Cheraine: Alright, hi everyone.
I want to welcome you to another one of our
WiSciFiles chats.
I’m Cheraine Stanford.
I’m the senior producer/director at WPSU and
the producer for WiSciFiles.
With me is Erica Smithwick, who is associate
professor of geography here at Penn State.
Welcome, Erica!
Erica: Thank you!
Cheraine: So this is our last chat!
And it’s actually pretty fitting that it
would be Erica who is our final chat, because
Erica was one of the people who actually helped
inspire me to do this series.
So I’m happy to have you on this chat.
Also on this chat, though, are some special
guests.
We have the 5th graders at Park Forest Elementary
School in State College.
We also have the 7th graders from Armstrong
Middle School in Bristol Township.
And I’m sure we have other people on the
chat.
Please feel free to type in and let us know
that you’re here so we can acknowledge you.
I know we have a lot of questions, and so
I’m actually going to get started, Erica,
by asking you one thing.
You know, the video that we put together showed
a lot of your work in South Africa and here
on campus, and just because that’s where,
we happened to go to South Africa together.
But I know that you do a lot of other work.
Can you talk about some of your other interests
outside of kind of biodiversity and those
kinds of things in the forest?
Just give us a little bit about some of the
things that you’re, you’re studying.
Erica: So one of, one of the central things
that I’m interested in is fire and wildfire.
So I’ve been working in Yellowstone National
Park for more than a decade trying to understand
how wildfires shape ecosystems and how they
determine whether the forest is going to come
back or not.
And so, I've been working out there for, for
a while.
I also have projects in Wisconsin, where we're
looking at forest management there.
We're working with the Menominee Native American
tribe and trying to understand how they can
better manage their forests under climate
change, and what else?
I also worked in Ghana looking at human health
issues, so looking at how land use disturbance
and climate change can influence human health
patterns.
Cheraine: Right, so a lot more than you saw
in the video [laughing] and I definitely wanted
to make sure that you brought up fire, because
I know that is a big part of, you know, the
work you that you do.
Erica: Yep.
Cheraine: So, we have our first question from
Cailey at Park Forest Elementary, and her question
is, "When did you first become interested
in science, and when did you decide you wanted
to be a scientist?"
Erica: Hi Cailey, great question.
I knew that I was interested in science probably
around 10th grade.
I had an environmental science class, and I really
enjoyed it.
I thought it was fun and more interesting
than some of my other classes.
And I, but I wasn't sure what to do with it.
A very strong memory for me is when I was
thinking about going to college and thinking
about what I wanted to major in.
I was like, “well, I could be, do something
in science, or I could work for an NGO," which
is a non-governmental organization that makes
decisions.
Or I could work in policy, in government,
but I said, "you know what?
I really want to understand the system that
I'm trying to manage."
And, and that choice made me decide to go
more in the science route than the applied
kind of route I could've taken.
And then when I was in college, I went to
Tufts University in Boston,
I actually found it a really great place to
focus on science, because I had to double-major.
I specifically chose Tufts because it was
Environmental Studies program that made you
double-major in a science of any choice.
So it wasn't just one of these, what I was
thinking at the time, a "fluffy" environmental 
science program.
I had a broad-based environmental studies
program, and then was able to major in a science
that I thought was most relevant to me, and
for me, that was geology.
So, that's how I sort of started the path
I think.
Cheraine: Great.
Angie at Park Forest wants to know, "what
do you teach as a professor, and do you teach
your students what you study?"
Erica: Hi, Angie, good question, too.
I study, or I teach, I should say.
Maybe that answers the second part of your
question.
I teach a landscape ecology class, and that's
an upper-level undergraduate class.
You might ask, “what's landscape ecology?”
That is the study of ecology, of, of living
systems, but in the context of a larger area,
usually.
So we're thinking about how land use might
affect ecosystem processes, and landscape
ecology is really interested in how patterns
of systems influence those processes.
So whether a farm is next to a stream, for
example, or whether the farm is really far
away from a stream might determine how much
pollution gets in that stream.
And so we start to study questions from that
angle.
So that's my higher-level undergraduate class,
and that is one that is probably pretty closely
tied to my, to my research.
And then at the more introductory level, I
teach a park, a parks class.
It's called "Global Parks and Sustainability."
And that one is a general education course.
