1. Sharing Planetary Science
Making Planetary Science Relevant
LPI Education and Public Engagement
June 12, 2018

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3. Making It Relevant
Imagine you are giving a presentation about your research (or planetary science in general) to a public audience, to a school group, or to a club.
What do we mean by relevant?
Why is it useful or important to “make it relevant” for your audience?

4. Research on Relevance
Wilson and Sperber (2004) : “the search for relevance is a basic feature of human cognition, which communicators may exploit.”
Roberson (2013): “When a speaker provides relevance for a listener, the speaker conveys his or her intentions to the listener by tapping into the listener’s cognitive need to make sense of the world.”
Relevance is important to teaching and learning because it is directly related to student engagement and motivation (Frymier & Schulman, 1995; Martin & Dowson, 2009).

5. Research on Relevance
Relevance can be demonstrated by connecting to how the content is useful, or how it is related.
Utility value is purely academic and emphasizes the importance that content has for the listener’s future goals (Ormrod, 2006).
Relatedness on the other hand, answers the question “What’s this have to do with me?”
For further information about relevance, see “Helping Students Find Relevance,” Psychology Teacher Network, American Psychological Association, Sept

6. Audiences
Making it relevant will depend on your audience. What are some examples of audiences you might address?

7. Relevance Factors
What are some ways to make planetary science relevant to an audience?

8. Relevance Factors Please sort the cards:
Which factors are easier to connect to your research?
Which factors are you more comfortable using in a presentation?
Discuss with your group or in the chat.
Cards are online at

9. Connecting to their Knowledge
Most elementary students know the names of the planets and their order. They may be studying lunar phases.
Many middle school students have learned some characteristics of planets, the structure of the Earth, lunar phases, and plate tectonics.
Many high school students and adults do not recall anything further about planetary science or solar system exploration; however, select audiences will know much more.
How does this affect your public engagement?

10. Your Presentation Goals
How you frame your presentation and incorporate relevance will also depend on your goals.
Do you want to:
Spark their interest in science?
Increase your audience’s understanding of your research?
Increase their awareness of or interest in planetary science?
Increase their understanding of what science is and how it is done?
Increase their understanding of or interest in the solar system? Of solar system exploration? Of NASA?
Other?

11. An Example Topic: The Solar System
My Goals: increase students’ interest in science, and knowledge of the solar system
Audience: classroom of elementary students
Factors I would use: Audience’s knowledge, local culture
These factors connect because students will be studying the solar system, including the order of the planets and the scale.
If the class has a large number of Spanish-speaking students, I can connect the days of the week in Spanish to the names of the planets.
How I would incorporate them:
I would invite the students to share what they know about the solar system particularly at the beginning, and use what they’ve shared throughout the talk.
I would incorporate the scale of the solar system during the presentation.
I would invite the students to help me determine which day of the week is named after which planet, as we go through the solar system.

12. Planning Your Presentation
Spend 5 minutes jotting down your ideas on the worksheet.
For those online, the worksheets are available at engagement/Relevancy-Worksheet.pdf
Please spend 5 minutes sharing your thoughts with colleagues at your table or online.
Top thoughts to share with everyone?

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