Date/Time
Date(s) - Thu 8 October
12:00 - 13:00
As we head into the start of Spring, SCANZ is launching an online Month of Learning.
Hosted over four weeks, this is a series of online talks designed to expand and build upon the conversations from their 2026 SCANZ conference.
They want to continue exploring ideas and practices that are shaping the field and bring together people who are curious to learn, question, and connect.
Bring your lunch and settle in.
Click here to register and be sent the Zoom details
Speakers
(in order of appearance)
Sriparna Saha, Facilitator/Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Canterbury
Oualid Benkhali, PhD candidate, University of Canterbury
Waqas Munir, Founder and CEO, AcademicFellows
Gianna Savoie, Executive Director, Ocean Media Institute
Week 2
12:00 – 12:05 pm – Welcome
12:05 – 12:55 pm – Speakers (10 mins each)
12:55 – 1:00 pm – Wrap up
Topics
Bringing science to schools: Building STEM identity through communication, collaboration, and real-world learning
Sriparna Saha, Facilitator/Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Canterbury
In Aotearoa New Zealand, student engagement with science often declines as learners transition from intermediate (ages 11–13) to secondary school (ages 13–18). While interest in science is high in primary years, by age 15 only around two-thirds of New Zealand students report an interest in the subject (PISA, 2006). One approach to address this challenge is through strengthening science communication and building meaningful connections between scientists and students. Here, Sriparna Saha presents the Scientists in Schools (SIS) program funded by the Tait Foundation and delivered by the University of Canterbury (UC) that aims to make science more visible, relatable, and relevant by bringing authentic scientific practices and role models directly into schools. SIS trains UC science undergraduates as science communicators and near-peer mentors, providing relatable STEM role models while exploring potential pathways into science teaching.
From Chaos to Curiosity: Adapting Science Communication in Disrupted Times
Oualid Benkhali, PhD candidate, University of Canterbury
During periods of disruption (from pandemic lockdowns to shifting community contexts) Oualid Benkhali has explored ways to maintain engagement and curiosity in learners while ensuring meaningful outcomes. Drawing on their experience in secondary English education and reflective teaching practices, they adapted lesson plans and learning activities to new formats, including hybrid and online platforms, while maintaining trust and accessibility. They collaborated with colleagues to redesign programs, introduced interactive strategies, and developed tools to support learners navigating uncertainty. This experience offers insights into creative problem-solving, resilience, and inclusive practice that are transferable to science communication contexts.
Connected Science: Breaking Silos to Build a Science-Informed Future
Waqas Munir, Founder and CEO, AcademicFellows
Research is not a short-term policy instrument. Its economic, strategic, and societal value compounds over time, and the conditions that enable it matter as much as the investment itself. New Zealand has strong institutions and deep research talent, but the system that connects them has not kept pace. It is fragmented across groups, teams, and institutions, leading to poor visibility and inefficiencies. What is missing is the connective layer that allows them to find each other, align around shared challenges, and move with the momentum that society demands. Through the lens of building AcademicFellows, New Zealand’s national research mapping platform, this talk explores what becomes possible when we connect the people, not just the publication, and build the infrastructure that makes New Zealand’s research capabilities visible, searchable, and actionable at scale.
I Am Ocean: Disrupting Narrative Ownership in Science Communication
Gianna Savoie, Executive Director, Ocean Media Institute
In coastal regions around the world, environmental health is interlaced with cultural health and when one erodes, so does the other. Never before have we had such broad access to information, yet as our environment slips into a state of crisis, the public’s grasp of the issues is far from firm. Though indigenous people are often seen as “the face” of environmental issues, they are seldom heard as its “voice” and rarely possess narrative control of their own story, despite being most directly impacted. Using the Ocean Media Institute’s award-winning flagship video series, I Am Ocean as a launching point, Gianna Savoie will explore the ways in which researchers and communicators must disrupt the notion of “”narrative ownership”” and turn instead to a narrative that embraces diverse perspectives in an effort to decolonialize science, deepen our understanding, and broaden our relationship with our blue planet.