Audio Transcript

Published: 13 June 2017
APA 7 Citation: Newsome, B. (Host). (2017, June 13). Citizen science & entrepreneurial thinking in STEM [Audio podcast transcript]. Fizzics Education. https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/podcast/fizzicsed/citizen-science-entrepreneurial-thinking-in-stem/

Ben Newsome CF is the recipient of the 2023 UTS Chancellor’s Award for Excellence and a Churchill Fellow. He is a global leader in science communication and the founder of Fizzics Education.

[00:00:00]
Announcer: You’re listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. For hundreds of ideas, free experiments and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. And now, here’s your host, Ben Newsome.

[00:00:16]
Ben Newsome: Trying to find a science event in your community can be a real challenge. Sometimes it feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Our next guest, Jackie Randles from Inspiring Australia, she puts these events together, not so much as the person who delivers it, but she finds the people who will. We’re talking museums, zoos, aquariums, they’re the usual suspects, but hang on, she also deals with shopping centres and pubs and clubs and scouting groups.

[00:00:43]
Ben Newsome: Jackie Randles and the entire Inspiring Australia‘s crew work hard to put on events the public can get involved in. In this chat with Jackie, you’re going to find out so many events and organisations that are doing fantastic STEM programmes. Get ready to write them all down because you just might find there’s something happening around your corner.

[00:01:03]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast.

[00:01:05]
Ben Newsome: My name is Ben Newsome and we really have a fantastic guest in Jackie Randles. She’s the manager for Inspiring Australia New South Wales and their job is to get events to a community near you. I was really quite serious in the intro, get your pen and paper ready because she rattles off a bucket load of different organisations who are really working hard to get science out into the community. I really enjoyed this interview and I really hope you do too.

[00:01:31]
Announcer: You’re listening to the FizzicsEd podcast. Why don’t you book us for a science show or workshop in your school? We love seeing students get excited about science, and you will too. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au and click on schools for more info.

[00:01:46]
Ben Newsome: Jackie Randles, thanks for coming along.

[00:01:48]
Jackie Randles: Hi Ben, it’s great to be here and thanks for inviting me.

[00:01:51]
Ben Newsome: Absolutely, and thanks for giving up a fantastic space in where are we? University of Sydney in the Faculty of Science?

[00:01:58]
Jackie Randles: We’re sitting in the Dean’s meeting room on level four in the Carslaw building.

[00:02:02]
Ben Newsome: I feel a bit special, getting to use a Dean’s room. Awesome, thank you very much for coming along. We’ve known each other for quite a while, but there’ll be people who are listening in who just don’t know what you do. So Jackie, tell me, what do you do?

[00:02:16]
Jackie Randles: My job title is called Manager Inspiring Australia. Sometimes when I tell people that’s what I do, they laugh, because it does sound like a pretty outrageous title to have. But basically Inspiring Australia is the national strategy for community engagement with science, technology, and innovation. Inspiring Australia has been established to connect scientists and researchers with the community. We’re all about making sure that Australians have more awareness of the relevance of science and technology to everyday life and have a chance to meet scientists and discover the incredible careers that you can have if you have followed a science education path.

[00:02:59]
Jackie Randles: We also are out there working with people who wouldn’t ordinarily get involved in a science event. My programme supports all kinds of community events where we’re really reaching out to people in unusual ways to bring scientists to places where people go. Libraries, community festivals, music festivals. We often work with the arts community, and by working with people outside the science sector, we’re engaging new audiences and connecting them to some of the science and technology issues.

[00:03:34]
Ben Newsome: So basically have fun.

[00:03:35]
Jackie Randles: We have fun. We want to entertain people, we want to create memorable experiences, and we want people to actually get a chance to talk to a scientist and see that they are people, just like everybody else.

[00:03:50]
Jackie Randles: Inspiring Australia was set up in part to change perceptions about science and engineering. It was decided around seven or eight years ago that science had an image problem. There were far too many Australians who didn’t know what scientists did, or why it matters, and they felt very disconnected. Scientists stayed within the universities, within their research labs, and only really talked to their peers. Of course, there were always people like Dr. Karl, or some well-known scientists that people might be familiar with. But by and large, those people were very few and far between. There were hardly any women, and hardly any sciencey people you’d see on TV or in soap operas.

[00:04:35]
Ben Newsome: That reminds me of when we recently interviewed Vanessa Barrett at Mount Annan Australian Botanic Garden, and they were saying they were doing fantastic events with Jurassic Garden during National Science Week, which is certainly one of the things that you’re involved with. They said that was actually a challenge, bringing the scientists out to the public, and how to engage with the public, considering it was plants and lichens and liverworts and that type of thing. It can be challenging for some scientists. How does that work when you speak with scientists about doing this?

[00:05:04]
Jackie Randles: It’s funny because there are some scientists who are absolutely dead keen to talk to anyone about their work, and there are other scientists who feel like their work is so complicated, nobody’s going to understand it, and they would really have to dumb it down in order to talk about it to a non-scientist. What we say to them is, no one’s asking you to dumb down your work, but you really do need to meet community members where they are at. You need to find a point of common interest. It’s not the case that we want the scientist to be the expert banging someone over the head with a whole lot of facts. That just tends to alienate people.

