Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, Australia

 

Internship Program 2009

Bob Makinson - Conservation Botanist; and Kathi Downs - Curator

The third annual Plant Science Internship program was held over seven weeks in January and February.

The program involves the competitive selection of students from the vegetation sciences at tertiary campuses, or recent graduates, and their placement for seven weeks as full-time volunteers assisting staff in the science units, especially the Herbarium. In return for their time, Interns receive advanced training on current issues in botany, plant conservation and related fields, and in workforce skills such as seminar presentation, job applications and interviews. Several interns from past years have already returned to work for DECCW or the Trust, and others have returned as post-graduate students.

Specimens numbered, sorted and incorporated  2500
Specimens numbered and sorted only 667
Specimens accessioned, electronic data checked 567
Donated specimens checked, cleaned, sorted and prepared for mounting 400
Sheets mounted 508
Genera re-organised according to new taxonomy 3
Plant Pathology: soil samples taken 65
Plant Pathology: soil samples processed 122
Plant Pathology: plates processed 384
Bryophyte collections mounted 141
Bryophyte specimens sorted geographically 1800
Morphological measurements taken from 260 specimens across 2 species 6316
Printed journals reorganised in store 150 cartons (30 issues)
DNA samples packaged for storage 100
Seedbank: germination tests 34
Seedbank: collections incorporated 44
Seedbank: collections packaged/repackaged 64
Interns' own collections prepared, databased and incorporated 17 sheets
Disaster recovery and clean-up 1 flood (minor)

Interns are trained and supervised by science staff, and deployed to support mainly curatorial activities: an area for which there are no grant programs to support additional paid staff. All intern work supports, directly or indirectly, our research and information-provision activities. Interns are deployed in teams to maximise efficiency and accuracy of work. Staff benefit both from the assistance and from honing their training and presentational skills. Lectures and seminars are given to the interns by Trust staff and by invited guest speakers from other institutions and fields. The program is strongly supported by academics around NSW.

Seven campuses were represented in the 2009 program: the Universities of NSW, New England, Sydney, and Western Sydney, Southern Cross and Macquarie Universities, and the University of Mauritius. The twelve students selected showed great enthusiasm and capacity to benefit from the program. As in previous years they provided a valuable net gain of assistance to the Herbarium, the Seedbank, and the Plant Pathology unit. Work outputs this year are shown in the accompanying table.

interns
Interns: Jennifer Hens, Theresa Choi and Joelle Catherine, taking ecological measurements in salt-marsh vegetation at Patonga Creek, with Bob Makinson (Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust). Photo: Peta Hinton

My time as an intern

Click here to read thoughts from Rebecca Johnson on the Internship Program 2009: My time as an intern

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