cooladelaide.org

Author: Caroline Bayer

When 48 high school students from across Australia, got the news their applications to join an Earthwatch Student Challenge team were successful, excitement filled the air. There were many questions to be answered. What environmental research will I be doing? Where will I be going? Who will I meet?

Those questions and many more were answered in December 2011 and January 2012 during the school summer holidays, when five Student Challenge teams headed out into the wild to work hands-on with scientists, to help address issues critical to the health of our environment.

Climate change and the impacts of urbanisation were the two key themes running across the three projects that the Student Challengers were charged with supporting – Melbourne’s Microbats, Turtles on the Move and Australia’s Vanishing Frogs.

One Student Challenger, Aleksandra Vasic who was selected for Australia’s Vanishing Frogs said,
“It showed me what a science career could look like, allowed me to meet like-minded peers who will continue to be friends, highlighted a huge problem that I wasn’t aware of, empowered me to make a change for these frogs, and continue to help fix the problem. This was definitely one of the most amazing weeks of my life, if not the most amazing one!”
With her team of fellow students turned volunteer researchers, Aleksandra worked with scientist Professor Michael Mahony in the ancient Gondwana rainforests of Northern NSW researching the impact of the Chytrid fungus on Australia’s vanishing frogs; an issue expected to worsen with warmer temperatures.

By day, students tackled a range of activities from listening to frog calls to catching tadpoles and taking swabs to check for the virus. By night students experienced a real off the beaten track adventure, walking through streams and river banks to spot frogs. Scientist and Professor Michael Mahony, said “It’s fantastic to work with young people, they have great eye sight, they are really enthusiastic and energetic and go to great lengths to catch frogs.”
 
Arielle Tickner-Smith, selected for Turtles on the Move, a new research project to help understand the movement of freshwater turtles in urban areas, describes how the experience will affect others, “Young people will take more of an interest in science because of programs like Student Challenge, that give students a taste of something new, something hands on, something that can change the world, if they get a taste for it they often come back wanting more.”.
Like freshwater turtles, microbats - a vital species for insect control, are also at risk from urbanisation.  


Lisa Godinho, Research Scientist, Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology, University of Melbourne said, “The heat wave meant the microbats were out in force, with over 100 microbats caught in one night, meaning the students had their work cut out for them. But they were fantastic and worked together well into the night and early morning to process all the microbats.”

Taking it all in his stride was Brendan Mains, who participated in Melbourne’s Microbats, “Thank you so much for making the experience such a wonderful one to participate in. I had a wonderful time being a part of the scientific community and using my powers of being human for the forces of good.”

To get involved visit www.earthwatch.org.au and keep an eye out for the release of next year’s Student Challenge program.