[00:05:44]
Jackie Randles: We want to try and meet halfway and find a point of common interest, and scientists can get as much out of interacting with a community member as the community member does. It really is a two-way engagement, and most of the scientists I work with get so much satisfaction out of talking to a bunch of really interesting people. It might be in a library, it might be sitting around a table knitting neurons at a community festival, where a neuroscientist can talk to all kinds of people about the brain.

[00:06:15]
Ben Newsome: We should talk about that because people are going what, knitting in neurons? Let’s go run in on that because you and I are aware of this, Neural Knitworks, that was a fantastic programme brought out only recently in the last couple of years, let’s look at that as an example.

[00:06:30]
Jackie Randles: Neural Knitworks really is science communication at its best, I think, because this project came to National Science Week and was brought to us by two artists who live in the Sutherland Shire. Pat Pillai and her friend Rita Pierce love to knit and crochet. They had an idea that you could make neurons, as in the brain cells in your head, out of yarn craft. You could knit them, you could crochet them, and you could just wrap them by scrunching up bits of rag and wrapping yarn around it to create a neuron, complete with the axon and dendrites and so on.

[00:07:07]
Jackie Randles: Their idea was to invite the community to download a scientifically informed pattern book that I helped them develop with expert advice from brain experts, and then create these neurons, and everybody was invited to post them to an art gallery, the Hazelhurst Art Gallery and Museum. We created this giant brain that was as big as a room, and you could walk into it. We had thousands of neurons donated from all across Australia. The project was so successful, and then around the brain we programmed lots of science talks. People could come along to a venue, it would be covered with yarn craft at tables, you could sit around the table and make neurons, as a very esteemed neuroscientist talked to you about the brain.

[00:07:57]
Jackie Randles: We had all kinds of people get involved. Dr. Charlie Teo did a knit-in at Canberra Hospital, the famous brain surgeon. Professor Ian Hickey from the University of Sydney here was our patron. Alzheimer’s Australia got involved, and the scientists loved it because the neurons look exactly like a neuron does under a microscope. What we generally do is project microscopic images onto the walls. The room looks absolutely amazing with all these beautiful microscopic images, but at the same time, you’re making them yourself.

[00:08:35]
Jackie Randles: It’s a very hands-on, fun, and social activity, and it’s also good for your brain. Doing knitting and yarn craft is a very relaxing, mindful activity that enhances brain health as well. Plus, it’s social, so you’re interacting.

[00:08:48]
Ben Newsome: This is brilliant, because basically you got two artists who love their knitting, and all of a sudden you’ve got a national project.

[00:08:54]
Jackie Randles: It’s gone international. It started in 2014. I think we started working on it at the end of 2013, and then we displayed this giant brain in the gallery in National Science Week in 2014. Since then it’s been at the Australian National Museum, it’s been at Queensland Institute of Technology, and we’ve just got back from the Cambridge Science Festival in the UK. It’s been in Singapore, and just on the weekend, we were down at Wollondilly at the Illuminarti Festival, about 20,000 people were there including bikies who sat around to make neurons with us. At the same time, it was happening over in Philadelphia. This project is a very grassroots, interesting, fun campaign and it’s very cheap to run. But the beauty of it is you can talk about anything at all to do with the brain. There’s so much science there that it’s just a great platform.

[00:09:53]
Ben Newsome: The beauty about these type of projects, and I know you’ve got lists of these things, so much going on. Often they grow from just a small seed. Sometimes not even funding at all. It amazes how far things can actually go. I often think from a schools’ perspective, we hear all these really fantastic, well-polished end product festivals, but the reality is they often start quite small.

[00:10:17]
Jackie Randles: That’s the thing. Through our Inspiring Australia networks, and particularly through National Science Week, you can find all kinds of activities that are ready to go, that you can just plug your class into, or your community group, or your education programme at your museum, or wherever you may be. Citizen science is huge across the world, and here in Australia we have numerous really fun and engaging projects. Some that spring to mind are Wildlife Spotter, where you can help scientists identify animals photographed by cameras placed in the bush all around Australia. There’s literally millions of images, and no science lab could afford to pay the people you would need to code them all. Community members can join in and help classify animals online. It’s really fun and the animals are really cute.

[00:11:11]
Jackie Randles: There’s also Explore the Seafloor, where we’re looking at the migration of sea urchins and the impact they’re having on the habitats for marine species. That’s also looking at the impact of global warming. There’s Galaxy Explorer, where you can help classify stars. There’s Fireballs in the Sky, where the community are invited to photograph. If you happen to see a shooting star, take a picture, and the expert scientist will drive out to the Nullarbor Plain and they have found meteorites and all kinds of things because a community member has photographed a shooting star. These are wonderful opportunities to get involved, and we do have a National Citizen Science Association, ACSA. If you look them up, that’s an easy place to find links to all of these projects. Of course the Science Week website, scienceweek.net.au, is another great source of ideas, projects, activities, and easy things you can do to get involved.

