Zoom meeting with a scientist in California

Last Friday the Year 8 students were lucky enough to have a Zoom meeting with a scientist in California. Christine Parisek is a freshwater ecologist, loves aquatic insects, amphibians, and fish! Most of her work is done on mountain lake food webs, which means she thinks a lot about who-eats-who in the lake and how that influences how organisms can grow and survive there. She has worked in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, USA, and now most of her work takes place in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

49 Year 8 Students were able to log on and meet her.  They asked interesting questions such as 'what impact have environmental changes had on her observations?' and 'what inspired her to be an ecologist?'  They also asked practical questions such as 'did she like school?' and 'how did she know she wanted to be an ecologist?'

The event was a great success and I hope many Year 8 students realise that being a scientist does not mean working in a laboratory all day.

The photos show Christine filtering lake water for microorganisms and her 'office' in the mountains.