Hello!
Sofiya Shukova and I invite you to participate in Sketch Your Conservation Project*.

I previously worked on issues of water management and agriculture, using remote sensing to monitor drought conditions impacting California’s agriculture (sketch above). Although I played a scientific role, I learned that water management or water conservation involves many stakeholders and I had to learn to adapt my messaging when communicating with our diverse partners. I also wish I had studied up on crop growing practices and water application beforehand to better prepare myself for this project.  

Sketch Instructions:
Take 10 minutes to reflect on a conservation project you are or have worked on. What would this project look like as a doodle or sketch? Draw that image and take a photo. Post your sketch to the ‘Art and Conservation’ Room and under your image share your lessons learned.

Please answer at least two of the three lessons learned attached to your sketch.

• Which lessons learned can I share on this topic that could benefit the wider conservation community/people working on this topic?
• What did I wish I would have known before I started working on this topic and could be useful to share with other professionals now?
• Which piece of information on this topic do I feel is currently missing in the conservation sector?

* This exercise is based on a team of professional science communicators at the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Click the link to see examples of sketches and animated earth and space research projects to give you ideas about yours.

https://blogs.agu.org/sciencecommunication/2020/12/02/how-to-sketch-your-science/