[00:12:22]
Ben Newsome: Citizen science projects inevitably attract the choir that you preach to. Often. But then again, they represent a perfect opportunity to bring in people not just within schools, but also the community at large to get involved in science in lots of ways. Just knowing that a lot of our listeners are in the education space, do you find with these citizen science projects that they’re predominantly secondary students, primary students, or whoever just happens to come?

[00:12:47]
Jackie Randles: I haven’t worked closely managing these projects, so I don’t know who these people are. I think it’s anyone who hears about it and who likes the sound of it. You can find a citizen science project that meets your interests. Redmap, for instance, is one all about fishing. If you happen to love fishing, or if you do anything on the water, that’s probably going to be the one for you. That one is simply if you see an unusual species that you don’t normally see, you might see an unusual fish, or you might see a whale that’s moving up towards Queensland too early. Take a picture of it, upload it to the Redmap platform, and marine scientists from around Australia will analyse it and you’re helping identify movements of species that are atypical. You find the project that suits your interests, and I think people are drawn to the topics that they love. If you love astronomy, Galaxy Explorer is bound to be your thing. But I don’t know who these people are. I think it’s anyone.

[00:13:53]
Ben Newsome: There’d be thousands of people involved. This is the thing, obviously citizen science is only just one part of your remit, you’ve got a lot of other things to deal with, and of which are certain focus events which are huge, basically. Would you like to tell listeners about some of the major events which people can get involved in?

[00:14:10]
Jackie Randles: Sure. As a state manager, I manage the New South Wales programme delivery. I have made a big effort to connect into community partnerships that are already established. I work a lot with the arts and cultural sector and with regional museums and libraries. We’ve established about 24 regional science hubs around the state, and these are simply three or more organisations with an interest in science. They don’t have to be science experts, but they have to have an interest in bringing science to their community. I can provide funding to them for up to $10,000 to run an event or a series of events.

[00:14:55]
Ben Newsome: So you’re saying when we give your contact details, we’re going to get spammed with lots of funding requests?

[00:14:58]
Jackie Randles: I do have a budget to get rid of, and I’m absolutely committed to supporting community access to these experiences, particularly outside cities. As we’ve already said, the science fans are well covered. There’s a whole lot of really great stuff if you love science. But there are lots of people who don’t know they love science, and there are lots of people who haven’t perhaps had the opportunity to experience a Fizzics show. We want to make sure that we make that kind of experience more widely available.

[00:15:29]
Jackie Randles: This year we’re going to be partnering with the Sydney Olympic Park Authority around a big game during National Science Week. It hasn’t been announced yet, so you’re hearing it here first. That will be an opportunity for people who may not go to the big museums to actually see some science in action. Likewise, we’re going to be doing something huge out at the Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan. Then we have festivals planned in Wagga Wagga, Newcastle, Armidale, down on the far South Coast, in the Illawarra region. They’re doing a big festival of fire in the Illawarra, and the theme is all around fire safety and preparing for bushfires. It’s going to include a festival of flame, you’ll be able to propagate flame trees, there’s a theatrical performance, there’s all kinds of stuff on and it’s all free. The best way to find out what’s happening in your area is to go to the National Science Week website, scienceweek.net.au. These are community engagement events. They complement the formal learning at school by having something really fun to do on the weekend.

[00:16:40]
Ben Newsome: Some of these are massive events. I imagine a lot of your time is spent dealing, collaborating, getting stakeholders together. How do you find that go?

[00:16:50]
Jackie Randles: It can be challenging because there’s so much on, and our community hubs don’t get nearly as much support as they should. There are a lot of innovation hubs springing up everywhere where there’s big startup festivals and lots of support to the startup sector with a real emphasis on jobs creation. I think the community engagement piece needs to come first. There’s a whole lot of people who perhaps don’t see innovation and entrepreneurship as being something for them. But if they have a chance to actually come to a welcoming event that’s just framed in an entertainment context, they might actually learn something new and then have the curiosity and confidence to go on and seek out more info. I think we’re playing a really important welcoming community engagement role that hopefully will also connect audiences to this whole startup and innovation thing that actually can be quite daunting if you’re not already in business.

[00:17:52]
Ben Newsome: I almost actually wonder, it effectively means that there’s a hazy not completely clear but there’s obviously a future with this. I kind of wonder what this might look like in years to come. Right now, a lot of our work is to get science out to areas where science may not be being delivered. I wonder what happens when the next generation or the generation following this becomes the norm. Makes you wonder what the future might hold.

[00:18:19]
Jackie Randles: For us a lot of our regional science hubs are about showcasing the local jobs and the science in the local jobs. What does the environment officer at the council do? They did a science degree, how did they get this job? What’s the day look like? What’s the science in agriculture? What’s happening as the agriculture industry changes and moves towards automation? How are robots being used in farming and what kind of skills do you need to manage that? We’re trying to show people that there are jobs and careers that are interesting and lucrative in their own community. This is all about community building and letting people know that you don’t necessarily have to leave and come and join the rat race and work in the city like we do with all the traffic and the expensive housing. There are interesting jobs out there in the bush, but they are going to require the skill set that we’re trying to promote, which is science, technology, engineering, and maths.

