Student climate change podcast goes global

Swinburne students are contributing to the global discussion on climate change with their new podcast, published by Global Climate Change Week.

As part of the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Professional), Zoë Mayer, alongside her group William Jackson-Martin, James Dakin, Anshia Tu, Sam Hosie, and Tran Bao Giang Pham, were given the task of creating an educational podcast for the Global Climate Change Week (GCCW) website.

“All of my team members are part of the same degree, but not everyone has the same major, which we actually found to be incredibly beneficial when undertaking the research portion of the project as it was easy to assign corresponding themes to everyone’s chosen majors,” says Zoë.

The team’s concept for the podcast was biodiversity, with an episode on agriculture, extreme weather events and natural disaster, food security, water security, and food/water borne illness and disease. 

“I think that biodiversity is important to me and my team as it directly influences global health, and given my team are all studying health sciences it made sense to feature this in our project. We were able to research the current and very real threats that climate change poses to our planet, specifically educating the public on the detrimental effects through the lens of health prioritisation,” Zoë says.

Creating a lasting impact 

GCCW encourages academic communities around the world to engage with each other, their communities and policy makers on climate change action and solutions. Held annually in October, GCCW provides a platform for activities aimed at raising awareness, inspiring behaviour change, and driving political transformation in relation to climate policy.  

Academic Director of Work Integrated Learning Dr Sharon Grant helped arrange this project, as well as Co-Chair of GCCW and Research Fellow at Swinburne Dr Kim Beasy, who collaborated with the students to produce the podcasts. 

“Climate change is something that we all need to know about,” Dr Beasy says.  

“This means that we need educational resources that are accessible and engaging and speak to a diverse range of people. Podcasts made by young people about climate change are exactly what we mean by accessible and engaging!” 

Convenor of the Health Sciences WIL Capstone Projects Dr Charmaine Lloyd says developing a resource that is both informative and has wide reach and impact is a unique skill. As part of the Bachelor of Health Sciences, students work collaboratively on real-world topics with an industry partner to achieve an analysis of data or design and produce a health-related resource. 

Dr Lloyd says she is very proud of what they have achieved as a team.  

“The students worked hard over the weeks building their script, getting it vetted and learning how to use software to bring out a beautiful podcast within the span of a semester.” 

Zoë says creating a podcast that shares important perspectives in an accessible way was the most rewarding project throughout her entire degree.  

“It is deeply rewarding to know that something you create yourself could be used as an education tool by others, especially given how much work we put into this project. Seeing the response from Charmaine and Kim is gratifying, and to know that they appreciate what we have accomplished makes reflecting back on the semester, and our endeavours, encouragingly positive.”