🦈8.10 Shoals Marine Lab: Outreach Presentation Day
For this project, I’m tasked with creating a product or media that communicates scientific information to a non-science audience. The goal is to either inform or persuade the audience about a key topic from the assigned article. I’ll have the freedom to choose the format, such as a children’s book, an interactive game, or an infographic. First, I’ll outline the project and meet with my instructional team for feedback. Then, I’ll develop my product and present it in a 10-minute class presentation. After the presentation, I’ll submit a written description along with the product. The project steps include identifying the problem or key information I want to convey, explaining its connection to the scientific paper, defining the target audience, and describing how my product will effectively solve the problem or communicate the information.
For my outreach project, I’m proposing a beach volleyball tournament in La Jolla, California, aimed at raising funds for research on soupfin sharks, a critically endangered species. The tournament will target college students, aged 18 to 24, due to their strong connection with beach culture and their frequent presence at the beach during both the school year and summer. This demographic is also highly engaged with popular social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which will help generate interest in the event. The idea behind this project is not only to raise funds but also to engage the local community in the conservation efforts surrounding soupfin sharks.
The background of this project stems from the groundbreaking study by Nosal et al. (2021), which revealed that female soupfin sharks exhibit a triennial reproduction and migration cycle, returning to La Jolla every three years during their gestation period. This discovery opened up many opportunities for further research on these sharks, as very little was previously known about their migration patterns and behaviors. With the goal of supporting future research, I decided that a beach volleyball tournament would be an effective way to engage college students in the cause while benefiting shark conservation. In addition to the tournament, there will be exclusive merchandise like volleyballs and shirts that serve as both a fundraiser and a way to educate attendees about the sharks.
The volleyball tournament will be organized as a single-elimination competition with teams of four players, and the entry fee will be $80 per team. Spectators will be charged $15 for adult tickets and $10 for children. We will also offer exclusive merchandise, including shirts and volleyballs, designed with simple, appealing visuals related to soupfin sharks. The shirt design will feature a soupfin shark alongside the lab's name, with brief details about the species and its conservation status on the back. This will allow returning players and spectators to track the species' conservation progress over the years. The volleyball design will feature a unique soupfin shark graphic and the tournament year, making it a collectible item.
Ultimately, the volleyball tournament and merchandise sales will serve as an engaging and impactful way to raise funds for ongoing soupfin shark research. With 70% of the profits going to HAAZ Laboratories for future research, the tournament will ideally become an annual event that not only fosters community engagement but also supports the long-term conservation of this endangered species.