Anybody, any major can take it, and we look
at case studies of park conservation all over
the world.
And, so there's lots of elements of that course
that are not directly related to what I, I
study.
You know, I don't publish papers on it so
much, but it very much is a course that frames
my perspective, so I, I really enjoy teaching
it.
Cheraine: Darian at Armstrong Middle School
wants to know, "is doing your job hard, and
what are the hardest parts?"
Erica: [sighs] how much time do you have,
Darian?
[laughing] So, yeah, my job is hard, but you
know, when I think about it that way, I think,
"well, a lot of jobs are hard."
I mean, if you're working on a factory line,
that's hard.
If you're working as a secretary, that's hard.
If you're working as an astronaut, that's
hard.
Like all of these things are, could be framed as
being hard, so I, I try not to choose, I choose
not to think of it that way.
I do think there are parts of my job that
are more challenging than others.
A lot of the balance in my life, because I
don't just do research, I don't just do teaching,
I also have to do service to the University
and to my professional community, so I'm constantly
juggling things, and that can be stressful
at times, but if you kind of come to peace
with, with that, and realize that you can't
do everything all at once, but you can do
things over time, then, then it's not hard,
it can be more fun.
Cheraine: This is kind of a follow-up to that,
but Sam C. at Park Forest wants to know, 
"how does your job involve geography?
Which part of what you do involves geography?”
Erica: Yeah, oh, good question, too.
So I didn't start off as a geographer, Sam.
I actually started off as, well, first as
a geologist, then I moved to a forestry program,
then I moved to another forestry program but
kind of doing the landscape ecology bit, and
then I moved to a zoology department doing
landscape ecology, and then I got a job in
a geography department.
So, you can call me a geographer, and that's
fine.
I have embraced it over the past ten years,
but just so you know that that path can kind
of be circuitous.
And, you know, the department where I'm working,
I could be working in an ecology department
or a biology department, I just happen to
be working in geography.
For me, that's really good, and I think it
has shaped my research over the past ten years,
because I'm interacting with social scientists
more.
Geography is a very diverse discipline, and
it has people in physical geography, where
I am, as well as social science.
And so, I think that’s incredibly important,
and the, the timeliness of being in a geography
department is incredibly important, because
a lot of times we're asking questions about
sustainability, right?
How can we be more sustainable in our lives,
in our societies?
And I think the only way to do that is when
you couple an understanding of a natural system
with an understanding of how we're managing
that system.
And so, that coupling is, is really present
in a geography program, and, and thus is really
present in a lot of the work that I do.
Cheraine: And I know when we talked, you also
talked about just the social sciences being
important in terms of working with people,
because there is no studying the environment
without understanding
Erica: Right.
Cheraine: - how people interact with the environment,
and all of those things, so that's another
interesting thing.
Erica: Yeah, I [sighs] I wish that I could
just, you know, be in a vacuum and study plants,
because I love plants, you know, or I love
animals.
And I, that work is really important and is
critical.
There is so much we don't know about the natural
world.
But at a time in society where there's so
many pressures on those systems, it's sort
of important that you engage with people that
are making decisions about those systems and
understanding what people value in them, and
so that means implicitly you have to talk
to people, and you have to engage with the
science around that.
Cheraine: Right.
So Dida at Park Forest wants to know, "what
kind of test experiments do you conduct?"
Erica: Good question, Dida.
I, through these various projects that I've
been talking about, I do a number of different
approaches in my science.
Would this be a good time for me to show my
props?
Cheraine: Yeah, probably, yeah [laughing]
Erica: Ok, so -
Cheraine: Because we do have another question
that I can see about "what were you doing
in the video?"
So yeah.
Erica: Oh, ok, ok.
So, one of the first things I do is, is observational
work, and what you saw in the video there
was me looking at changes over time in a forest
system, and to do that, there's no real control
to an experiment, if you know, there's a control,
and in an experiment, the control doesn't
have the actual process, and then you’re,
you test for that process with the experiment.
In observational work, you're just going out
there and seeing how things change over time,
and you're learning from the system.
It can lead to other, more experimental approaches
down the road.
But for that work, we actually, you know,
this is a very simple instrument called the
Cheraine: Can you hold it?
Erica: Yeah, it's a measuring-a-diameter-at-breast-height
measuring tape, and it's called that, because
you're supposed to measure at chest level
the, the girth of a tree.
