We are now in the end of May, and my work with SIOS Knowledge Centre is almost done. I wanted to do this final blog post as a video, but the time flies so fast up here and suddenly it was time for the last post. It feels like I have been here for such a short period, but at the same time it feels like I have been here forever. I have really enjoyed my time here on Svalbard, and I don’t feel ready to leave just yet. As I mentioned in my first post I tried entering this […]
Practical experience as biologist in the Arctic – here you can find student blog-posts and other documentation about their experience from internships in Arctic Longyearbyen, Svalbard as part of the AB-208 Internship course at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS)
So far, my internship consisted mostly of being in the laboratory analyzing samples, helping students, and organizing different sections of the biology department to work more efficiently. I had everything on my Wishlist ticked off, besides one; marine field work! Initially my goal was to get on the AB.203 6-day marine biology cruise – the main reason most of my study mates decided on coming to UNIS and taking the AB-203 course. Unfortunately, there was not enough space for me to join due to corona regulations. I also felt a bit relieved because I tend to get seasick and don’t […]
Even though it´s many minus degrees and the snow is still around, summer is just around the corner! It´s the end of the internship course with now only 2 short weeks left of the semester and I can´t really grasp how fast time have past. I remember how nervous I was the first weeks, afraid that I wasn´t qualified enough, not prepared, not knowledgeable enough and couldn’t imagen a time where I would actually feel confident being part of a workplace here on Svalbard. Now however, four months later, this is exactly what I feel: confident. By having the opportunity […]
Summarizing these last 4-5 months in a 3 minutes video was incredibly hard, yet so rewarding to do. Looking back on all of these marvellous moments I have had, all the amazing people I have been lucky to meet, and all the fun I have had at Longyearbyen school makes me so grateful. I am getting close to the end of the internship period, the end of my stay in Longyearbyen, and the end of my bachelors degree (!) – wait, what?! The internship course has given me a lot of valuable experiences. Being a “teacher” and a student at […]
Episode two is here of the Internship podcast! Emma and Oline reflects over how much (or little!) knowledge they had before they came up to Longyearbyen, sustainability on Svalbard and how you can actually contribute to society as a biologist. Tune in for some happy talks about the internship in Arctic Biology and life in general in Longyearbyen!
As a student your responsibilities tend to affect just you, and you alone. Perhaps you will have a few unhappy study-mates if you don ́t contribute enough in a group, but the damage can often be disregarded. As an employee, you can’t afford to fall of the horse (at least not more than once). Your colleagues depend on you to get your work done, companies work like a machine, where each part has to work and contribute for a successful outcome. Working in the laboratory independently went from being empowering to feeling more lonely, and with repetition of the same […]
This is going to be the last blog post on my internship while I’m still in it. The next one will be a last reflection note on the whole internship from a retrospection. So, I finally will try to answer one of the questions I consider the most important. Who am I now in context of the company Polar Permaculture? I definitely feel like a part of it. At first as a reliable assistance with different working processes. Second, I feel being entrusted with working out a plan for a better Permaculture in Adventdalen in cooperation with Svalbard Husky, which […]
Hello again!The webinar on terrestrial research in Svalbard is getting closer, and I’m currently workingon the talk I will give. Since I’m not a scientist who has been working with reindeer for a verylong time, I will try to focus on letting the listeners know about my contribution to the largerproject BIG (Bjørndalen Integrated Gradients). These months here on Svalbard I have,together with Oline, been on weekly field trips counting the reindeer in Bjørndalen, and wewill use these data to get a better understanding of the spatial ecology of the Svalbardreindeer. As well as counting, we are also looking at […]
In this podcast you will follow two students talking about their experiences from the AB-208 course at UNIS. Emma is having her internship position at Longyearbyen Local Council, whilst Oline is doing her internship at Longyearbyen school. Time is flying, and they are already halfway through the semester. It’s time for reflection; what have the girls learned, and how are they using their biology skills at their workplace? Tune in for some happy talks about the internships and life in general in Longyearbyen!
