Skies, Stories and Participatory Science: My Adler & Zooniverse NSF INTERN experience

I hadn’t even walked in the door yet, and walking up to my first day working at Adler Planetarium/Zooniverse was already one of the coolest places I’ve ever worked. The bus dropped me off, and because of the schedule, I arrived about 15 minutes early. I was extremely eager to begin this summer but decided to take a moment and sit on a bench close by to take in the beautiful view of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. I had no idea what the summer was about to hold. 

Why science communication?

I took a long, winding road to get to Adler/Zooniverse this summer, but the timing was perfect. I have always prioritized public engagement and science communication in my work, and it began in undergrad, where I was a tour guide and a teaching assistant. After graduation, I started working as a high school math teacher and presenting live science shows at the planetarium on the weekends. This combination of positions taught me how to do the seemingly impossible – get high schoolers excited about math. I brought my science communication training and the use of demos from the planetarium into the classroom to create an engaging environment. This led me to work as an instructor at a community college where I faced a different challenge – working with many varying backgrounds because most students came to my night class after working a long day job. I was teaching a math course with a supplemental lab where my focus was to get my students to build growth mindset skills, empowering them to succeed in my class. All these experiences led me to return to graduate school, where I continued to prioritize outreach, and I began the NASA-Zooniverse participatory science project Dark Energy Explorers. As project lead, this challenged me differently, acting as a liaison between highly specialized researchers and the general public. 

While waiting to enter the building for the first time I took a walk around the whole planetarium only to be surprised with a glimpse of the Doane Observatory. Here, I paused for a first day picture to send to my family!

I say all of this because, before this summer, I felt like I was building all these skills out of sync and never in tandem. This summer at Adler/Zooniverse was the first time I truly had the opportunity to intertwine all these skills I’ve built over the years in one position while also gaining new skills from the experts here. I came to Adler/Zooniverse through the NSF Non-Academic Research Internships for Graduate Students (INTERN) for graduate students looking to grow a complementary skill set outside of an academic setting. Being a Zooniverse project lead and someone with an informal education background, coming to Adler/Zooniverse to focus on science communication skills was a perfect fit. Zooniverse PI, Laura Trouille, was my main mentor throughout the experience.

This summer, all of the projects I took on fell into the following modes of communication– written (articles, storybooks), spoken (talks, explanations), and visual (video, graphics, social media).

Networking and gaining skills

My first week, I was thrown right into filming for Adler’s social media’s ‘Ask an Astronomer’ segment. This might have been some of the most fun I had. I worked with other Adler astronomers, Mike Zevin and Geza Gyuk, to write answers to some of the most frequently asked questions in astronomy with an extra challenge of it could only be one minute long. We filmed with the marketing team Bella, Audrey, and Colleen, seen here, where we spent most of the filming perfecting a swivel chair spin. In addition to these videos for Adler social media, I also worked on a few posts for NASA Citizen Science and explored the Zooniverse social media revamp with Alisa Apreleva at Oxford University.

Continuing to work with Mike Zevin, I took on a project to develop a new way to incorporate Zooniverse into the Astronomy Conversations program at Adler. Astronomy Conversations is a program that hosts researchers and visiting scientists to engage with museum guests about their research. We discovered a way to use the space visualization lab to project a Zooniverse project and then use a project as a take-home activity for visitors. For instance, if a guest was particularly interested in asteroids, they classify on Asteroid Hunters in the SVL and then continue learning at home on their own on Zooniverse.

Before this summer, I had no video editing skills and barely knew how to use iMovie. With a tutorial from Laura, and design help from Zooniverse Designer Sean Miller, I put together a video for educators using the new Zooniverse Groups features. This video helps educators of all kinds (teachers, camp counselors, museum leads, librarians, etc.) to feel comfortable and confident using the new features in their education setting. 

Becoming a ‘consultant astronomer’

My most novel experience was working with Adam Fotos (professor at Chicago State University) as a ‘consultant astronomer’ (I just made that title up). Adam contacted the team for advice for his new children’s book, Growing to the Moon. He wanted to ensure some of the book was rooted in actual astronomy concepts while still maintaining a fantastical, fun story. I agreed to help him tackle this task and then attended one of the planetarium shows at Adler, Imagine the Moon. Following this, we discussed incorporating those ideas into the plot line and how it could appeal to kids of varying ages. Look out for his book to be published soon! 

Meeting with Adam to consult for the storybook, we watched the Imagine the Moon planetarium show amongst many other excited Adler visitors.

Communicating science accessibly

One of my most significant points of personal growth this summer has been in my science writing. My love for writing has taken a new perspective as I’ve been able to learn how to communicate my research on very niche astronomy topics, like dark energy or machine learning, for the general public. I was able to share part of my journey of choosing astronomy in the ‘working life’ section of Science Magazine, which culminated with my presentation of three posters and a talk at the International Astronomical Union Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa! 

In addition to all the inspirational things that happened at work, I witnessed the auroras in the middle of Chicago off of North Ave pier, reflecting off Lake Michigan!

Place to learn and grow

After one of the most fullfilling summers of my life, I can reflect back to that first day after I walked through the door and Laura began showing me around the building. Along the way we ran into Adler President, Michelle Larson. The three of us had a lovely chat about how excited we were about what the summer would hold and how quickly it would go by. That was an understatement. In hindsight, that conversation was representative of the next few months. I witnessed the exceptional work environment these ladies (and the whole team!) have created here. They have made Adler and Zooniverse places where people come to learn and grow, not only as science enthusiasts but as people. In my experience, this is very rare to find. From the projects, to the people, to the place of Chicago, I spent this summer learning, laughing, and growing as a science communicator and a human. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this community through the NSF INTERN program, and I hope to continue collaborating with the Adler/Zooniverse team into the future! 

The guest post was written by Lindsay R. House, a Science Communicator with Adler Planetarium and Zooniverse in Chicago from April to August 2024. Lindsay is the project lead for the NASA-Zooniverse participatory science project, Dark Energy Explorers. Lindsay spent this time at Adler on a supplemental National Science Foundation INTERN grant, which allowed her to gain valuable science communication skills that complement her studies as a 5th-year Astronomy Ph.D. student at the University of Texas Austin.