You basically just wrap this around the tree,
and that's what I was doing in the video,
to see how big the tree is.
And that seems kind of silly, but that's the
point.
It's pretty easy to do, and you could do it
quickly, and so, you can measure every tree,
and you can see how big every tree is, and
we have equations that will allow you to extrapolate
the diameter of that tree to the biomass of
the entire tree.
So instead of cutting down the tree and weighing
it – which is what people do to develop
the equations.
We don't want to do that in the real world,
right?
We want to actually keep the tree there.
So we have, we developed this way to sample.
And so, if you do it in a defined area, where
you can have just a bigger measuring tape,
and you can lay out a plot, and in our case
we do 40 meter by 40 meter plots and then
we measure every tree.
So two measuring tapes is all that we're doing
there.
That’s the simplest kind of science that
I do.
It does get more complicated when you're trying
to do tree identifications, so you have to
identify what tree you're looking at, so you
understand what equation to apply, but you
know, that, it's pretty simple.
The more complicated work that I do is actually
related to soils and soil ecology.
So I'm really interested in how those trees
grow.
And they're growing in soil, and that soil
has a certain amount of nutrients and a certain
amount of water, and if you want to know how
much nutrients, or how much water, and how
that's changing, what I do is I go in and
I actually take what is called a soil core,
and this is just a PVC pipe from Home Depot.
You can get fancier about it, but when we're
working in remote areas, this works just fine.
And you basically just pound it in, into the
ground, and you get a certain volume of soil
in there.
And I plop it into fancy Ziploc bags - this
is called science on the cheap folks.
And you just, you put it in there, then
have a known volume of soil, and it has to
be a Ziploc.
This is why I brought the Ziploc bag, because
there's no other plastic bags that are better
than Ziploc.
I'm serious about this.
Next time your mom puts a sandwich in Ziploc,
tell her how important this is for scientific
purposes.
But anyway, we take that back to the lab,
and it preserves the moisture in the soil,
it preserves the nutrients, and then we do
take it into the lab and do some chemistry
on that soil.
That's when it gets a little trickier, and
I can talk to you about that later, but we,
we have certain instruments that measure the
nutrients and the, and the moisture and the
pH of the soil.
Cheraine: Yeah, when we were in South Africa
with you, that was one of the things that
I noticed that some of the students were doing
who were there was, you know, doing soil sampling
and all kind of that stuff.
Erica: Yeah.
Cheraine: Mia from Armstrong Middle School
wants to know, "what inspired you to do this
particular job?"
Because, like you said, you could be doing
other things.
What about being in academia made you want
to do this job?
Erica: So, Mia, I mean, the thing is that
when you set out as this thing, your 
undergraduate major, you don't know what your job is going to be at the end of four years.
And then you, you say, "well, maybe I'll do
some more grad school."
And you just keep going along, making these
choices, and, and all of a sudden you find
yourself in academia.
And I don't mean to belittle the process.
It's actually a hard process, and you do have
to want it, but I didn't know that I would
end up this way.
A lot of things had to go right.
I had to have a good support network around
me.
I had to have some mentors around me.
I had to like the work which I happened to
like.
But I think the key, for me, was actually
by doing all that, by moving around to where
I went for my undergraduate degree to two
different graduate degrees - I went from Massachusetts
to Montana for my Master's, and in my Master's,
I actually traveled to Africa to do field
work, and that was my first exposure to, to
both fire science and to Africa.
And then I went on to Oregon, to the Pacific
Northwest, to do my, my Ph.D., and then to
Wisconsin and to Madison, but my fieldwork
was in Yellowstone, and then to Pennsylvania.
So I kind of moved around a lot.
And that’s hard in some ways, but it kept
it fun.
And I kept learning about a new system, and
I said, "I can do this job, I'm good at
it, but I also really enjoy this process of
discovery."
And so I just kept with it, and through, over
time and inertia and maybe a little good luck
here and there, it worked out.
Cheraine: Yeah, you had a very, literally
a journey around, and then also in, I think,
your studies and your work.
So we have a combined question.
Sam C. and Brandon at Park Forest want to
know, "which wicked problem is your favorite
to work on?"
And you know, any wicked problems that you've
worked on, are the most or least dangerous?
Erica: Ok, that's a good one.
