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 session where all five students had to present their experience. We’ve all been doing different jobs, which made me realize how broad and flexible the field of biology can be. From lab technician to teacher, and data manager to polar permaculture to whatever one would call what I’m doing. One does definitely not have to be a pure scientist if you have a biology background, and it’s good to get this new perspective on things. All the student also expressed satisfaction with their internship, so the first run for this internship course went well.
Lichen and plant identification
With some weeks still to go, I need something to do. Currently we’re trying to get out a chapter on bryophytes and lichen for the Learning Arctic Biology platform. I’ve been working with lichen, a topic I’ve barely touched during my education. But I’m always happy to learn something new. Most of my lichen related work, has been editing a text on lichen provided by a third-party professor. Editing is also something I’ve little experience with, actually no experience. But once you really get into it, you do start seeing things that are confusing, elements in need of being re-written/changed or information you would like to be/see added. And hopefully my editorial contributions will make the text on lichen a bit more suited for our learning platform needs. I’ve also been asked to help out with a type of “puzzle” game for the AB-206 course, Introduction to Svalbard’s Terrestrial Flora and Fauna. The goal of the game is to make it easier for students to learn the traits of the different plant families we have in Svalbard. The work on this identification game can also help the development of a plant identification phone app for Svalbard’s flora. More on this in the next blog.
Bye.
