything is included on YouTube and linked from the Sun Camp main page, so people should be able to continue to find and use that content for a long time. One task I have for the end of November is to use the transcripts from the session to create markers and chapters within the video that list the specific questions asked so that educators can more easily use the content in classes. I also need to adjust the closed captioning so that the content is accessible to anyone. And I need to broaden the descriptions on each video with linkbacks to relevant contact on Science Friday and to our guests.

I've linked all the videos we've done so far below. I think they show the progression and improvement along the way.

Playlist of Final Videos

Advance Question Submissions

Since not everyone would be able to participate in the live sessions, I designed a form that families or educators could use to submit their questions. Then I could check the forms and have the questions ready for the Q&A. I can also send these questions to my SMEs to give them a sense of what may be on the participants' minds and so that they can prepare in advance, compiling images or other materials to share. This information also provided a snapshot of the pre-Q&A knowledge based of participants which I would be able to compare against later as part of our assessment.

We didn't get a ton of questions submitted, at the end of the day. And it was challenging to use the submitted questions when we had so many participants live on the Zoom event. The only real upside to having the form was that it gave my panelists some insights as to what kinds of questions they could expect when they were in the Q&A Zoom. That said, I'm not sure I would use this strategy again. I feel like it ended up being a lot of work for very little payoff.

I am working on ways to hopefully get the questions answered. I'd like to publish an article on the SciFri website with a kind of "Best Of" with questions from the kids and answers from the guest. I have transcripts from the Zoom session, so I can pull good answers from there. I can also send the questions from the form that didn't get answered to my guests and see if they would like to answer any of them in writing. But I have to get permission from the powers that be to publish such a piece, as it really doesn't meet our usual style. I could also include answers in my final newsletter, which I have more control over.

It was also suggested that I try to get audio from kids asking their questions and then get guests to answer on audio, but that feels like a lot more time and effort than I really have to devote to the project. And I have no idea if radio would actually use the content.

All Submitted Questions

Below is a document that includes all the questions submitted my participants. It notes which questions were asked during the Q&A sessions, which were submitted in advance, and which were answered live.