| Issue 62 (WAIS 2) Contents
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Science in the Bush
Robyn Stutchbury
Peripatus Productions
Science in the Bush is a series of up to 12 sessions featuring eminent women scientists as guest speakers at social events in regional centres and remote country towns across Australia. The Department of Education, Science and Training funds this highly successful program, which has just completed its third year. Although most sessions are staged around the time of National Science Week, the series runs for around six months. The organisers draw on a wide network of high-profile scientists and talented young scientists, all of who are inspirational speakers.
The events are organised on the ground by local community organisations and are co-hosted by a popular celebrity from ABC Local Radio. The event is recorded and highlights are played on air. In addition, promotional interviews are broadcast before each event. This brings the substance of the speakers’ talks to a much wider audience. In all cases, at least one interview with each guest speaker was broadcast on Local Radio and in some centres the scientists and organisers were interviewed for Prime TV.
Last year (2002) ten Science in the Bush events were held between June and September: two in each of NSW, Victoria and Queensland, and one in each of SA, Tasmania, NT and WA. Attendance at events ranged from 35 to 230 with audiences reflecting the nature of the topic—there were just two men present for Professor Helen O’Connell’s topic: The Science of Blind Spots – the evolution of female pelvic anatomy whereas men were in the majority for Dr Jane Wright’s War against Pests … in silos and homes.
The elegance of this program is the way in which many existing organizations and networks have been drawn together so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It has achieved its goal of providing regional and rural people with direct access to leading researchers and a variety of topical subjects. This year we succeeded in running a number of supplementary events in addition to the ten core Science in the Bush sessions. The supplementary events included guest appearances at local shows, guest of honour at community group dinners, and school visits where careers in science and the importance of science to our economy were discussed.
The structure turns out to be an extremely successful recipe for attracting the attention and interest of local communities. Scientists speak to packed rooms of people who come from far and wide to hear them, and to meet the local radio host. The comments from the evaluation forms make it clear that they go away satisfied that they have learnt some-thing new about a scientific topic.
The scientists feel honoured to be given such a hearing and one of the team remarked that it would be difficult to attract such crowds to similar lectures given in Sydney or Melbourne. They agree that such events, backed up by ABC broadcasts, are a unique opportunity to encourage young people to consider studying science at their institutions and to create outreach. Those who cannot attend are able to hear the highlights of the event and interviews with the scientist on their local ABC station.
Science in the Bush 2002
‘
… I was virtually up to my armpits in rhino and cow
shit every day!’ Until she uttered these words, Dr
Jane Wright had been peering into the glazed eyes
of some 300 Kingaroy High School students at
their morning assembly. Immediately there was a buzz
of laughter and the glazed eyes sparkled with
interest. Jane continued with the description of her
first job as an entomologist with the CSIRO in South
Africa working on dung beetles. A number of
students appeared rapt with the adventures
and challenges she had experienced as a scientist.
The school visit was just one of Jane’s ‘Science in the Bush duties’.
Dr Wright was invited by Science in the Bush to address an audience at Kingaroy on ‘War against Pests … in silos and homes”. This audience differed from many Science in the Bush sessions in having more than 50% men. Perhaps this was because there was more concern for insects’ roles in silo storage losses than for the loss of Uncle Toby’s Oats in the home. Kingaroy’s economy depends on safe storage of peanuts and grains. Jane explained that Australia now leads the world in environmentally sound methods for destroying insect pests and that this has led to a very impressive increase in the quality — and thus the value—of our agricultural exports. There were also benefits for Jane. The informal discussions over supper gave her the opportunity to develop contacts interested in field-testing some of the CSIRO’s new grain storage products.
The Kalgoorlie session, “The Science of Blind Spots: the evolution of female pelvic anatomy” was presented by Dr Helen O’Connell, a Melbourne urologist working on the structure and function of the clitoris. She explained that historically the clitoris has been described mostly by men in terms of the penis and other male anatomy. Her work has shown that the clitoris is a far larger and more complex structure than previously known. There was only one male in the audience - the local GP who commented, ‘It is so refreshing to have such a high-powered scientist visit Kalgoorlie.’ He said later that he’d learnt more from Helen’s session than many medical courses attended as part of his professional development.
Professor Sue Serjeantson, Executive Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science was invited to Mt Gambier (SA) to discuss “Spare parts for humans”, which included recent outcomes of stem cell research.
In NSW, the Bega community invited Professor Shirley Alexander to present her ideas on “A Day in the Life of the Future”. In Orbost (Victoria) where issues involving the Snowy River and forestry are of concern to the community, they invited Dr Dedee Woodside, an ecologist and change management consultant, to present an objective overview of the problems.
“Plants of the Future” was the topic chosen by the Emerald (Qld) community on the eve of its major agricultural show AGRO 2002. It was presented by Professor Jann Conroy from the Centre for Horticulture and Plant Sciences at the University of Western Sydney Science in the Bush 2002 met with the same enthusiasm and support as did the previous two seasons. There is an obvious need for distinguished scientists to visit regional communities.
Science in the Bush in 2003 is being organised by Alison Leigh, Robyn Stutchbury and Jennifer Richards.