[00:19:18]
Ben Newsome: I love the fact that you said entrepreneurship as well, because the reality is someone has to bring this out to the world.

[00:19:24]
Jackie Randles: I say to all my regional science hub partners that they are entrepreneurs. Most of them are people who are making a living doing really interesting work that they have created from their imaginations and through talking to other like-minded people, and they’re creating sustainable incomes for themselves, often in towns where there’s just no industry at all. It’s kind of funny to say to people, just listen to the dialogue, listen to what the Prime Minister’s saying, listen to the talk about innovation, and actually start to talk the talk. Don’t change what you’re doing, but if you start to describe your small business and all the various things you do to make a living in the country, and this community engagement work, you are a founder, you are an entrepreneur as well. Actually don’t be shy to claim that, because a lot of these people are keeping their communities going.

[00:20:22]
Ben Newsome: They are. It’s so tempting to say innovation. When I mention innovation to students, for example, in school, invariably people talk on the tech side. It doesn’t have to be about tech.

[00:20:34]
Jackie Randles: It needs the arts and creative industries as well. If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to know how to tell people about what you’re doing. You need strong writing skills. You need to be a good communicator. You need to be open to collaborating with people who come from a very different background to you. I’m just thinking of my colleague down in the Sapphire Coast, Liam, who runs a local IT business. He lives down in Merimbula. He wants to create a sustainable future for his kids. He can’t find the people he needs to grow his business. He’s been teaching coding at the library every week for about the last two years, so he can train up people to come and help him in his IT and web design business.

[00:21:21]
Jackie Randles: He does hackathons all the time to solve societal issues down there. He has joined forces with the lovely grassroots marine scientists and naturalists who are really big down there, and they’re now working together on apps they can use to map the biodiversity. It’s a coming together of the techies with the environmentalists and the marine scientists. It’s a really interesting cross-fertilisation of people. Some of their colleagues are running really successful businesses that are based on IT. There’s a meat company that butchers local produce and you can order it from the paddock to plate. There’s the entrepreneur in fashion at Cooma, Birdsnest, who now employs a hundred locals, who they’ve skilled up to be a really good online retail outlet. It’s all about bringing creativity and IT skills to ideas that are dreamt up by locals.

[00:22:24]
Ben Newsome: One of the things we were luckily to do last year was to get involved with PWC‘s 21st Century Minds program. You talking about this has made me think about a really good friend of ours who is setting up a company called Sci-grounds, which is specifically about creating parkland environments that actually have scientific apparatus that you’d see effectively in a museum, but designed for hard-wearing outdoors, water, rain, snow, and hail. That’s designed, that’s science, and that’s art all in one.

[00:22:55]
Jackie Randles: That’s right, and that’s his small business idea and hopefully he’ll be able to sell it to local councils.

[00:23:00]
Ben Newsome: Or schools, or anywhere else.

[00:23:01]
Jackie Randles: Or anyone who wants it, but it’s a business for him, it’s an income stream for him, but it’s also an educational resource that everybody can benefit from. That’s entrepreneurship, right?

[00:23:12]
Ben Newsome: It is, and that’s odd that we go down this path, but the reality is that STEM doesn’t exist by itself. It is linked with industry, and I think about this from a modelling point of view in the classroom context. You see lately a number of startups and other businesses that are designed specifically to teach kids about entrepreneurship and innovation skills. I can think of one called Kidpreneur, which is a very big one. Lemonade Stand is another one, with the idea that kids can learn how to start a small business. It’s mocked out, but the reality is they learn how to, you know, the title of their business is Lemonade Stand, let’s set up a lemonade stand. Having kids understand the fundamentals of how a business operates and how they can look after their employees and create a product that people actually want, there is innovation skills in this and science and tech and engineering and maths as well.

[00:24:02]
Jackie Randles: That’s right. It all comes down to what’s your purpose as well, and understanding that every single activity you do needs to have a purpose. Why are we doing this? Why are we spending taxpayers’ money on delivering community festivals to inspire and connect people? At the end of the day, we want to break down those barriers and the fear. Too many people think science is for clever people. Oh, I’m not good at maths. That’s not for me. But if you can actually show that with patience and persistence and good teaching, and there are some fabulous teachers out there and many online programmes like Wootube, did anyone see Australian Story? These are skills that can be learned, and it’s worth persisting.

[00:24:52]
Jackie Randles: I’m not a teacher, so is it far-fetched to say anybody can learn this stuff? No. This idea that I’m hopeless at maths or I’m hopeless at this, it can be learned, but it takes persistence. However, the benefits down the track are going to be enormous, and you do need maths for everything. If you’re a small business owner, you need to know how to balance the till. If you’re running a cafe, you need to know how to order quantities of food so you’re not wasting it, and how to price things, and how to add up bills. If you’re a carpenter, you need to know how to measure. You need to understand angles. All of us need to know how to manage our money. We need to understand compound interest, and why it’s important we pay more than the minimum repayment on our credit card debt. When we’re buying a car, what’s the best value for us? Maths is critical to just about every aspect of life, and it’s going to be more so as we move towards more automation.

