I’m closing in on the actual end of my internship, and the last ~2 weeks I’ve been working on various projects. First, as explained in the previous blog, me and Tina from bioCEED have been creating a plant family classification game, that hopefully can be used to better teach students the difference between the plant families we have here in Svalbard. To explain the game briefly, we have made several cards that contain a trait and a picture illustrating that trait (see top picture). The traits are divided into a flower, leaf, stem or general trait. Then, using these trait-cards, […]
Practical experience as biologist in the Arctic – here you can find student blog-posts about their experience from internships in Arctic Longyearbyen, Svalbard as part of the AB-208 Internship course at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS)
Hiatus from internship After a hiatus from my internship period to focus on a different course, I’m now back at the Arctic Biology department working for bioCEED. The weeks of no internship was maybe a little long, and I got a bit “out of the loop”, but that’s how it goes when scheduling must work for several people. Anyway, this week we had our “end” of the internship course, but all of us still have more hours to burn, so the period is still not done. Presentations The end of AB-208 Internship in Arctic Biology was marked with a presentation […]
As we agreed on our midterm appraisal talk, Stuart has lately been teaching me a little more about molecular biology. So far, I’ve been doing DNA extractions, PCR and gel electrophoresis, and making glycerol stocks of e.coli cultures. Stuart is a good teacher, and lets me do everything myself. This is a good example of how well learning by doing works. Although it is a little frustrating in the beginning when I have no clue what I am doing, Stuart has been very patient and explains everything very well. Instead of just being told what to do, I have to […]
I have now finished the other course I had at UNIS, so I only have internship working every day now. I am really enjoying just working from nine till four every day, with every evening completely off. I fully appreciate not having something school-related that should be done hanging over me at all times. Especially after an intense exam period it is very nice to be able to relax without a bad conscience all the time. Since the exam, I have started my data management block work for SIOS. I have started working with a data set on phytoplankton now. […]
Hey there! The internship is soon in its final stage, and now as the month of May has just started, you can notice that the beginning of the end is here. The students at Longyearbyen school is approaching the end of this semester, and in the classrooms we are slowly starting to summarise and recap curriculum and think about the upcoming finals and exams. For the older students, the exams are approaching rapidly, and May is going to be a busy month for them. As “russetiden” has just begun, the students are balancing exams and partying, and it still impresses […]
In less than a month my semester at UNIS will come to an end. But I certainly will return. The picture above shows me standing in room one of the barrack – the place where I have been spending a lot of time to tend to our plants, such as our approximately 2m high tomato plant with its two tomatoes. Last week I held a short live presentation at UNIS about my internship, but since most of you probably were not able to attend, I will outline here what I talked about. Polar permaculture is an ambitious and challenging project. […]
It’s time for a new update, although not much new has been going on in life as a lab technician intern. I still have a very varied everyday where every day is different! Some projects are getting close to an end now, for example the epic clean-up and reorganisation of the department’s storage rooms. Although it has been a long process, it feels good to have everything in order and hopefully have made the scientist’s lives a little easier! Another project is soon getting back on track, namely the seawater nutrient analysis. The replacement part has been delivered and we […]
This last period I have not been working very much. This because of the intensive period with the conference earlier, as well as saving working hours for my block work coming up on data management in May. Lately I have mainly been reading up on the data portals I will use during this work. Then I will write biological data into a DarwinCore standard dataset model, before this dataset will be put out on the web portal GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). DarwinCore provides a standardized way for writing datasets. The goal is that everyone will use standardized categories when […]
In my previous post I wrote about how nervous I felt about talking in front of an audience, but there was an even bigger challenge ahead when I was told we would be on live television. In fact, I was barely able to sleep the night before the ‘God Morgen Norge’ team visited us. They started shooting outside in front of the dome with Ben, who told them the story about Polar Permaculture. There was a little misunderstanding when the reporter gestured to go inside to see the lab and Ben thought she wanted him to look more towards the […]
Since I last wrote you, my internship has consisted of pretty much my usual every-day schedule at the school. I go to the school four times a week, where I participate in my regular classes. On Mondays and Tuesdays, this means helping out in the 9th grade mathematics class, and on Wednesday I usually have 8th graders in natural science before I have my little “bio-group” in the end of the day. On Thursdays I have a full day at the school, consisting of natural science with both 8th and 7th grade, In addition to SFO in the afternoon. This […]
While I haven’t had many internship days since the last blog, I was lucky enough to join Ørjan the UNIS student representative down to Bergen where DIKU had arranged a convention. There, bioCEED and the other centers around Norway that works towards improving education met up to drink coffee and eat good food. And to learn something too, probably. Short summery of the convention It kicked-off with Harald Nybølet who is the director of DIKU, he was followed by a presentation about Erasmus+. Then, after a couple of coffee breaks, we went over to presentations by the different centers. This […]
Life as a lab technician intern at UNIS is varied as always! Lately I have been working with the nutrient analyser, organising samples and equipment in the biology department storage rooms, done some seawater filtrations and been polar bear guarding on a field excursion with the limnology (freshwater biology) course. It’s nice to get so many different experiences and I learn a lot from utilising my biological knowledge and skills in different fields of biology. As I mentioned in the last post, there is a lot of work needed to get the nutrient analyser running. But after spending a lot […]
