Citizen Science Show

Recorded live in the Citizen Science Show podcast booth at the Hunter Science Festival, Dani sits down with Nick Whalan-Daniels, Head Teacher for the TAFE NSW Manufacturing Centre of Excellence at Tighes Hill, to talk about a stand packed with augmented reality welding, robotics and renewable energy demonstrations.

Nick explains how the new centre is training the Hunter's next generation of advanced manufacturing workers, why the region's shift away from coal is creating fresh skills gaps in renewable energy, and how "micro skills" and "micro credentials" are opening trade pathways to people who've never picked up a tool.

Plus, why Nick thinks AI is a tradesperson's friend, not their replacement.

More Information
https://www.tafensw.edu.au/specialty-schools/manufacturing-centres-of-excellence

About the Hunter Science Festival 2026
https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festival
https://www.hish.org.au/

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.

It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Watch on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded live in the Citizen Science Show podcast booth at the Hunter Science Festival, Dani sits down with Karen Eastwood, Program Delivery Officer for Newcastle Museum and Library, to talk about the library's new Little Bang Discovery Club, a hands on program turning preschoolers into "little scientists" (and their parents into "lab assistants").

Karen shares what's inside the program's take home discovery box, how the four week journey builds to a mini science fair, and how Newcastle Museum and Library is reshaping what a library can be, from a citizen science corner to borrowable fossil kits and a chill out zone stocked with genuine dinosaur poo.

More Information
https://newcastlelibraries.com.au/

About the Hunter Science Festival 2026
https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festival
https://www.hish.org.au/

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.

It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Watch on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded live in the Citizen Science Show podcast booth at the Hunter Science Festival, Dani sits down with Heather Wightman, biosecurity officer for the Hunter Valley Amateur Beekeepers, to find out about a gold medal winning Australian invention putting fresh, spin-your-own honey on the kitchen bench, and what's changed for beekeepers since Varroa mite arrived in Australia.

Heather explains how a new mite strain resistant to standard treatments is spreading, what it could mean for pollination and our food supply, and how everyday beekeepers have quietly become citizen scientists, monitoring their hives every month just to keep their bees alive.

More Information
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063618307697
https://hunter-valley-amateur-beekeepers.org.au/

About the Hunter Science Festival 2026
https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festival
https://www.hish.org.au/

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.

It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Watch on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wondered how you could contribute to ocean science without being a scientist yourself?

In this episode, we speak with Dr Paige Maroni, founder of the Polar Blast Project, about how private yacht owners, captains and crews around the world are helping scientists access some of the most remote and least understood marine environments on Earth.

From automated water samplers to remotely operated vehicles surveying the Antarctic seafloor, Paige reveals just how many ways an ordinary vessel, and an ordinary person, can help fill in the map of our unexplored oceans.

We also dig into the incredible biodiversity hiding beneath the polar ice, a newly documented squid species, and why protecting these fragile ecosystems is a race against time.

More Information
Yachts for Science: https://www.yachtsforscience.com/
Polar BLAST: https://www.polarblast.org/
DONATE to Polar BLAST: https://giving.uwa.edu.au/online-giving?id=f6f8e736-5885-4772-ae45-9c98e6105894
Dr Paige Maroni: https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/paige-maroni/
A recent short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIppptKE58

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.

It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Watch on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beneath the waves, one of the ocean's most important ecosystems is hiding in plain sight.

In this episode, Sarah talks with Natalie Coy, a PhD candidate and founder of the citizen science project Seeds of the Sea, about Posidonia australis, an endangered, flowering seagrass found only in Australia, and home to a single clone in WA stretching 180 kilometres, making it the largest known organism on Earth.

Natalie explains why seagrass meadows matter so much for carbon storage, coastline protection and marine nurseries, why NSW's Posidonia populations behave so differently to WA's, and what's driving the species' decline, from swing moorings to stormwater runoff.

She also shares how everyday Australians can help simply by photographing seagrass they spot while diving, boating or walking the beach, and her hope for a future of small, community-led restoration projects up and down the coast.

More Information
https://www.seedsofthesea.org/
https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/cmsi/research-projects/Marine-Environmental-Sustainability/seeds-of-the-sea

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.

It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Watch on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.