Monthly Meeting September 2021

The September 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 1st September 2021, with about 70 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for the evening:

Guests : Dr Alice Motion and Michelle Neil
Topic: Citizen Science

Dr Alice Motion is a chemist and science communicator based at The University of Sydney. Her research focuses on open science and Science Communication, Outreach, Participation and Education (SCOPE). Finding ways to connect people with science and to make research more accessible is the overarching theme of Alice’s interdisciplinary research. Alice is the founder of the Breaking Good project – a citizen science project that aims to empower high school and undergraduate students to be active researchers in projects that will improve human health. She has a strong commitment to Citizen Science and is the Co-Chair of the University of Sydney’s Citizen Science Node, which aims to enhance Citizen Science in Australia through research and practice. Alice will work with ACSA to strengthen participation in, and the impact of, Citizen Science in our region.

In 2011 Michelle’s young son presented her with a spider. A redback spider. After convincing her son not to pick up spiders but to take pictures of them instead Michelle soon found she had over 7000 photos of all sorts of creatures and no idea what any of them were called. Thus a citizen scientist is made. In May 2014 Michelle was invited by Earthwatch to attend the Australian Citizen Science Associations Inaugral Workshop in Brisbane. She found herself co-chair of the Communications Working Group. Michelle and Jessie Oliver co-developed ACSA social media (Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn). Since then Michelle, with her orange coloured ipad clutched firmly in one hand, has been an active social media moderator, poster and tweeter for the ACSA social media platforms. Having worked in analytical chemistry for over a decade Michelle finds herself in an interesting place – a scientist as well as a citizen scientist, with a passion for science communication

Meeting Agenda

Meeting begins at 7pm. MC is Peter Bacon.

Guest speakers:  Alice Motion and Michelle Neil

Interval: Music

Presidents Report: David Stonier-Gibson

iHelp Online with Harry Lewis. Please submit questions to ihelp-questions@melbpc.org.au before the segment.

Meeting concludes at 9pm. Informal iHelp Online will continue after the meeting.

If you missed out the first time and would like to view any of these presentations, you can do so at http://services.melbpc.org.au/videos/

The username is videos and the password is drum286.