Last year we were privileged to be invited to help judge the Postgraduate Research Forum Speakers at a 3-minute thesis pitch event at the UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (UNSW BEES). What a fantastic event! During this jam-packed morning, we got to hear about the amazing and highly varied research that is being conducted at UNSW BEES and to listen to post-graduate speakers articulate their findings to a general audience. What emerged from this was the question... what makes an awesome science presentation? In this podcast, we chat with two of the finalists, Claire Brandenburger and Hayden Schilling, about what they did to prepare themselves to pitch their entire thesis in three minutes.

Hosted by Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education

About Claire Brandenburger
Claire is a PhD candidate at UNSW Sydney where she is looking at the rapid evolution of introduced plants. Her study species is the South African beach daisy which arrived in Australia in the 1930s. As part of her research, Claire has been growing South African plants and Australian plants side-by-side in the UNSW glasshouse. She has discovered that in less than one hundred years the Australian plants have rapidly evolved changes in almost every aspect of their biology, including the way they look, photosynthesise, defend themselves and reproduce. This has important implications for how we manage these plants…are they still unwanted weeds from somewhere else, or are they evolving into a unique new Australian species?

About Hayden Schilling
Hayden Schilling is a final year PhD student at the University of New South Wales. Hayden works with NSW Department of Primary Industries and recreational fishers to study the ecology of Tailor, the iconic fishing species. He is interested in how fast they grow, what they eat, where they live and when they reproduce. Hayden also helps to teach classes in marine science and oceanography for undergraduate and masters students.

More information
UNSW BEES http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/
Fizzics Education https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/

About the FizzicsEd Podcast
With interviews with leading science educators and STEM thought leaders, this science education podcast is about highlighting different ways of teaching kids within and beyond the classroom. It's not just about educational practice & pedagogy, it's about inspiring new ideas & challenging conventions of how students can learn about their world! 

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