Marine
Celebrating Science and Year of the Young Person – Carl Jones
August 23, 2018 by Marine Directorate Communications No Comments | Category Compliance, Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths_STEM, Uncategorized, Year of the Young Person
The year 2018 is both the Year of the Engineer and the Year of the Young Person – and this blog is about one of our many colleagues who are inspiring the next generation with their Outreach work.
Meet Carl Jones – British Seas Fisheries Officer based in our Peterhead office.
When not dressing up as a carrot… read on to find out what else he gets up to!
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Carl Jones and I am a British Seas Fisheries Officer working for Marine Scotland in the Peterhead office.
What’s your career path been – how did you get here?
To get to my current position, I took the long way round and subjected myself to University twice. In doing so I got my BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Dundee and then after some time away working as a team leader in I attended Edinburgh Napier University and gained a MSc in Wildlife Biology. The first job I applied for after this turned out to be my current job.
What made you decide to be involved in Outreach?
As an undergraduate, I worked as a teaching assistant for 1st-3rd year students, which was great fun and helped me to develop my communication and interaction skills.
After I graduated a took on some part time tutoring work and continued to do so once I began my Masters. When I began my current role, a member of staff mentioned I could use this drive and passion I had for helping others understand science better by becoming a STEM Ambassador.
If you weren’t doing this, what do you think you’d be doing instead?
If I wasn’t an FO there are 2 things I could see myself doing. First would be continuing to work my way up through Tesco management and generally going through the motions or following up on my MSc work and published paper as a PhD and chasing that dream of becoming a Dr in Zoology.
What’s your favourite fishy fact?
My fave fishy fact… the city Yoro in Honduras experiences an annual weather event called the “lluvia de peces” or “Rain of fish” in which hundreds of fish rain from the sky. Though this does sound iffy but my other random fact is that sharks are the only fish to have eyelids.
What do you enjoy most about doing Outreach?
I really enjoy sharing information and seeing how it helps someone understand. I have always loved learning when the teacher is enthusiastic about the subject and so I try my best to do the same. Sometimes a topic can seem difficult for a student but if it is put in terms they understand then they will remember it.
Would you encourage others to get involved in Outreach too?
I think everyone should give it a go. The worst that happens is you help someone for an hour or so. But it’s easy to fall for it like I did and now have done talks with local schools, taught topics for classes and sat in on experiments, which I can help the teacher and students.
Further Information
Tags: compliance, Peterhead, STEM, YOYP
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