[00:26:00]
Ben Newsome: Especially when you’re trying to organise major science events, which have funding requirements and budgets, and that’s reality.

[00:26:05]
Jackie Randles: Yeah, budgets, being able to work on shoestring budgets and we have a lot of things on offer, and all of us have to be able to squeeze budgets and try and get other people to match budgets and we’re all trying to estimate the in-kind value all the partners bring to build the case to the government that this is a good use of funds. It’s all necessary learning and you just have to push through the pain barrier.

[00:26:36]
Ben Newsome: So based on pushing through pain barriers, of course, that makes me think there’ll be a number of museum educators listening to this. I obviously imagine if you were brought into a room with an awesome museum, and I know there’s a lot around, there are so many museums and galleries. There is a programme called Museums and Galleries New South Wales. And you had these educators who really want to just get going and engage with the community more than just having people visit their museum, their gallery, their zoo, their aquarium or whatever. What sort of advice would you give these people to get an event up and running?

[00:27:10]
Jackie Randles: I guess the main thing to remember is there is support available. The Inspiring Australia initiative has people like myself in every state, and we are here to advise, connect, help you create something that we know from experience will work. We are connected with all kinds of really innovative and fun and entertaining science presenters that we can introduce you to. We have successful models that we can just guide you to, things that have worked elsewhere, just transplant that concept here.

[00:27:48]
Jackie Randles: Also the Museums and Galleries Association, each state has one, and the Regional Arts Associations, they have programme staff who can help and guide and support. There are also lots of grants available, so you can actually bring in a professional to help with some marketing. Having a really good-looking poster or online campaign is really helpful in getting people to come along, and there are experts who can help and grants you can apply for so you can actually pay someone to create some collateral and some strategies to market whatever event you propose.

[00:28:24]
Ben Newsome: I guess I also encourage our museums just to simply contact another museum and just talk.

[00:28:31]
Jackie Randles: That’s right. It’s all about networking, and most of us luckily in this sector are open to sharing ideas. If you go to the National Science Week website, just flick through and have a look at some of the events. If there’s one you like the look of, the contact details of the organiser are on that page. Send them an email and say I’d like to do something in my town. I can guarantee that knowing so many people in this sector, we are all here to help and we’re all here to share our expertise and help make your event just as successful.

[00:29:04]
Jackie Randles: You can literally transplant a successful event. We’re hoping that the Centennial Park Science in the Swamp model, that for the past few years has had 10,000 people enjoying at least 30 or 40 different experiences, that we’ll be able to transplant that successfully, something like it, to Sydney Olympic Park Authority. It’s been transplanted to Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan. And this year it will be going up to the Blue Mountains as well. These are successful models. We’ve got skilled presenters, the managers of these venues know how to entertain a crowd. That’s their specialist skill. So don’t be shy to reach out and talk to them if you have an idea.

[00:29:46]
Ben Newsome: Absolutely. If you happen not to be in Australia, I almost have to put money on that if you reached out to your regional arts, your education spaces, anywhere around that, your country no doubt would have something that would promote this. Definitely check that out through Google or your other favourite search engine.

[00:30:03]
Jackie Randles: Yeah. I actually recently went to the UK with Neural Knitworks for the Cambridge Science Festival. When I was over there, I contacted the British Science Festival. I contacted the Wellcome Trust. I contacted British Petroleum that’s invested a lot of money into researching kids’ attitudes to curriculum choices. They all gave me a couple of hours of their time where I went and talked to them, asked them lots of questions. They asked me questions, and we’ve shared information. We’ve both got something out of that interaction, and that’s something I’d encourage everyone to do. People love talking about their passion and their expertise, and people are very willing to share. If you ask for an hour of someone’s time and go to them at a time that suits them, most people are very happy to talk to you if they can, if they have the time.

[00:30:57]
Ben Newsome: That’s right. If you’re only within a school environment, it’d be worth next time you’re in a museum just to have a chat and just say hey, I’d like to maybe consider running an event in your site or have them come and help out in your site. You’d be surprised how much they might get involved.

[00:31:13]
Jackie Randles: All the universities I work with and all the museums have very well-established schools programmes. There are staff whose job it is to liaise with you, the teaching community. Do talk to them. A lot of them have standard programmes, but if your needs are unique or unusual, they might be able to tailor a programme for you.

[00:31:35]
Jackie Randles: The same goes for the CSIRO Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools programme. That programme matches schools with a scientist or a technology expert, and it is tailored. The programme is tailored to your particular needs. You’re hooked up and matched by the CSIRO, but then you and the experts work out how often are they going to visit the school, what kind of things would work for your group. It’s all brokered by the CSIRO, so they do all the working with children safety checks and all of the logistics. But then it’s up to you and the expert to liaise on how to design a programme.

