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SciComm

The AGU Voices for Science 2020/2021 fellowship opened my eyes to different science communication possibilities that value my creativity. Below are some of my scicomm work!

Science animations / illustrations

I give a lot of seminars and slideshow presentations for work. Sometimes there are concepts that, in my head, are easier to understand if there are accompanying visuals.


Radars are used to monitor rainfall over different areas
How a radar works
What is ” midwest corn sweat” and why does it happen?
Use of radars in monitoring cicadas Part 1
How a radar scans
How a banner cloud forms
Use of radars in monitoring cicadas Part 2
Title banner for the #AGU21 Skills for Science Workshop
Radar attenuation and why sometimes the signal is weak
How astronomers use spectroscopy to study other planets (snippet from the 3-min video linked below)
Teaser for How to Sketch Your Science workshop at AGU
Doodling over a photo of the Whale’s mouth flowstone in Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Visual summary of our Volcano paper

Guest-illustrator for MinuteEarth

In 2020 I guest-illustrated for Minute Earth for a video, and in the process I learned so much about storyboarding, illustrating, animating, and video editing.

Video Illustration and Editing

After learning about video illustration and editing from the MinuteEarth project, I tried to make some on my own. I started this Youtube channel: ScienceSketched where I put my works, embedded below.

Narrated visual summary of Chen et al. (2020) accompanying a press-release from Northwestern University.
Unnarrated shorter version of the visual summary of Chen et al. (2020)
Illustrating an excerpt from Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods

AGU Scicomm seminars/workshops

For the #AGU2020 virtual conference, I and my ARTner-in-crime Mj Riches gave the workshop “How to Sketch Your Science” on December 2, where we talked about the value of using self-made visual media for communicating science. We prepared a handout1 through AGU Sharing Science’s blog, and the workshop drew about a thousand participants, as per the organizers.

We started off the workshop with video sketches of each other “Draw-my-life” style, where Mj narrated her introduction2 and I sketched it, and vice versa3. We presented the basics of sketching and how to make simple animations, as well as the available (and free) tools that the participants can use. Below is a list of links to the different materials produced for and after the workshop:

  1. Handout for the participants (standalone, prepared to be useful also for non-participants) – https://blogs.agu.org/sciencecommunication/2020/12/02/how-to-sketch-your-science/
  2. Mj’s intro (narrated by Mj, illustrated by me) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yg2udW0KWo
  3. Irene’s intro (narrated by me, illustrated by Mj) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nieIQpyN3M8
  4. Some of the participants tweeted about their sketches and animations! https://wakelet.com/wake/pDTprcX9YOnw55oMLMlbc

With the success of the workshop, the Sharing Science team invited us to conduct a similar workshop for their seminar series on “Storytelling via #SciArt” on May 13, 2021. The workshop was again fully virtual, and the recording can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reiLrThDXMg

Once again I teamed up with Mj to present the “How to Sketch Your Science” workshop, both virtual and in-person in New Orleans, Louisiana for #AGU2021 on December 13, 2021. I also co-presented the seminar “Everyone looks at the figures first: Creating and Using compelling Figures” for the AGU Skills for Science program on December 16, 2021.

Blog

I just started a blog! There I want to write about science concepts that I find fun, probably most of it related to weather radar stuff. I also write short how-tos on making science art/animations, based on the workshops I’ve given for/with AGU Sharing Science and their Voices for Science Program.

Here is my contribution to AGU’s Plainspoken Scientist blog: https://blogs.agu.org/sciencecommunication/2020/08/05/drawntogeoscience-imaginations-to-animations/

Invited talks / Public Speaking

STEM Warriors Club (Philippines) – August 2022 (Link)
Association of Filipino Scientists in America – Sept 30, 2022
University of California Santa Barbara – Dec 10, 2020 (Recording)
Northwestern University – May 15, 2020
Argonne National Laboratory – March 4, 2019 (Abstract)

Skype-a-Scientist

I’ve participated in six Skype-a-Scientist sessions with grade-schoolers from different schools. Usually I gather questions from the kids and teachers, and then prepare some drawings that answer their questions. I also like drawing on-screen in real-time for some on-the-spot questions.

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