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Next I’m going to introduce
Pablo Llerandi-Román.

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He’s a geologist, educator, and
science communicator currently

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working with the U.S. Forest Service –
the U.S. Forest Service – a natural

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resource education specialist at Bosque
Nacional El Yunque in Puerto Rico.

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I’m sorry if I butchered that, Pablo.
Please correct me when you –

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when you start your talk. And adjunct
professor in physical sciences.

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He has a bachelor’s in science 
and an M.S. in geology from

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University of Puerto Rico-Mayagūez
and a Ph.D. in science education

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research from Purdue University.
He is a co-author of a blog,

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and he’s also written several essays
and books around geoscience issues

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in Puerto Rico. Thank you so much
for being here today, Pablo.

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I’m very much looking
forward to your talk.

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- Thank you, Sara.
And no problem with the Spanish.

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It is El Yunque National Forest,
or Bosque Nacional El Yunque.

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So, good afternoon, everybody.
I’ll be talking about a topic that is

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related to what Lorna and Elizabeth
mentioned, or presented, earlier.

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But I’ll be focusing on aspects related
to science communication, empathy,

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and bridging that gap that occasionally
exists out there within the natural

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sciences and the social sciences and also
bringing the science to the people.

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So essentially, I’ll be working – I’ll be
presenting information regarding to our

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activities during the seismic sequence
locally on the southwest part of the

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island and also how people reacted
to our blogs and to our face-to-face

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meetings and presentations that
we did in Guánica, Yauco,

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and other towns in the
southwestern part of Puerto Rico.

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I’m trying to go to
the next slide – yeah.

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This is simply for context.
This is an image by Tania López

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Marrero from UPR-Mayagūez.
And the image is a bit dated now.

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July 2020 wasn’t the end
of the seismic sequence.

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But I hope that you have a better
perspective – a geographical perspective

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on the location of those epicenters
and the amount of those earthquakes

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measured by the PRSN and
USGS and presented to

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the public through
numerous media.

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This is also, like, a direct comparison
to the effects – the psychological effects

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and the economical and
physical effects of these earthquakes

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to the people in that
part of Puerto Rico.

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A picture that depicts some of the
damage that occurred in that area.

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And I have to say, very honestly,
that this is something very personal –

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deeply personal because a family member 
needed to abandon her apartment due to the

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damages suffered due to the earthquake,
and she wasn’t near the main earthquake

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area. She was in Mayagūez.
And this is an example of

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how many people in
Puerto Rico were impacted.

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Physically and
psychologically, emotionally.

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[silence]

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Again, I’m trying to
change my slides.

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Okay, there you go.
What we were able to witness in the –

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in southwestern Puerto Rico is that,
even though this earthquake sequence

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impacted many of us – different
socioeconomic strata, including the

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diaspora, for many reasons that also
includes the assistance that –

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assistance that people brought to
the southwest, it’s that those in the

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lower socioeconomic strata
were the most impacted.

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At least in my experience
and based on what I observed.

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You can see here that people –
even though they have the abilities

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to build and construct, they didn’t
have the means, so they were trying to

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save their possessions with
anything that they were able to

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find during those events.
As you can see in that image.

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Residents of certain communities
approached us, and they were

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very interested in our opinion
on the safety of their properties.

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You can see that house
on the top of the hill.

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This is a weathered serpentinite
outcrop that clearly has some

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evidence of previous
landslides in the area.

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And people build on those houses
without a solid understanding

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of the geohazards implied
on building those houses.

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This image was taken near
the Punta Montalva Fault.

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I would say that this is
part of the fault zone.

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You can see the strata
underneath that house.

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And the residents of that house were
so emotionally affected that they

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started painting their fractures that
they observed in their property

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just to make sure that they had
a comparison before and after

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if there was some damage
appearing in the properties.

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This seismic sequence triggered
many interesting aspects

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in Puerto Rican society,
from my perspective.

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People from all over the island –
from all over the archipelago,

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actually, were trying to help.
And they were organizing activities to

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raise funds and to collect foods and
other items for those that were in refuge.

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As you can see on the image to
your right, this is a screenshot of

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a TV news show that clearly talks
about almost 7,500 refugees in

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Puerto Rico in the southwest part
of the island in January of 2020.

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But the result of this is that many
residents were spending their days

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in refuge and – I’m sorry – were
spending their nights in refuge.

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And, during the day, only those that
didn’t have the means to go back to their

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houses were actually staying there.
But these refuge were established

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in schools, where they had medical
assistance and food assistance.

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And they became, like,
the center of the communities.

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And, when we visited those refuge
and talked to the people there, really,

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there was a major concern among the
population, and the major concern

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was that Puerto Ricans
were leaving the island.

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They were leaving the sectors.
And they were really concerned

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about the potential economic
impacts and social impacts

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of that situation
in the future.

