Masters student Hayley Bridgwood found knowledge, inspiration and useful case studies at CitSciOz18
- Hayley Bridgwood from University College Dublin, Ireland
Well what a fabulous few days at the CitSciOz 2018 Conference!
As an MSc (Environmental Sustainability) candidate through University College Dublin I have been pursuing various areas of academic interest including ecology and genetics as they relate to conservation – all with the view to ultimately work with landholders and support them in sustainable agricultural practices. The conference has given me a much greater appreciation of the value of aggregated data and the roles that landholders might play in being part of the first line of research.
I came to the Conference with a very novice understanding of citizen science and online crowdsourcing. And I left with a very full head and loads of useful case studies and fascinating stories of science in action – from small-scale community projects to large scale, evidently very-well funded and technologically advanced ventures. A particular highlight for me was the study of acoustic patterns of local birds, which can be analysed and taught to captive bred individuals to facilitate their reintroduction. Fascinating!
Since returning home, I have already shared a good number of case studies with the Masters candidates I work alongside at The University of Melbourne, and actively sought out examples of citizen science projects they might introduce and engage with in their own classrooms.
The conference was definitely a springboard for me to further pursue my passion for science communication and education. It was absolutely inspiring to be able to engage in so many interesting and high-quality conversations with the conference speakers and delegates. Thank you to all contributors for making it such a memorable event.