Face to face with oceanographers: PICES outreach of ocean science to Qingdao public schools

Prior to PICES-2015, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) in Qingdao, China, contacted the Secretariat with an extraordinary request-would people please identify several PICES scientists from outside of China to present short lectures on marine science to several school classes during the week of PICES Annual Meeting. It sounded like an excellent opportunity for PICES scientists to contribute marine expertise to a younger than normal, and probably quite receptive audience. Follow-up correspondence between the Secretariat and LOC led to the author contacting a subset of the PICES community to gauge interest in this outreach activity. Very quickly (within 3 days) we learned that there was enthusiastic interest and many more scientist volunteers ready to participate than could be accommodated. The school visits were so successful that they may become a regular activity at future Annual Meetings if there is early expressed interest by the host country, and commitment by a local coordinator to identify the schools and facilitate the visits.