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 Informationhttps://www.tafensw.edu.au/specialty-schools/manufacturing-centres-of-excellenceAbout the Hunter Science Festival 2026https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festivalhttps://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 ShowWe are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.comWatch on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow

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 Informationhttps://newcastlelibraries.com.au/About the Hunter Science Festival 2026https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festivalhttps://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 ShowWe are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.comWatch on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow

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 Informationhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063618307697https://hunter-valley-amateur-beekeepers.org.au/About the Hunter Science Festival 2026https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festivalhttps://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 ShowWe are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.comWatch on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow

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 Informationhttps://www.seedsofthesea.org/https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/cmsi/research-projects/Marine-Environmental-Sustainability/seeds-of-the-seaIf 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 ShowWe are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.comWatch on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow

What's really in the air over Darwin, and why wasn't anyone measuring it?In this episode, Dani talks with Dr Louise Woodward, a Darwin paediatrician and founder of CHANT (Community Healthy Air Northern Territory), Australia's first community-led air quality monitoring project. Louise explains how a Senate inquiry into a major gas industry expansion in Darwin Harbour revealed the Northern Territory wasn't monitoring for toxic chemicals like benzene at all, and how her community responded by crowdfunding over $130,000 to buy their own mobile air monitor.The conversation covers the real health risks of living near gas processing facilities, why "natural gas" isn't the safe, clean option it's marketed as, and how CHANT's advocacy has already led to formal prosecution over misreported emissions, plus what Louise sees as reason for real hope in the twilight of the fossil fuel era.More Informationhttps://www.healthyairnt.au/https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591465550473https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-05/nt-epa-prosecutes-gas-company-inpex/106998434If 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 ShowWe 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

What is the Australian landscape trying to tell us, and are we actually listening?In this episode, host John Marsh sits down with regenerative farmer Martin Royds of Jillamatong, near Braidwood, NSW, to explore a philosophy built over four decades: reading weeds, soil and water as feedback rather than problems to be sprayed away.Martin shares how a simple handful of urea outperforms a toxic, decades-old herbicide, why his nutrient-dense grass-finished beef was once rejected by a supermarket for having the "wrong" coloured fat, and the remarkable story of senior fast food executives travelling from the United States to see his water-positive farming system firsthand.The conversation ranges from Indigenous knowledge and the hidden marketing history behind "grain-fed" beef, to Sydney's multi-billion-dollar water infrastructure debate, and closes with Martin's simple advice for anyone, farmer or city dweller, wanting to reconnect with the living systems around them.More InformationJillamatong:https://jillamatong.com.au/Soils for Life interview:https://soilsforlife.org.au/the-jillamatong-story/Australian Museum Interview:https://australian.museum/learn/climate-change/climate-solutions/future-now-makers/green-solutions/The Mulloon Institute:https://mullooninstitute.org/2019/11/06/braidwoods-secret-water-supply-waiting-in-weir/Soils for Life PODCAST:https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/making-decisions-in-the-dry-with-martin-royds/id1582582411?i=1000709860943The Land Article:https://www.theland.com.au/story/9179532/drought-resilience-lessons-from-aussie-farmers/Charlie Arnott Podcast Episode:https://charliearnott.com.au/s2-e3-martin-royd/ABC:https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2010-09-21/braidwood-farmer-looks-to-diversification/6195980Landcare:https://landcarensw.org.au/landcarers-holistic-management-approach-is-paying-dividends-during-drought/Matters Journal:https://mattersjournal.com/stories/regenerative-agricultureQPRC ‘Region’:https://region.com.au/braidwoods-secret-water-supply-waiting-in-weir/335126/ 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 ShowWe 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

It's National Science Week, and Dani welcomes back a familiar face: Dr Jessie Oliver, Technical Manager of SciStarter Australia, the local home for finding and sharing citizen science projects across the country.Jessie walks through what's currently on the platform, from backyard biodiversity spotting on iNaturalist to hyperlocal air-quality monitoring in Tasmania, and explains why physics-based projects remain rare while health and technology projects are on the rise.She also opens up about her background in tech design research, why so many people feel discouraged by "unfriendly" citizen science apps, and why that's rarely their fault. Plus: how project organisers, big or small, can get their own citizen science projects listed on SciStarter Australia, and why Jessie is personally offering to help anyone who gets stuck.Event detailsHunter Science Festival, Newcastle Museum, Sunday 23 August 2026. Free entry. Presented by the Hunter Innovation and Science Hub (HISH) and the City of Newcastle, supported by the Australian Government.https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/More Information https://www.scistarteraustralia.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 ShowWe 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

It's National Science Week, and this episode is all about physics and the people bringing it to life across Australia.Dani sits down with Associate Professor Dr Karen Livesey, Chair of the NSW branch of the Australian Institute of Physics and a 2023 Marie Curie Lecturer, to talk about the AIP's first-ever stall at the Hunter Science Festival, the 2026 Marie Curie Lecture Series touring the country with astrophysicist Dr Karelle Siellez, and the surprising careers a physics degree can lead to.Karen also shares her "secret mission" to find physics hiding in the everyday world, from rainbows to nanomagnets, and reveals her other secret life running Ghost Fungus Tours, where quantum mechanics meets glowing mushrooms in the bush.Catch the AIP at the Hunter Science Festival on Sunday 23 August at Newcastle Museum, and the Marie Curie Lecture live in Newcastle on Friday 21 August.Event detailsHunter Science Festival, Newcastle Museum, Sunday 23 August 2026. Free entry. Presented by the Hunter Innovation and Science Hub (HISH) and the City of Newcastle, supported by the Australian Government.https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/More Information https://www.aip.org.au/Women-in-Physics-Lecture-TourIf 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 ShowWe 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