On 6 May 2023, the Integration and Application Network team comprised of Dr. Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen, Sidney Anderson, Joe Edgerton and me participated in the Open House at the Institute of Marine Environmental Technology (IMET) in downtown Baltimore. It was a glorious day and roughly 800 people attended the Open House, with lots of kids attending. Cherry Hill school which is located on the other side of the harbor from IMET, brought along a large contingent of teachers and students. I caught up with a former UMCES intern, Kane Samuel, and met lots of interesting people.

Dr. Russell Hill, IMET Director, and his faculty, staff and students really put on a great event. There were tours of the Aquaculture Research Center, touch tanks, interactive science displays and even science/art instillations. The IMET facility really works well for an Open House, with displays outside the building, inside on the first floor, and up on the second floor under the tent.

The Integration and Application Network exhibit was a mini listening session regarding perceptions of the open house visitors about their perceptions of the Patapsco River and Inner Harbor. First, we had them locate where they lived, worked/studied, and played. We learned that open house attendees came from a diversity of Baltimore neighborhoods, and from areas in the surrounding counties. They worked or studied in downtown Baltimore and several other locations like Towson. Attendees indicated that they liked to play in and around the Inner Harbor, Middle Branch and the Patapsco River, in addition to the parks and reservoirs surrounding Baltimore. They generated word clouds for what they valued about the Patapsco River and watershed (fishing, hiking, swimming and views) and what threatened those values (pollution, trash and people). We asked them about what indicators would be good to measure, and they indicated water quality and biotic measures, cultural events like festivals, social equity indicators and environmental education. We also had participants articulate their vision for a future Baltimore harbor and they responded with a fishable, swimmable, and trash free harbor adjacent to resilient communities.

The IMET Open House coincided with the American Visionary Art Museum’s Kinetic Sculpture Race. The people-powered elaborate sculpture race went right by the IMET entrance, so we had great views of the fun and interesting sculptures. Since the sculptures were people-powered (e.g., bicycles), we were able to wave to the participants and hear their singing, music and shouts.

I really like science open houses that engage with the public, particularly with kids. Some of the people told me that they attended the open house because they had seen the iconic IMET building with its large circus tent roof and wanted to know what went on inside. Others were bringing along their kids who were intrigued about science and technology. My hope is that some of the children or young adults attending the open house will be inspired to pursue science or technology fields by seeing the diversity of interesting and socially relevant topics that are being investigated with some pretty cool tools.