The IRIS Education and Public Outreach Standing Committee discussed foundational and frontier capabilities for a future facility in their April 2015 meeting. This document presents these topics and expands upon them.
Foundational Capabilities
The rewards for a strong educational and public outreach (EPO) program in the future facility/facilities are immense, and hence EPO will play a fundamental role.
A future facility should have strengths in: informal public outreach and education, formal education, and professional training and resources. Each of these strengths builds upon and should be integrated with the others.
In a time in which misinformation travels as readily as information, informal education and public outreach through a future facility will provide reliable content on earth science, seismology, and hazards, and can work to reduce public and political misinformation in these fields. Moreover, informal education can serve as a recruiting tool to bring a new and diverse worker pool into the earth sciences, by reaching out to groups that may not typically be exposed to seismology and earth sciences.
The future facility/facilities should be leaders in providing open-access to seismic data and resources for research and education. This includes displays, “Teachable
Moments”, videos, animations, apps, sensors designed for education, and informal learning documentation.
Formal education is also envisioned as an important capability of the future facility/facilities, which will provide standards-based scientifically vetted content for grades K-16. This will not only include written materials, but also animations and slides, data, and user-friendly software. Training and outreach for teachers at all levels is essential.
Formal education also dovetails with professional training, including meetings, webinars, field trips, and internships. Professional training will continue to have a special focus on early career researchers, who are those that are between starting graduate school and being established in their professional careers.
A governance committee consisting of scientists and educators from the community will provide important guidance in assessing the quality of products, integrating the latest seismological and education research, and meeting the needs of the communities served.

Frontier Capabilities
In today and tomorrow's world, media consumers from the general public to students engaging in formal training expect polished materials. Frontier EPO materials will lead educational technology advancements to engage the broadest number of learners. This will include slick animations, polished software that works intuitively with sensors designed for education, informal and formal instructional videos, and software for simulations and citizen-science. As much as reasonable, resources should be multilingual, and content will be expanded to include more hazards-based materials. EPO will be integrated throughout the future facility/facilities.
A current challenge for both formal and informal seismology outreach is the lack of networking between seismologists and discipline-based education researchers.
The future facility/facilities will serve as a catalyst to produce these needed connections. As one means of expanding outreach and diversity, connections to and resources for community colleges will be increased.
Resources for early career researchers will also grow, including training webinars, curated course materials, media and software for learning new analysis methods and background theory, and social media and meetings will be used to further develop networks of mentors both in and out of the academic world.
As needed, the new facility/facilities will serve as a forum for education and awareness of seismic and related hazards.
Sincerely,
The IRIS Education and Public Outreach Standing Committee
Derek Schutt, Colorado State University, Chair
Mariela Salas Bao, Chemeketa Community College
Bill Gutsch, Saint Peter's University
Steve Jaume, College of Charleston
Maureen Long, Yale University
John Louie, University of Nevada, Reno
Meghan Miller, University of Southern California
Fred Schroeder, Independent Geologist
Stefany Sit, University of Illinois at Chicago