Reflection Written by Manpreet Saini
The second day of the conference has been an incredibly busy and interesting day. Today’s Student Day program consisted of three student day workshops in which various topics were discussed.
The first session I got to attend was titled “Navigating Northern Research: Inuit Research Advisor’s Guide to Research in Canadian North”. In this half hour talk, a panel of Inuit Research Advisors described appropriate approaches to take when doing research within the North, in particular they advocated the use of Inuit Research Advisors who serve as liaisons between the Inuit community and the researchers who wish to work with the community.
The next session that I attended was the “Community Cooperative Research Roundtable”. This hour long discussion focused on a panel of researchers who worked with Inuit communities and the importance of involving communities in the research. The session allowed for the audience to ask questions and share their experiences working with communities as well. Many Inuit were there as well and their comments provided great insight into the thoughts and perspectives of these communities and how best to approach them.
The last session that I attended was the “Communicating Science” workshop. Margret Brady, a freelance writer, and Grant Gilchrist, a professor at Carleton University, presented appropriate ways of communicating the science that we discover as researchers to the general public or the communities in which we do the work. They emphasized key strategies such as keeping the language simple and using a story-telling technique to be effective communicators.
We finished off the day with the poster session in which Carlee, Kate and Lindsay were all presenting. Their posters were very informative and appealing! There were also booths set up by various organizations and companies where we got a lot of information about research, products and services that were being offered in the Arctic. The booths and posters allowed me to interact with many interesting individuals, as well as get a lot of booklets and information packages to read! It was an incredible day and I am super excited for what the rest of this conference will bring!