Tuesday 13 April 2021

Outreach and workshops

 

COVID has meant that so many things have gone virtual! Personally, I believe this offers so much more to the public and opens up opportunities that perhaps would not have been there before. 


I have been taking the time to do lots of outreach! Recently I have been asked to be involved with a film project with AliEnergy in Argyll to present different STEM roles in Argyll. Argyll is where SAMS is based. 


What is STEM? STEM is SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING & MATHS

All of these 4 topics fit into my job role, so as a female they wanted to show that women are doing these roles too, to I suppose make it normal? 


Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIeYQskKULA





Zoom is a great tool because lots of people can join and it is easy to share a PowerPoint to everyone's screen. There is also a chat function and an icon where you can raise a virtual hand if you would like to speak. 



The other great tool is google docs. For example, a shared google doc can be looked at and edited by lots of people at the same time. So whilst on the zoom in a workshop everyone can work together and follow through the steps, chats, and ideas. 

In January I attended the first section of the NZOC workshop. As explained on the website, "NZOC (Net Zero Oceanographic Capability) is a £250k scoping project funded by NERC to inform planning for the future low carbon oceanographic research capability in line with UKRI’s objectives of becoming a net zero organisation by 2040. 
NOC’s National Marine Facilities (NMF) division has been selected to lead a team of national experts investigating the drivers and enablers of future oceanographic research. The project includes 6 work packages investigating future: (i) science need, (ii) policy & regulation, (iii) ship technologies, (iv) Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS), (v) sensor systems & networks, and (vi) data ecosystems.
The project welcomes interest from UK and international academic and industry players who wish to contribute to the recommendations that will inform NERC’s strategic planning."

I joined the first workshop on the science need. I have worked with marine labs all across the country and know lots of people at various different institutes so it was great to "see" faces that I have not seen for a while and to also get involved with some great discussions.


The other great thing that I have been involved with is giving talks to both my old Women's Institute and old Scouts group back in Wales! 



I have also been getting into podcasts. Podcasts are so good to listen to whilst driving or doing a meaningless task! Weirdly at the same time as I have been getting into listening to podcasts, I have been asked to be involved in a few.
My friend and also colleague Celeste Kellock has started a new podcast called Our Earth Podcast. We met on a research cruise a few years ago and just had such a great chat about so many different topics! http://sazreed.blogspot.com/.../what-we-got-up-to-on...



 You can listen to the podcast herehttps://anchor.fm/celeste-kellock 

The other podcast that I have been involved in and it also has some great Antarctic chats on is Story Tellers of Stemm https://open.spotify.com/episode/0tTArQImTy4AMffCeCTBzY
Hopefully, I will also be featured on the new Sky News Climate show soon!