I was the expert speaking to students. But I came away wiser

Yesterday I attended an event as an expert – and came away with fresh knowledge.

As a guest lecturer for the University of Adelaide winter school in science communication, I spoke to undergraduate science students about how to tell science stories with impact, and the importance of keeping the audience front of mind.

Among those listening was Brad Bianco, a conservation biology student and self-confessed “botanic fanatic”. He runs a beautiful Instagram account brad.bianco.conservation.

From January 1 2018, Brad started posting

a daily photograph of a South Australian native wildflower in the hopes of raising awareness of the beauty and diversity of our Indigenous flora.

Brad’s images (all his own) are accompanied by short paragraphs about the featured species’ biology, ecology or conservation significance. He invites people to follow him as he “explores our remnant bushland to find and share floral gems”.

Brad’s Instagram account shares the native plants of South Australia.

He told me he had worked mainly with older people in his volunteer conservation work, and decided to start the account as a way to share plant botany with younger people, those already on Instagram. Perhaps some fresh blood might be inspired to step up and participate in conversation work in the future.

I had prepared a few slides in my presentation to talk about how Instagram can be used to share science. But I didn’t need them; instead Brad and I had a quick chat about his botany Insta account, what he hoped to achieve with it and how it could help him build his profile and potentially give him an employment edge in the future.

Much like my blog scienceforlife365.wordpress.com (no longer updated regularly), which was vital for me in finding my voice as a writer and building my professional profile from 2012 moving forwards.