Scientific Ocean Drilling

This is tough, but I'll say the Manzanar National Historic Site in Inyo County, CA, a restored internment camp from WWII. The stark, austere facility is quite powerful with the high Sierra to the west and the desert to the east. The power for me is in the physical space, the geography and the knowledge of what transpired. (Note: I might change my mind.)

I was extremely impressed with the public engagement around the Mars Perseverance Mission which arrived on Mars recently. To engage the public, people were able to submit their names to show interest, and all of those names traveled inside the vehicle to the surface of Mars. There were numerous programs and press conferences explaining the mission, with special focus on engaging children. The day of the landing, much of the press coverage was Q and A for the general public, including children. They have also done an excellent job with social networking and their website.

[quote=Shelley Whitmeyer]
The Cross Sound Ferry, which travels from New London CT to Orient Point NY, has a small room with an exhibit created by Mystic Aquarium. The exhibit itself focuses on Long Island Sound, which is great because the ferry crosses the sound. What I was most impressed with was the location. The ferry trip is just over an hour long and there are always parents trying to entertain children. Families will visit the exhibit because there is nothing else to do. What a great place to reach people who may not go out of their way to engage in a science exhibit. This has made me wonder, where else to kids get stuck with nothing to do?

We did a similar thing on a ferry across a lake in the Lake District, showing the multibeam image of the ferry's trip so that the people onboard could see the lakebed beneath them. A captive audience!! Worked really well

Call me old school, but when I think about it, the most memorable public engagement experiences for me were hearing someone who has had an interesting experience related to the content give a talk (with visuals) about their experiences. I both feel a personal connection with the speaker in front of me, as they can't help but convey some of the emotions they felt during the experience, while also learning information in a memorable way. These, of course, can be potentially painful if the person doesn't have good social skills or an ability to speak about their work without jargon, but if the person is a good public speaker, those are the experiences that stick out the most to me. (Though, also, it occurs to me these kind of public talks don't necessarily draw a crowd unless they are part of a series that has already built up an audience.)