[00:32:18]
Ben Newsome: It’s also worth looking at Young Tall Poppies as well.

[00:32:20]
Jackie Randles: Yes, we have lots of competitions where we reward young scientists for their research excellence, and the winners of these competitions are quite often required to go and do something with schools. So the Young Tall Poppies campaign, we have Fresh Science, we have FameLab, we have Pint of Science. There are all these places where you can find enthusiastic young researchers who might like to come and do something with your school.

[00:32:50]
Ben Newsome: So I’m now just sitting here wondering just how many hours do you have in your day to do anything?

[00:33:00]
Jackie Randles: I try and be helpful, that’s kind of my motto in this role. I think my role is very much a catalyst. I don’t do most of the event management, thank goodness, but I do have a lot of contacts and I do connect a lot of people. That said, schools is not my focus. I’m not the expert in the schools space. But I’m definitely well connected to people who are. There’s also the Australian Science Teachers Association. I’d also like to mention that National Science Week has a whole schools programme. If you go to the website, click on the schools tab, there are free resources, there’s lesson plans, there’s ideas of things to do. You can order free caps and t-shirts and download posters. There’s a lot out there. It’s just the poor teachers, where do they get the time to actually research these things?

[00:33:55]
Ben Newsome: I know, not everyone has time these days, absolutely. If you’re wondering about National Science Week, that happens in August every year and it’s a really big deal right across the country.

[00:34:00]
Jackie Randles: Every school gets a poster actually, so you should have received your poster in early May. The poster has got the web address, it’s a poster you can stick on the wall, and it’s got a highlight for every state of something you can do. Do look out for the poster, it would have been mailed to someone, and hopefully if you’re a science or technology teacher, it’s landed on your desk.

[00:34:23]
Ben Newsome: Awesome. Thank you very much Jackie Randles for coming in. Obviously you’ve given a bucket load of information. Good luck for us having to write up these show notes on this particular one. But if people want to get in touch with you, how would be the best way to get in touch?

[00:34:34]
Jackie Randles: The generic email address is always good, [email protected]. If you want to tap into the science hubs, shoot me an email and I can give you a link to where they all are. On that webpage, or you can just look up New South Wales Regional Science Hubs. There are contact details to the convener of each one.

[00:35:00]
Ben Newsome: We got some homework to do! There you go. Thank you very much Jackie for coming in and enjoy the rest of your day.

[00:35:08]
Jackie Randles: Thanks for having me Ben, and thanks for entertaining everyone with your wonderful science shows. If anyone hasn’t experienced Fizzics Education yet, jump online and have a look at Ben in action. It’s always lots of fun.

[00:35:19]
Ben Newsome: Oh gosh, we got a plug at the end! There you go, thank you very much, didn’t even expect that, but much appreciated and we’ll catch you another time.

[00:35:26]
Jackie Randles: Thanks Ben.

[00:35:27]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast. We’re all about science, ed tech and more. To see 100 fun free experiments you can do with your class, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelt F-I-Z-Z-I-C-S and click 100 free experiments.

[00:35:46]
Ben Newsome: My gosh, how much does Jackie know? And not only that, how many people she knows and what they get up to. In New South Wales, and frankly across Australia and beyond, there is so much going on that you might well not be aware of. I really do encourage you to find another version of Inspiring Australia in your country. And hey, if you’re in a position where you can create such a thing in government, that’s a great idea. Inspiring Australia does a fantastic job in all of our states across Australia. We could cover so many things. From my learnings from this, I just wanted to give you a couple that you could take away and consider doing in your classroom, in your museum, or anywhere else.

[00:36:31]
Ben Newsome: One of the top three learnings that I really feel is worth considering is citizen science. Jackie mentioned so many in quick succession. So many things are going on in local communities across New South Wales where people are finding out real science that scientists can use. Anything from doing fish surveys to bird surveys and astronomy and beyond. You can help real scientists do real work. Citizen science was a big thing back in the 18th and 19th centuries, the gentleman scientists of the bygone era. It’s having a comeback, and you can help people.

[00:37:06]
Ben Newsome: There are so many ways you can get involved, whether you want to download an app on your phone that can contribute some of the computing power of your phone or your computer to the SETI@home project if that’s your thing about finding potential intelligent life, through to contributing just to your local community working out what animal life is in your backyard. Please consider that.

[00:37:36]
Ben Newsome: Learning number two, encourage entrepreneurship. Jackie spoke at length about all the different ways that people are contributing to their world and it doesn’t have to necessarily be an obvious scientist type space. She mentioned butchers, she mentioned fabric designers, she mentioned a whole bunch of people that are doing a really good job not only for themselves but for their community. Entrepreneurship is about acting ethically and getting the right resources from the right places, the right suppliers. Getting people to not only be paid well but give them real opportunities that could last a lifetime in their careers, and teaching them skills that can grow them as a person as well as grow that particular business.

[00:38:26]
Ben Newsome: In essence, entrepreneurship is about creating opportunity. It’s about getting a product, whether it’s a service or a product, to a market that people want and need. Obviously bringing out the correct science to bring that service to reality requires STEM. You need science, and tech, and engineering, and maths as well.

