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 […]
UNIS
36 posts
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 […]
Hi! My name is Anna, and I am a biology student from the University of Bergen. Currently, I am doing my sixth semester of my bachelor’s degree at the University Centre in Svalbard. Last semester I took two biology courses here; AB-201 Arctic terrestrial biology and AB-204 Arctic population ecology. Studying in Svalbard is an amazing experience, and I definitely didn’t feel ready to leave this place after Christmas. This semester I am doing courses that take a more practical approach to biology: AB-207 Research project in Arctic biology, and AB-208 Internship in Arctic biology. The research project I’m doing […]