This study investigates how scientist-led educational programs, held in libraries, can make local science issues relevant to families. Given the need for an educated citizenry, it is important to explore if scientists -- as learning facilitators -- can use educational strategies to engage intergenerational groups. We view family learning from a sociocultural perspective where parent-child interactions and sensemaking practices are the focus of our analysis. We analyzed three water quality-themed workshops held at public libraries consisting of 25 hours of video data. With a focus on 17 participant family groups, we closely examined the influence of questions asked by three different scientists (each leading a workshop) to understand how the structure of these questions supported or did not support the families in sensemaking conversations. Our findings revealed a relationship between the types of questions the scientists asked and families' talk related to the program content. Specifically, three questioning patterns emerged that either supported or hindered family connecting conversations: (1) family-focused question prompts, (2) scientist-focused question prompts (anti-questions), and (3) closed-ended question prompts. Our analysis illustrates that personally-relevant family learning about science in their community is supported by conversational opportunities for families to make connections between science and their shared experiences.