They're all fun, and they're all interesting.
And what's sort of, well, ok, I'll answer
your question.
This is Sam and Brandon, yeah?
I think the most wicked problem we have right
now is climate change.
I really think that this is impacting all
of our ecosystems in very profound ways, not
all of which are observable now.
And our modeling tells us – so that's the
other kind of work I do.
I do computer modeling, which is really simple
and it's not too fancy, but we can forecast
how ecosystems change in the future.
And when we run those scenarios, there's some
pretty alarming outcomes about the fate of
biodiversity and a lot of other ecological
processes that we might be interested in.
So, unfortunately it's a wicked problem, because
it's societal as well.
You have these forces in society that are
exacerbating, or not, the effects of climate
change.
And then you have, what that is is, you know,
CO2 and methane in the atmosphere, but then
there's all sorts of cascading, interacting
effects from that CO2 that in the warming
and the precipitation and the changes in snow
that could affect particular ecosystems in
different ways in different places.
So it becomes really complex, really hard,
which is why it’s, it's hard to talk about
in a, in a simple way.
It doesn't fit on soundbites very well.
Cheraine: Yeah, and it's such a, something
that people are talking about a lot right
now.
Actually Nivea at Armstrong Middle School
had kind of a follow-up question, which is
"what impact does climate change have on the
animals in the ecosystems that you study?"
I don't know if you've had a chance to kind
of see some of that.
Erica: Right.
Hi Nivea.
So one of the ways that climate change is
affecting ecosystems in places that I've worked
directly is through disturbances, is through
enhanced fire activity, for example.
So if you have a system that, in which fire
becomes more and more common, or more and
more severe, the ecosystems and the animals
are not going to be able to adapt to those
disturbances.
They're just going to keep coming faster and
faster and faster.
And so we're starting to see fire regimes
change pretty dramatically, and that's especially
true in the west, but we're actually seeing
that impact here in the east, too, a little
bit.
And it's possible that we could have a wildfire
in the east.
There was a big wildfire in Acadia, you know,
not only, about a 100 years ago, and that's
up in Maine, right?
And you don't think of Maine having wildfires,
but it can.
And so managers in this area are actually
trying to appropriately add fire back into
the landscape, but they're doing it to create
habitat for animals that depend on it.
That's probably a whole other story but [laughs]
but anyway, whether there's too much fire
or too little fire is very much affecting
animals, and that has to do a lot with climate
change.
That would be one answer.
I think most of the direct impacts on climate
change are happening right now in coral reef
systems and in Artic systems.
And I don't study those systems directly,
but a lot of the science of my colleagues
is, is related to those changes.
Because those are the ones that are happening
right, right now.
Cheraine: So, we have another combined question,
and Cailey, Erin, and Autumn at Park Forest
want to know, "how often do you go to South
Africa, and how long are you usually there?"
And actually, we have another question from
Jocelyn at Park Forest that kind of ties into
that, that says, "how often do you get to
see your family?"
So I think, maybe it seemed from the video
-
Erica: [laughing] how often do you see your
family.
Cheraine: like, you're there a lot.
But it's more of a-
Erica: Yeah.
Cheraine: So how often do you go to South
Africa?
And you know, how much time do you spend apart
sometimes?
Erica: So, this project here that you saw
in the video was a simple project, because
I couln't stay away from my family for long
nor did I want to.
So the most I was ever away at one period
of time was three weeks, three and a half
if you count travel, which is long enough.
And when my kids were little, that was really,
really hard.
So, the, I wouldn't ever go for longer than
that, unless I was bringing my kids, and that's
where this Fulbright experience that I had
last spring was really great, because I was
able to bring them all with me, so that we could
experience it together.
But even that, three and a half weeks is pretty
long for me.
Usually I would, I would sort of go for shorter
periods of time.
And usually it's once a year, you know, I
would go over once a year and do some field
work and come back home.
You can go for longer, and you can certainly
do more work, and probably if I didn't have
a family, I would do that, but that's one
of those trade-offs I've made is that I'm
not going to leave my family for long periods
of time.
Cheraine: Yeah, and that's exactly the kind
of balance you were talking about in the video
and choices that you kind of have to make.
Tasia, or Tasha, at Park Forest, wants to
know, "what do you enjoy most about your job?"
