Want to maximize the impact of your Northern research?
Turn your science into a visual story!
In partnership with APECS Canada, ACUNS launched the Illustrate Your Research contest in June 2022 to promote Knowledge Mobilization (KMb). Early-career researchers, students and northern research assistants were encouraged to demonstrate their knowledge about an issue that affects northern communities and explain the relevance of their project in plain language and pictures. The goal of the contest is to make scientific research accessible and relatable to a non-specialist audience using an illustrative multi-panelled storyboard, a.k.a. the comic strip.
Congratulations to Spencer Weinstein, a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo, Department of Biology. Her study on climate change impacts on char in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, responds to community concerns by local fishers.
“Climate change is disproportionately affecting Arctic environments and communities, including in the town of Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Kugluktuk sits on the Coppermine River, which supports a subsistence char fishery. Recently, fishers have observed fewer char entering the river following summer migration, and variation in fish appearance, suggesting that both Dolly Varden and Arctic are present in a river where traditionally only Arctic char have been found. My research evaluates the diversity in char in the Coppermine River, which will equip scientists and community members with tools to identify and restore critical habitats, ensuring the viability of the subsistence fishery.”
Thank you to graphic artist, MartinPM who worked with Spencer Weinstein and created three versions in English, French, and Inuinnaqtun.
Stay “tooned” for information on the 2023 contest. You could win the chance to have your research transformed into a visual story.
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