Public Engagement
I adore geology and sharing my love of it with other people, whether through teaching students, mentoring graduate and undergraduate students or through outreach activities. I feel that outreach activities in schools and with the general public are important and necessary as they allow us to introduce our science to a larger, more varied audience; they also provide an opportunity to educate on the impact of geoscience issues and hazards to society both now and in the future. These events also help us bring geoscience to communities that may not otherwise have the opportunity to learn about it.
During my time working at University College Dublin, I was very involved with public engagement events, including leading geology walks for the general public in my fieldwork study area, a rural farming community on the west coast of Ireland. These events occurred at least three times per year, often in tandem with local cultural events, such as Heritage Week, and we typically had more than 20 attendees. These community geology walks were designed for local people the learn about and understand the landscapes that provided their incomes and livelihoods in a new light. This type of engagement also resulted in excellent university-community relations, and facilitated access to lands for future research.
I have also been involved with developing new methods of public engagement in science through Art-Science collaborations, using art as a medium to engage the public with science. One such example was the ‘A Feat of Clay‘ interdisciplinary project which aimed to broaden the audiences reached by palaeontological engagement through a collaboration with the arts. The pilot workshop was developed and delivered in collaboration with University College Dublin Parity Artist in Residence Elaine Harrington. Following a successful pilot workshop, we presented it at AGU in 2019.
Wallace, E.C., Lacchia, A., Harrington, E., McAuliffe, F., Morris, E.A., Haughton, P.D.W.H., 2019, A Feat of Clay: Palaeontology Engagement through Art [Poster Presentation], The Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Valencia, Spain, 15-Dec-19 – 21-Dec-19.
More information on the workshop and the program can be found here:
https://www.icrag-centre.org/education-and-public-engagement/planet/afeatofclay/
School workshops
During my time working at University College Dublin, I designed and delivered numerous workshops at elementary/primary schools throughout Ireland and within the UCD School of Earth Sciences. I chose to concentrate these workshops in rural schools around my study area. During these workshops we examined rocks and fossils, made sand volcanoes and used cake to explain geological concepts. I also delivered careers talks at High Schools around Dublin, and workshops within the School of Earth Sciences.
I have also a volunteered at several open days per year for both the University of St Andrews and University College Dublin and I was a volunteer educator several museums; during my PhD studies I volunteered within the Clore Natural History Centre at the Liverpool World Museum on a weekly basis. When based at University College Dublin I volunteered at the National Museum of Ireland co-leading workshops for schools and the general public.
Girls into Geoscience Ireland
I co-directed the Girls into Geoscience Ireland program in 2019-2020. Girls into Geoscience is a UK and Ireland wide program designed to introduce female high school and 1st year undergraduate students to geology Girls into Geoscience Ireland, is a national 1-2-day event that is hosted annually at one of the national universities of Ireland; it is designed to introduce female school students to Earth Sciences for study and as a possible future career pathway. The event in Dublin in 2019 included a 1-day fieldtrip and a separate 1-day event composed of talks and workshops. In late 2019, we ran a fieldtrip and a one-day workshop to highlight what geologists do, and to demonstrate the variety of careers open to geoscience graduates today.
https://www.girlsintogeoscienceireland.com/
Wallace, E.C., Morris, E.A., Blowick, A., McNamara, M., 2019, Girls into Geoscience Ireland [Poster Presentation], AGU, San Francisco, USA, 9-Dec-19 – 13-Dec-19.
Wallace, E.C., Morris, E.A., Blowick, A., McNamara, M., 2020, Girls into Geoscience Ireland [Poster Presentation], EGU, Vienna, Austria, 3-May-20 – 8-May-20.
I have continued my outreach activities at the University of Utah, virtually, as a co-lead for a Forensic Geology workshop with iCRAG (Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geoscience) for Girls into Geoscience that took place in June 2021.
Irish Association of Women in Geoscience (IAWG)
I also acted as secretary (2019-2021) for the Irish Association of Women in Geoscience (IAWG), the only international chapter of the Association of Women in Geoscience (AWG). IAWG is a network designed to bring the female and female-identifying people working in geoscience in Ireland together through meetings, fieldtrips and networking events.
Purls of Wisdom
Purls of Wisdom is a yarn based approach to raising awareness of Ireland’s changing climate, it is a way to engage with real climate information and get creative by visualizing the Earth’s changing climate with yarn crafting to create works that are important, scientific and beautiful. Purls of Wisdom aims to let the imagination of yarn crafters run free to create visual art to display the effects a warming planet is having on the Irish climate.
The most commonly used indicator for climate change is temperature. Using long term temperature records for the Island of Ireland and assigning yarn colors to represent an increase or decrease in average annual temperature. Rainfall, soil temperature and maximum temperature records can also be used to create a visual record of climate change. For more information, see:
https://www.icrag-centre.org/education-and-public-engagement/planet/purls/
Dr Emma A. Morris 