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So Elizabeth talked
about this a little bit.

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There were a lot of misconceptions
spread through social media –

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conspiracy theories. And I am – I’m
calling them pseudoscience concepts.

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Because people use whatever idea that
they were able to find in social media

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and elevated those ideas to hypotheses
about what was happening.

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And also conspiracy theories
about the government against

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the Puerto Ricans, etc.
And that triggered a major call

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for scientists to back up – like,
Elizabeth [inaudible] to come down

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to the southwest and talk to the people
and do our best to help our population

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understand the concepts.
So, for me, it triggered an inspiration

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to go a little bit beyond outreach
and thinking about potential studies,

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not for the sake of doing the studies,
but because we need an empirical

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base related to science
education in Puerto Rico.

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And this is an important aspect
to consider in – I would say that

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everywhere, we have science
education experts – people that

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are willing to talk to the public.
People that, as I explain it,

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are in the interface between
the natural and social sciences.

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And we can come up with ideas
and projects to develop

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an important empirical base.
And, in our case, we were inspired

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by research on the – on contextualized
science education, culturally relevant

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science education, and also research
regarding the misconceptions,

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like Lorna mentioned.
And interestingly, when you look at

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the literature, one of the most
important aspects of us delivering

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information and making sure that people
understand it is to make it contextual.

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That contextualization overcomes
some of the barriers that we have

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naturally to talk
about these issues.

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So we went up to the southwest.
We visited families.

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We visited refugees on their sites.
We talked about and discussed during

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talks the concepts related to the
earthquakes, not only in the southwest,

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but also in San Juan on the
east coast that you can see

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on that picture on the bottom right.
And it was successful for many reasons.

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We essentially went there, and we
listened. We studied the context.

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We talked to the local people.
We talked to the neighbors.

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We asked them what the purpose
of our presence was in their minds.

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And that gave us a really basic scaffold
to develop these meaningful talks in

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which we didn’t – we didn’t go there
with a particular structure or curriculum.

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We were actually talking with them.
We engaged them in conversations

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about their needs. And, at the
same time, we were able to discuss

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some of the major aspects of the
concepts related to seismic events.

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Concurrently, my colleague Daniel –
and friend Daniel Laó Dávila and I have

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a blog – a geoscience blog
that has been active since 2011.

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And Daniel published an important
article for the general public related

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to the seismic sequence.
And this article has been, so far,

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one of the – actually the most
read article so far since 2011.

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The article contained scientific
information explained in a simple way

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maintaining the rigor of the science,
but we always strive to increase

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our level of communication.
Daniel used common-day examples

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explaining the complexity of

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the geology of the southwest.
And, at that time, we didn’t understand

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it quite well what
was happening and why.

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And this information was conveyed in
such a way at an important moment that,

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as you can see in the data – in the
metadata, we had about 60,000 visitors

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in January, about 80,000 views of
our blog, and mainly related to that

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article about the seismic sequence.
So this essentially – we were joining

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forces with a lot of other scientists from
the UPR-Mayagūez, UPR-Río Piedras,

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meteorologists, Ciencia Puerto Rico,
and many other organizations that we

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were working really hard to provide
accurate information to the public.

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The comments of the article were
essentially that the article made

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the concepts easy to understand.
And it was good for the people to

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have a visual perspective
of what was happening.

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And also the use of daily
examples were great for the

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general public to
understand complex concepts.

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In regards to the talks, after the talks,
people actually expressed more

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confidence. They thought that
we were delivering information

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that could save lives.
And, even though they get most of

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the information from social media,
talking to – talking to a scientist is

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actually good for them in terms of
developing a better context for

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understanding these concepts.
So the lessons learned in general –

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and I’m going to finish with this slide –
is that we need to be aware of the

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cultural – of the cultural relevancy
of our interventions in communities

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and in the society.
From my perspective, and from

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the perspective of my colleagues that
accompanied me, we need to listen.

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We need to explore the context first.
And be aware of those misconceptions

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that are lingering. That’s the reason
for developing an empirical baseline.

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And please do not underestimate
people’s knowledge.

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People know a lot. And they
are experts in their own fields.

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They simply do not understand
geoscience as we do because

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they are novice learners.
So approach them as novice learners.

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Understand the traditional ecological
knowledge and acknowledge it.

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And also, please, maintain
the rigor and level of science.

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But we need to all increase
our level of communication.

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We think that this is a great opportunity,
actually, to continue studying this

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phenomenon and provide an important
empirical base for Puerto Rico

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and for the rest of the world.
Thank you very much.

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- Thank you so much, Pablo.
That was a wonderful talk.

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And, from a social science perspective,
I could not agree with you more

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on that communication is
so cultural and context is critical.

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And providing empathetic information
and also understanding that people

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are experts in their own field of study
and life and to be compassionate

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with that and approach them
as first-time learners, so …