5th-6th of March I attended the SESS report 2018 workshop arranged by SIOS. This took place in Copenhagen. Since I had taken part in planning this, I am very happy it was a success. As I had the responsibility for the logistics, I am happy everything went fine with the hotel booking and the restaurant dinner. During this workshop I got to know many well-established researchers in the international research environment within different sorts of earth science research. For example during the dinner I sat with a researcher who just had taken part in launching two rockets from Ny-Ålesund. Through […]
A visit from Oslo Speaking in front of an audience can be intimidating, but it can also be a valuable and transferable skill. What does this have to do with Polar Permaculture one might ask? Well, we had 25 students and lecturers from an architect school come visit us for a tour. Before they arrived in the evening we had to complete our usual daily tasks, and then also prepare for the visitors. Apart from tidying up, cleaning the ‘dishes’ (trays, pots etc.), this also meant to assist Ben with making some healthy veggie snacks while he made mango smoothies […]
Hi! I am writing you again with some updates on my every day at Longyearbyen school as an intern. I have now been here for a bit over a month, and I feel that things are getting into place! I am getting more and more responsibility, and I must say that I really enjoy teaching. I have now, among other things, tried to lead classes by myself and prepare experiments and performed them with the kids. A bit about what I have been up to lately: Because of my background in natural sciences, I have gotten some requests to do […]
Hi again! After a couple of weeks at Longyearbyen school, I feel that I have already gotten to know the staff and students that I am working with, and I am really enjoying my time here! In the beginning there was a bit of logistics that had to be done regarding my time schedule, figuring out which classes I would be participating in and what kind of work I would be doing throughout the semester. I have now gotten a set schedule, and are very happy to follow 3 different classes in mathematics and natural science! I now work with […]
We want more greens! The demand for local microgreens is increasing, so we started to increase production. Our current goal is to produce 20 trays each week, therefore I was tasked with working out a schedule to allow us to meet the desired delivery by the hotels and restaurants. The main difficulty was to figure out a way to keep the seeding of trays evenly distributed while still ensuring all the different microgreens had enough time to develop, because for example radish is ready after seven days whereas black kale and cress take approximately ten days. Let’s do some science! […]
(Photo: The nutrient analyser – the diva of the biology department) Hi there! I am checking in on my blog to tell you a bit more about my internship. After my first meeting with my internship host, Stuart in January, I was eager to start working and getting to know my new workplace. I started early February, and from the beginning I felt very welcomed, and am really enjoying my internship this far. Since I’m only preparing my bachelor project in addition to my internship this semester, I have really appreciated some breaks from reading articles and doing something practical. […]
I’ve started my internship experience at bioCEED and have so far worked here for a good normal work week in terms of hours. I’ve been doing a variety of things from graphic design (figures), meetings, video production and other small things. And most of the time have been spent in the biology department of UNIS with my supervisor, Eike. Student and employee culture A big difference between spending time here compared to the normal class setting, is that here people are mostly up to their own projects – hammering away on something in their office spaces. Not like in a […]
I got thrown right into a big conference called Polar Night Week arranged by SIOS the first week of my internship. Every day there were talks and workshops where I got insight into the different research groups and working groups within SIOS. At the start it was quite overwhelming with a lot of new information, but at the end of the week I had a much wider understanding of what SIOS actually does. I found it quite hard to get my head around what work SIOS actually is doing just from reading on their website, but the conference helped me […]
About me My name is James Davidson and I live on a small farm back home in rural Scotland. I’ve studied Applied Animal Science for two years, a course that focused more on the agricultural side of biology, but recently switched to Sustainable Development. I usually enjoy ‘learning by doing’ more than lectures, so I hope I will learn a lot this semester, especially as the knowledge and skills associated with cultivating plants could possibly help me in developing a similar project back home. Initial Expectations This is my second time on Svalbard, so I’ve previously seen ‘the dome’ of […]
My name is Ingvild Lande Sørensen. I am a bachelor degree student in my last semester of “Biology, climate and environment” at the University of Tromsø. I have been an exchange student at UNIS since July, taking terrestrial Arctic biology and Arctic population ecology. Now I am enrolled in the internship along with a course in environmental management. I have a special interest within terrestrial ecology and nature management, so the courses at Svalbard fit perfect with my interests. I have much “people skills” from before which always is helpful when communicating with others at a workplace. This through working […]
Hi! My name is Dagny, and I am a 22-year-old from Bergen, Norway. Currently I am studying for a bachelor in Molecular biology at the University of Bergen, and this semester I am doing an internship at Longyearbyen School as a part of the courses I am taking in Artic Biology at UNIS. This semester I am going to gain practical work-experience by helping out at the local school here in Longyearbyen, and I think this experience can give me an insight into an everyday work-situation where I can apply my previous knowledge in the field of Biology. In addition […]
They call me Simen, and I’m currently a bachelor student in arctic biology. I grew up in Bergen, and first started studying and dreaming about working with something related to media and communications, but later decided to start studying biology at Nord University in Bodø, Norway. Anything related to biology have always interested me, and I don’t regret switching paths. After two years in Bodø, I figured a change in environment would be nice, so I traveled up to UNIS here on Svalbard where I’ve spent one semester and currently doing my second. One of the courses I’m taking this […]