Towards the end of last month, Alicia De Gracia, Senior Ecology Project Manager at RSK Biocensus, gave a presentation at Hermitage Park Primary School about her career in ecology. The presentation was part of the school’s celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The young minds from Hermitage Park were treated to an insight into ecology from Alicia’s perspective. During the presentation, Alicia talked about RSK Biocensus, and what we do as an ecology consultancy.
Alicia provided examples of some of the projects she herself has taken part in, which include woodland botany surveys and surveys for bats, beavers and badgers. To illustrate these, Alicia provided images from these and other interesting projects to show the students the wide variety of work that we carry out at RSK Biocensus.
Alicia then talked to her already fascinated audience about the work of a number of other colleagues within the team. This included describing and showing Patrick James, Senior Ecological Consultant, recording the locations of badger setts so that they can be protected, and Peter Walker, Technical Director, undertaking eel habitat assessments. The children then took part in a fun activity looking at animal tracks, putting into practice some of the knowledge they had just gained.
Throughout the presentation, Alicia highlighted the contribution that she and her colleagues make towards conservation, including habitat management and flora surveys to help make woodland better for wildlife. This helped the children to understand that Alicia and the colleagues she had talked about don’t just carry out their consultancy work, but are also looking after the natural world in other ways.
In addition to talking about her role and that of RSK Biocensus, Alicia did a wonderful job at showing how fulfilling a career in ecology can be. Feedback from the presentation was excellent and even the teachers were fascinated with what they saw, this was a great way to kick off the school’s STEM celebration.