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Encouraging budding scientists

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Vanessa Greenslade

Some say ‘all good things come to an end..’ but as the last day of this year’s SA Bush Blitz dawns, the tents are coming down and the last pieces of scientific equipment and specimens are being loaded I like to think that this is not the end but just the start of the next phase of the amazing scientific adventure. Everyone is feeling tired but there are many happy faces as they pack up their new findings and are no doubt planning what they will be doing next.

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As a teacher I am feeling extremely fortunate to have been included in this wonderful expedition and am thinking about the ways I can include what I have learnt this week to bring excitement and encouragement to all of those budding scientists out there.

On this last day and as part of Bush Blitz's parting contribution to the local community we visited the Ceduna Area School where two of the inspiring scientists from the SA Museum shared some of the exciting finds of the expedition with the students. It was wonderful to see them being engaged in finding out about what type of weird creatures are out there in their local bushland including parasitic moths and blind cave spiders!

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As we landed into Adelaide and said our final farewells to fellow Bush Blitzers I wondered about what was the most important message to take away from this trip. My head is buzzing (a bit like the 100’s of bees, flies and wasps in the insect nets) with so many ideas but at the top of the list is LOOK CLOSELY! So often we are in a rush and one of the important things that I learnt from the scientist this week was to ‘slow down, be observant, curious and watch and see what is really out there’. Once you can do this the rest (as in how to record what you have seen and how to compare this to other records as well as how to work out the importance of what is happening) will follow naturally.

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So let’s all get outside and see what is happening!