[00:38:46]
Ben Newsome: I’d like you to consider encouraging this in your schools, universities, your museums, or wherever you might be. You can look up a number of places. I mentioned Kidpreneur, but there’s a few of these. Learning number three, get involved. There’s so much out there, you just gotta know where to find it. Look up Inspiring Australia, we’ll put that in the show notes of course. But again, it doesn’t have to be around a national or state sanctioned event. You can be creating your own events which can involve your own community, get people excited about learning about their world. And to be honest, that’s really what we’re all about at the end point.

[00:39:08]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the FizzicsEd podcast. Love your science? We do too. Here’s this episode’s education tip of the week. Grab your pencil and get ready to make some notes.

[00:39:20]
Ben Newsome: Imagine you’re a student, you sit down in the room, look around, and there’s nothing to see whatsoever. You’ve probably been in one of those classrooms. You know what I mean, the ones where it’s just faded paint on the walls, there’s chipped desks, there’s an old white board or black board in front of you with some scribbles, and that’s just about it. It’s not exactly inspiring, and it’s not going to grab the kids’ attention whatsoever. They’re going to put attention on themselves instead of what you’re going to talk about. This week I’d like you to look around your room and see how could you improve that space to make it more engaging for students.

[00:39:57]
Ben Newsome: That doesn’t just have to be about whacking some posters up on the wall, though they have their place too, mind you, posters tend to fade into the background. Maybe set up a side of your room or a corner or whatever you can spare where you can run an experiment which runs over several weeks. We call this a longitudinal experiment, but you can call it whatever you want, just something that kids get to observe and record in their journals over time.

[00:40:22]
Ben Newsome: There’s a number of things you could do. You could do crystal experiments, where you could be growing crystals from a saturated borax solution. You can find borax in your supermarkets in the cleaning aisle or in the hardware store if you can’t find borax. Just dissolve it down in some hot water, let it cool down over time, and pour it into a cup, put a string or some form of seeding crystal spot for crystals to grow, and just see the crystals grow. You could have kids mix milk and vinegar together and just have it coagulate and bring out this casein, which is basically like a natural plastic.

[00:41:00]
Ben Newsome: You can let that drip through some filter paper for a while so it pretty much gets rid of all the whey, so you’ve only got curds left. Mould those curds into a shape and let them dry over time so kids could watch their sculptures dry made out of milk. They could be doing a plant growth experiment, where you have several different clear sandwich bags filled with beans and cotton wool and water, only some of the bags have salt in it, some have no salt in it, or you put sugar or whatever else you want to do with it. The kids can record and see the difference between those bags and bean growth. You could set up chromatography experiments, where they’ve got filter paper and felt-tip pens with some lines across it, and you dip a bit of that paper into some water and watch the colours spread out over time. You’d be surprised what colours you can actually find in felt-tip pens.

[00:41:54]
Ben Newsome: There’s a number of things that kids could watch over time. That’s my challenge for you this week. Look around your classroom, find a spot where you can just create something of an interest, like an interest corner.

[00:42:04]
Ben Newsome: A lot of preschools do this very well. They set up an interest corner for kids to go check out. There’s no reason why we can’t be doing this in a primary school or a high school or whatever. Of course there are lots of different ones you can do. If you jump on the FizzicsEd website, fizzicseducation.com.au. Just go into the search box, type in experiments or longitudinal experiments, or if you’re keen on the borax experiment, type in borax. There’s over 100 experiments there, so you’ll find something there that’ll be easy to get. You just go to the local supermarket or hardware store. It’ll tell you what to get, what you gotta use, and then how it works, and maybe some variables that you could be doing as well with your students. So there you go, there’s the tip of the week: set up an experiment that kids can observe over time.

[00:42:41]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast. We’re excited about science. Grab a copy of our new book, Be Amazing: How to Teach Science the Way Primary Kids Love from our website. Just search Be Amazing book. It’s available in hard copy and ebook. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelt F-I-Z-Z-I-C-S.

[00:43:01]
Ben Newsome: Yes, and science festivals get bigger and better every single year, and one of the people who really knows this is Vanessa Barrett from the Australian Botanic Garden in Mount Annan. Hear her thoughts about how her next event is only going to get bigger, even though the previous year it didn’t quite go to plan.

[00:43:18]
Vanessa Barrett: Look, we’re going to try again.

[00:43:21]
Ben Newsome: Yup.

[00:43:22]
Vanessa Barrett: And it’s in August this year, we’re going to do it in a way which we’ve thought about carefully, which is we’re going to actually have a day for the scientists and a separate day for the crazy, fete style family events. Just do it separately. There’s nothing wrong with that.

[00:43:36]
Ben Newsome: That’s right.

[00:43:37]
Vanessa Barrett: I’ve just accepted there’s two audiences…

[00:43:39]
Ben Newsome: Yep.

[00:43:40]
Vanessa Barrett: …and there’s two groups, and they don’t have to be on the same day.

[00:43:43]
Ben Newsome: Yeah.

