I’m really proud to able to highlight the work of two students who I’ve mentored over the past two summers as part of a new summer internship program created by the national Sea Grant office. Check out their fantastic communications work in our latest issue of Chesapeake Quarterly!
Sea Grant
Stuck at Home? #ShuckatHome Series /
What do you do when a pandemic hits, communities go into lockdown, restaurants close, and oyster growers shift their sales efforts to home cooks? You share some resources to help folks learn how to shuck and prepare the tasty bivalves in their own kitchens!
That’s how our Maryland Sea Grant “#ShuckatHome” video series came about at the start of stay-at-home orders for the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago — through a conversation with Aquaculture Extension specialists who were looking for ways to show consumers how easy it is to prepare and enjoy fresh, local shellfish at home. I gave the specialists tips on how to use their smartphones to record themselves in their own kitchens, they uploaded their “how to” clips onto a shared folder on Google Drive, then I created a custom opener and edited the pieces together into episodes. The videos are shared on YouTube channel and via our social media accounts.
I just took part in a session, The Sea Grant COVID-19 Response to the Needs of the Shellfish Industry, at the National Shellfisheries Association annual conference and presented on the series. See the abstract and video of that presentation below.
Here’s the latest episode of the series. The complete playlist can be viewed here.
2021 National Shellfisheries Association Annual Meeting, #Shellfish 21
Abstract: Taking public outreach into home kitchens: Stuck at home? #ShuckatHome!
Lisa D. Tossey & Shannon M. Hood
The rapid spread of coronavirus and the resulting lockdowns led to a host of challenges when it came to traditional approaches to public outreach. Widespread restaurant closures left oyster growers without the market where about 90 percent of their product is normally distributed. Consumers, eager to eat oysters, found themselves ill-equipped to open and prepare oysters in the home. With consumers, oyster growers, and Extension agents largely limited to the confines of their own homes in the Spring of 2020, Maryland Sea Grant Extension agents pivoted to a digital approach to showcase how the public could continue to enjoy oysters in their own home by sharing easy-to-follow preparation tips and recipes.
The team engaged a range of experts, including growers, extension specialists and students to demonstrate a variety of options for at-home oyster consumption. These included various shucking techniques, shuck-less methods, as well as recipe ideas well-suited to the home chef. Recorded using the technology growers and outreach specialists had on hand–smartphones–and produced by the program’s communications staff to have a consistent look and feel, the resulting ‘Shuck at Home’ series was planned so that episodes could be easily viewed across several social media platforms and YouTube. Optimizing the videos for this type of distribution allowed for a wider audience through social sharing and the use of targeted hashtags, as well as track shares and views through various platform analytics.
Here’s the video of that session:
Telling the Story of Plastics Visually /
In working on an issue of Chesapeake Quarterly focused on the science of microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay, there were several elements that needed a great deal of research. We wanted to create a comprehensive timeline on the history of plastics — a resource that we could not find online — as well as a clear infographic to show how plastics can break down in aquatic/marine environments. The resulting pieces are below.
We were short on space for the timeline in the print version of the magazine, as it had to fit in a two-page spread. However, we had more options online, so we expanded the piece into an image-rich ArcGIS Story Map, which made it engaging to explore as well as easy to share!
Short & Sweet - Video recaps for multiple platforms /
Historically, our program has been known for long format documentaries. However, it was clear that we were missing out on opportunities to develop short format videos that can be used as event recaps or to illustrate unique happenings. Such video can be used in a variety of ways to reach a broader audience, from adding them to our YouTube channel, to embedding them in our blog posts, and sharing them across our social media platforms.
Here are a few I’ve shot and produced using footage from several basic cameras: a Nikon Z6 digital mirrorless camera, a GoPro, and my iPhone. Some use voiceovers to tell the story, while others use text on screen, which works well on social feeds.
#MDSGBackyardEcology - Educating from home during a time of telework /
As our program shifted to telework at the beginning of the pandemic, we struggled with how we could continue to connect our social media followers with their local watershed. We were all hunkered down in our homes, but our staff was spread across the state — from the Atlantic Ocean to the mountains of western Maryland. That allowed us to share a wide variety of images of seasonal changes in plants and wildlife from our own backyards to help others discover and learn about what they may be seeing in their own during a time of lockdown.
Crab Cakes 101 - How to make a winning meal /
My latest piece for Delaware Sea Grant - we did our own little cooking demo, showing how to make the winning recipe from the Delaware Coast Day Crab Cake Cook-off. It was something different to do, and although we had to do it under a tight timeframe, it was a whole lot of fun!
Hulls, Hops, and Horseshoe Crabs /
I'm excited to get back to blog posting after Posterous broke my heart ... I'll start with this little highlight video I shot with my GoPro during a fun day with folks from the Mid-Atlantic Marine Education Association (MAMEA).
On Saturday, June 8, educators from throughout the region came to Milton, Del., for “Hulls, Hops, and Horseshoe crabs” a MAMEA mini-conference organized by Christopher Petrone, education specialist at Delaware Sea Grant.
Participants took part in a guided paddle on the Broadkill River, enjoyed a tour of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery that highlighted the science and art of brewing beer, and participated in an evening horseshoe crab spawning survey along the shore of the Delaware Bay.