Hello again! Since the last blogpost, silently and far too fast (yes, this is my opinion), the sun has returned 🙂 I’ve been mostly working on my research project since then. For those who don’t know – I am working on a project connected to Silene acaulis, a moss cushion plant that we are not growing in the Polar Garden, because it grows on its own outside in the field. This work involves many hours in my room and in the library, working with the statistical data managing program R and daily pictures of different cushions. I am mainly annotating […]
Whilst my supervisor named Stuart left on a week’s vacation, I quickly start to get introduced as“the new (mini) Stuart” by the biology department staff to the new arrivals. Since it feels likeStuart is the glue that keeps the department together I am honoured to carry this title for theweek. Before his departure he trained me in DNA extraction, PCR, and gel electrophoresis, to beable to distinguish between two different species of copepods, a project formerly worked on bya PhD student who is currently on a scientific cruise. I was thankful to be given so muchconfidence and trust to take […]
Hello!In my last blog post I wrote about the transformation from polar night to lighter days. Acouple of weeks ago the sun showed itself in Longyearbyen, and we are now moving towardsthe midnight sun. Although I’m used to the polar night in Tromsø, seeing the sun again hasbeen such an incredible feeling, and you can almost feel this different vibe amongst everyonehere. Since last update I’ve started with the planning of a webinar that’s being held in May. As aresponse to new challenges posed from the pandemic, SIOS started a webinar series withmonthly webinars of different topics. I’m happy to […]
Time goes so fast here in the Arctic. It´s already the end of February, the sun is so close to get over the mountains and I´ve been at the local government for more than a month now. As mentioned in my earlier blogpost my placement is at the technical department, where I follow one of the people responsible for questions regarding the environment. I really like this concept of having just one supervisor as it gets so much easier to understand and get into the every-day work, have good communication and be able to discuss why and how things are […]
During my first week as intern I have been working closely with my supervisor. I was pleasantly surprised as I got to spend the entire week in the laboratory! We prepared many agents for a seawater nutrient analyzer machine, and then ran a few hundred samples from various biologist through it to test phosphate, nitrate, nitrite and silicate levels. I found it incredibly useful to see how an analysis as such is ran, as I have never gotten to experience it before; in a Bachelor program the “important/thorough” parts are done by lab technicians (students generally aren’t trusted not to […]
Hello again! We are now in the end of February, the sun is slowly on its way back making a sky of pastel colors and showing us the surrounding mountains of Longyearbyen. The transformation from completely darkness during the polar night truly has been an amazing experience. The lighter days has given better opportunities to explore Svalbard, and I have gotten to visit the ice cave on Scott Turnerbreen as well as Barentsburg. Earlier I had an introduction meeting with the staff at the Knowledge Centre, where I learned about what their work tasks at SIOS are. During the internship […]
Going on my second month in Longyearbyen I have now started to know my way around the surrounding area; the closest mountain tops; the neighbouring valleys; and two of the adjacent glaciers. It is truly amazing to live in what looks like a postcard. I am also starting to get to know pupils and staff at Longyearbyen school. I spent my two first weeks as an intern with the first graders, following their project about animal wildlife on Svalbard. I have also been on a ski trip to Bjørndalen with the sixth form students, where I got to talk a […]
Hello Again. The sun is on her way back 🙂 It’s more than a month for me already living in this small, fascinating place. I got to experience the cold and the arctic survival and safety course – also known as 1001 ways to die in Svalbard. This course is mandatory when taking semester courses and offeres a great practical experience which can be useful for any kind of fieldwork I’m going to carry out. Most interesting content from the outside: rifle training at the shooting range, getting out an ice hole on your own after jumping into in your […]
My name is Maren Christine Hansen and I am currently at the last semester of a bachelor in biology with the University of Bergen. I am originally from Tromsø, but I decided to move southwards because I wasn’t too happy about the cold and dark winters. My original plan was to take one semester in Hawaii to get some sun and warmth, but as I got more into different aspects of biology and climate change my interests gradually moved towards the arctic – especially when I heard about the opportunities on Svalbard and UNIS. This semester I will be joining […]
Heyo, I am Oline, a 28-year-old girl from Sandnes, Norway. I study biology at the University in Tromsø and am now located in lovely Longyearbyen for the last semester of my bachelors. These next few months I will enjoy having an internship at Longyearbyen School, in addition to work on a research project on reindeers in Bjørndalen. This blog is dedicated to share my experiences from my internship position, as well as my understanding of how to apply biology skills in elementary and secondary education. My previous work experience within the field of biology comes mainly from excursions and field […]
On the 17th of January 2021, I arrived in Lonyearbyen completely uncertain of what to expect. I am a biology bachelor student from Nord Universitet in Bodø, out on exchange for the semester. I consider myself extremely lucky, given that I’ve gotten a practical internship at UNIS’s arctic biology department during the mad times of COVID-19. The last months have been quiet and mostly spent at home (large parts of studying eventually happened in my blanket fortress), thus I expect one of my biggest challenges to be to start living by a routine again and show up refreshed and ready […]
Hej! My name is Emma, a biology student from Sweden who, until so very recently had no idea you could actually have the privilege to study here on Svalbard! I´m in my last semester of my bachelor in Biology and Earthscience and found out about UNIS out of total coincidence just a couple of weeks before the application date was due. It has always been a dream of mine to be able to come to the arctic as a field assistant or researcher so to really be here now, taking this so very practical course and AB-207 (Research project in […]
Even though my internship was technically over I still had a few hours left over due to time lost due to COVID. Over the past month I have been doing little bits and pieces for bioCEED as my time comes to an end. I have been helping out with overseeing surveys, advising improvements for the bioCEED website homepage, wrapping up my work on the learning arctic biology worksite to pass the work back to Eike (who was originally working on the website), writing species descriptions for the field guide and I’m general wrapping things up. It has been a nice […]