[00:43:44]
Vanessa Barrett: And why fight it?

[00:43:45]
Ben Newsome: Makes sense. That way both audiences are happy, both presenter types are happy, and it’s not just about being tenacious, it’s about working out what will work and what won’t.

[00:43:55]
Vanessa Barrett: And I’ve effectively doubled the number of people who can come.

[00:43:58]
Ben Newsome: Isn’t she great? Speaking of people who run large-scale science events, you definitely should hear that episode if you haven’t done so yet. It’s episode number nine of our back catalogue. Also, we had Emma Johnston, who is absolutely a titan of getting events up and running too. She’s the presenter on Coast Australia, plus the Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales. If you get a chance, certainly search for her episode, where she talks all things biology and getting kids excited about understanding the living world, plus also the marine space. That’s episode 24.

[00:44:45]
Ben Newsome: We value our listeners immensely. I’m always happy to take messages and respond to reviews as well. Share this with a friend if you find this is quite handy. Especially the back catalogues that we’re starting to build up. A number of interviews with all sorts of people which you might find that a friend or a colleague might actually want to listen to as well.

[00:45:05]
Ben Newsome: Next week we’ll be connecting with Joanne Jamie and Emma Barnes from the National Indigenous Science Education Program. They’re out of Macquarie University, and this is kind of almost like a startup within a university, where we got university biochemists working with indigenous elders and schools in Northern New South Wales and Western Sydney to get students engaged in science. There’s a really fascinating chat about how they got going and what the kids get out of it from indigenous science in Australia. And if you’re not in Australia, I’m sure that you will have indigenous communities where maybe this could actually spark something in your country. Definitely tune in for that. That’s a chat with Joanne Jamie and Emma Barnes from the National Indigenous Science Education Program.

[00:46:00]
Ben Newsome: As always, may your science lessons be fun, please make them informative and engaging, and grab your kids’ imaginations. My name is Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education, and you’ve been listening to the FizzicsEd podcast.

[00:46:47]
Announcer: You’ve been listening to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Subscribe to us on iTunes to download the next episode as soon as it’s released. And don’t forget, for hundreds of ideas, free experiments, our new Be Amazing book and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Inspiring Australia and what is its main goal?
Inspiring Australia is a national strategy for community engagement with science, technology, and innovation. Its main goal is to connect scientists and researchers with the community, raise awareness about the relevance of science and technology in everyday life, and provide opportunities for people to meet scientists and discover STEM career paths.

How does Inspiring Australia engage non-traditional audiences with science?
Inspiring Australia works to reach people in unusual ways and places where they already gather, such as libraries, community festivals, music festivals, shopping centres, and pubs. They often collaborate with the arts and cultural sector to create engaging and memorable experiences that break down barriers and fear associated with science.

Can you explain the “Neural Knitworks” project?
The “Neural Knitworks” project, initiated by two artists, involves making neurons (brain cells) using yarn craft (knitting, crocheting, wrapping). The community is invited to download a scientifically informed pattern book, create neurons, and send them to an art gallery to build a giant, walk-through brain. The project includes science talks by neuroscientists and aims to change perceptions about science while being a fun, social, and mindful activity.

What is Citizen Science and how can people get involved?
Citizen Science involves public participation in scientific research. Inspiring Australia supports numerous fun and engaging projects like “Wildlife Spotter” (identifying animals from camera trap images), “Explore the Seafloor” (tracking sea urchin migration), “Galaxy Explorer” (classifying stars), and “Fireballs in the Sky” (photographing shooting stars). People can get involved by finding a project that matches their interest through resources like the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA) or the Science Week website.

How does Inspiring Australia support regional communities and entrepreneurship in STEM?
Inspiring Australia establishes regional science hubs, consisting of organisations interested in bringing science to their local communities. They provide funding for events and focus on showcasing local jobs and careers that involve science, technology, engineering, and maths. This initiative also fosters entrepreneurship by encouraging individuals to create sustainable businesses in regional areas, often integrating STEM skills into non-traditional fields like IT, food production, or fashion.

Extra thought ideas to consider

The Evolving Role of Scientists in Public Engagement: The discussion highlights a shift from scientists primarily speaking to peers or “dumbing down” their work, to actively seeking common ground and engaging in two-way conversations with the public. How might this evolution impact scientific research itself, potentially shaping research questions or priorities based on public interest and understanding?

STEAM beyond STEM – The Integration of Arts and Creativity: The success of projects like “Neural Knitworks” and collaborations with the arts community underscore the power of integrating arts and creativity with STEM. This raises the question of whether “STEAM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) should become the new standard for science communication and education, and how such integration could foster broader public engagement and diverse career pathways.

Transforming Classroom Environments with Longitudinal Experiments: The podcast highlights how creating dedicated spaces for long-term observation (like crystal growing or plant growth) can drastically improve student engagement compared to static posters or traditional setups. How can educators systematically incorporate these “interest corners” into their busy schedules, and what impact might these continuous, passive learning spaces have on a student’s overall curiosity and ownership of their learning?