Last month, President Obama coined the phrase Sputnik moment in regard to the race for new innovations in science and technology. Last night, he raised this issue again in his State of the Union address. The President asserted that in order to support innovation, advance alternate energies, compete in the new global economy, and create jobs, the country needs investments in research and education equivalent to those undertaken during the height of the Space Race.

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We've all seen how video-sharing websites have the power to make everyday events such as frolicking kids and frisky kitchens go viral. Well then, we should be able to harness that power to deliver engaging content about items that impact our every day. Items such as climate change, water quality, and public health issues—topics so important, they warrant space on our screens. The challenge is that these topics don't have the warm and fuzzy factor of frolicking kids and frisky kittens.

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Chilling question when your middle school days are long behind you and you're reminded of just how not hip you are each time you put on the tv, the radio, or Google. Nonetheless, What would a 7th grader do? --has been the guiding question for the coral and climate change module IAN is developing for the Pacific Island Network Inventory and Monitoring Program at the National Park Service (NPS).

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Stepping out between two patches of naupaka—a Hawaiian coastal shrub with a blossom that looks like it has been cut in half—we see the sharp angles of black lava rock breaking the surface of turquoise water and the regal posts of a heiau (place for ceremonial rituals) climbing into the sky.

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How do we learn about the world around us? How do we tap into the natural curiosity kids possess? How do you create a sense of place in a virtual world? Such hefty questions require expert knowledge from a variety of fields.

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Single digit temperatures, predictions of snow, and a six-inch blanket of the white stuff already on the ground seemed like a chilly proposition to Emily Nauman and me, Joanna Woerner, both Maryland Easternshorers who are acclimated to mild winters. However, as IAN Science Communicators we were eager to brave old man winter in order to present a Communicating Science Effectively course at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.

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