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The World-Wide Day in Science
Will Rifkin & Pippa Shuff
willrifkin@unsw.edu.au
pippa.shuff@ntlworld.com
What were
you doing on 15 April 2005? What will you be doing on 12 April 2006? Research,
writing, organising, holding meetings, teaching, mentoring? All of the above?
When you were in high school did you have any idea that is where science would
take you? Your account of a day in the life of science, a typical day or an
extraordinary day, can make a student’s career choices clearer.
An aim to help students to see
“inside” science and feel more a part of the scientific
community sparked the World-Wide Day in Science project (WWDS). WWDS captures “a
day in the life of science” once a year as seen through the eyes of scientists
and students. These snapshots fill our website (www.science.unsw.edu.au/worldwide).
As the Day in Science experience is typically one-on-one and followed by a
report published on the web, we term it a “virtual event.”
Here is a sample from a range of the women in science involved of what emerged from the WWDS virtual event of 15 April 2005.
Natasha
Tian, second-year PhD student working in brain development at Edinburgh
University, wrote:
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Natasha Tian reflected on the view from her hotel window in Colorado, site of a conference from which she had just returned |
‘The promise of freshly-brewed coffee and sweet temptations from the bakery have nothing to do with my enthusiasm for Friday morning lab meetings. I usually look forward to these informal gatherings of three main labs as it gives us a chance to find out what everybody is working on in the lab. Today I require an extra caffeine injection to counteract lingering jetlag from a conference in Colorado …. ’
Marina Pi
works in the quarantine room of l’Aquarium de Barcelona. According to
science communication students from Pompeu Fabra University who shadowed her,
she and
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On the Day in Science, Marina Pi of l’Aquarium de Barcelona. |
colleagues “prepare the phytoplankton that will be used to feed zooplankton. At the same time, zooplankton feeds bigger fishes. Marina feels very proud when a newcomer fish leaves the quarantine room and goes to its aquarium. Her work has been worthwhile!!!” The students note the irony, “her name — Marina — comes from Mar, the Catalan name for Sea...”
Jeannie-Marie
LeRoi, Science Communicator,
University of Tasmania, described
her day as:
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Jeannie-Marie LeRoi tests the protein and glucose content of foods with visiting school children |
7.30am Read Terry Pratchett’s Science of Discworld over breakfast. Great book. Links science theory with a Discworld story - my sort of writing…
9.00am Arrived at office – Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, University of Tasmania. I’m the “Science Marketing and Communication Officer,” full-time, as of this year.
Checked and replied to email – heaps as usual.
Paid Australian Science Communicators registration. Have to set a good example, particularly as I’ve just taken over the role of Tasmanian branch co-ordinator.
Booked accommodation for Future Moves, a travelling course and career program that visits schools and colleges on the north-west coast of Tasmania. Heading off mid — May for 4 days.
Edited article for University’s newsletter on the winning science teacher for the 2005 Prize for Science/Maths Teaching in Secondary Schools presented at the Research & Teaching Awards Evening at Parliament House.
11.30am Faculty meeting – planning and
review.
12.30pm Time for lunch break today – yay! This doesn’t happen very often.
Thirteen-year-old
Yvonne Chan of
Pymble Ladies’ College in Sydney described
her Day in Science:
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Yvonne Chan watched her sister, Isa, complete another day’s research on crystals in the School of Chemistry at UNSW. |
‘It all started 3 days before 15th April.
My 21 year old sister came home and
asked me if I was interested in shadowing
her around her uni, the University
of New South Wales (UNSW), for a day
and report to all the other high school
students around the world on what being
a scientist is like for the World Wide Day
in Science. And since I was on my Easter
break, this was excellent opportunity. Of
course, along the road, I’ve
always been interested in
science because of various
reasons. Reasons such as
how my Dad does engineering
and excels in Physics.
And my sister chose to
do a degree in Chemistry
because, ‘my family has
always been pursuing
occupations that are more
practical, and Chemistry
is definitely one!’’ So with
all that, I pretty much have
my life planned out. And
to be what, you might ask?
For me, I want to become a
successful doctor! ’
On 12
April 2006, the third World-Wide
Day in Science will take place and you are
invited to become involved in the project as
much or as little as you wish.
On this day, university science students worldwide
set out into laboratories, offices, forests,
fields, and deserts to shadow a scientist of
their choosing. High school students shadow
university students and a range of scientists
take a few minutes to write up a diary entry
on their own day. Using written accounts,
photos, audio and video, these observations
are presented on the World-Wide Day in
Science website.
Students participating in the World-Wide
Day in Science become part of an active
global network of scientists-in-the-making
employing the very observation, organisation,
and communication skills that they will need
as scientists in the future. They learn what
botanists, psychologists, and astrophysicists
do all day and ultimately, they deliver a professional
product – an online, global career guide
in science that is available to students like
themselves the world over.
The participating scientists act as “virtual role models” for the students and become their mentors for the day, without the formal, public presentation that is demanded by so many science outreach events. They gain practice in explaining their work in simple clear terms.
To learn more about getting involved, please
contact us at wwds@unsw.edu.au, or Dr Will
Rifkin (willrifkin@unsw.edu.au) or Pippa
Shuff (pippa.shuff@ntlworld.com). Visit our website (http://www2.science.unsw.edu.au/worldwide/index.html) and ask us to send
you WWDS fridge magnets. We can provide teaching materials and support as
required.
Bio: Will Rifkin PhD is Director of the Science
Communication Program in the Faculty of Science
at the University of New South Wales. He is an
engineer trapped in the body of a sociologist, who
once turned down an offer to become a co-inventor of
the computer mouse. He is a leading educational
innovator in Australia.
Bio: Pippa Shuff, originally from the UK, is currently living in Prague, Czech Republic, where she is promoting the WWDS in Europe and the US. She also works as a freelance researcher, for a UK based consultancy, investigating a variety of science and technology topics for multi-national clients.