Erica: So what I enjoy most about my job,
Tasia or Tasha, is that I get to go to these places [laughing] 
so as much as it is hard
to do, to do that travel on the family front,
it's also pretty amazing that I can create
these opportunities to bring my family sometimes.
But also personally just to explore these
different systems and see a part of the world
and, and realize that that's my job is to
understand how these systems work is pretty
awesome.
And you know, I travel for conferences, too.
I travel for, for meetings, to meet colleagues,
to give talks, and that, it's fun.
It's really adventuresome to do that, as long
as you keep it in check.
There's certainly a case of, of too much travel.
But I guess the other thing I'll mention is
that I do like being in academia because of
the blend of research, teaching, and service.
So I'm constantly doing something new every
day.
Like I was thinking about that today, coming
to do this, is that it's really fun that I
get a chance to talk with you about what I
do.
And what a great platform to be able to do
that, and you know, tomorrow, I'll be doing
something totally different.
I’ll be working on different projects.
So every day is a new adventure, and I have
to keep close tabs on my calendar, because
I don't - like "what are you doing tomorrow?"
And that flexibility is also really, really
fantastic, because it allows me to juggle
the work-life balance on a daily basis, which
for me has been really important.
Cheraine: Yeah.
Because that flexibility, I think, is important,
too, that's in academia.
So you touched on this a little bit, but Gabe
at Park Forest wants to know, " do you research,
do you do research only in South Africa, or
in other places?"
So you mentioned Yellowstone, what are some
other places that you typically do research?
Erica: So, Gabe, I do research - it depends
on where the funding comes from frankly, so
the process is that I have to submit and write
a grant, 15 pages, single-spaced, that's just
the, the text, and then you have all this
other documentation about budgets and personnel
and all that, but the science is in 15 pages,
single-spaced.
I have to propose to a government agency what
I would like to study and why it's important.
And if they select that for funding, and acceptance
rates are like 10 to 15 percent, then you
go and do the work.
So I propose a lot more work than actually
gets funded, and a lot of that, that money
goes toward supporting graduate students,
or supporting the travel, supporting the science,
you know, the materials and such.
So, where I've been successful and where I’ve
gotten to do the work is, is recently in Ghana,
where I was doing that human health project,
working out in Yellowstone, doing fire there.
I, and then I currently have two projects.
One in the east working with prescribed fire
managers and prescribed fire in the eastern
United States, and then another in Wisconsin
working with the Menominee Nation on sustainable
forestry.
So, I would say most of my work is in forests,
but it's in forests in different parts of
the world.
Cheraine: Yeah, and I'm glad you brought up
the grant writing, because that is a big part
of being in academia.
I mean, it's sort of like, and, and I've heard
other scientists say, you know, I think someone
told me, you know, 75 percent of the stuff
that she submits is rejected, and that's something
important for you guys to realize too,
Erica: Yeah, you have to get really used to
rejection.
Cheraine: - is you have to be - Yeah, you
got to get used to rejection, and perseverance
I think, because, you know, one person might
say no, but the next organization might say
yes, so, so I'm glad you brought that up.
I'm going to, I see a question a little bit
lower down that is from Liam at Park Forest,
that says "on a scale of 1 to 10, how much
do you like what you do?"
[laughing] Because it's kind of related -
Erica: It might depend on the day.
Cheraine: Right.
Erica: Right now it's 10!
You know, it’s hard, I'm hard-pressed to
think of something else that would make me
as fulfilled, so I'm going to rank it pretty
high.
I'm going to rank it at least an 8 or 9, and
the only reason I don't go up to 10 is because
of those moments of stress and rejection that
do come, and you just, I wish I had all the
support and all the capacity to do what I
want to do.
It's just always a struggle to get there.
But I don't see any less struggle if you worked
in a government agency on that topic or you
worked in these non-governmental organizations
on that topic.
You're always going to be struggling against
something, so I feel pretty happy to be at
Penn State, because they, they support a lot
of resources, and they give you some of that
leg-up that you might need to get a new project
going or find collaborators.
And so that really helps conduct, helps me
keep going, you know, even if you don't get
that big grant or something.
Cheraine: But Erica gets a lot of them [laughing]
So Brian J. at Armstrong Middle School wants
to know, "do you work with any lawmakers around
climate change or animal protection as a result
of your research?"
And I guess you could put fire into that too,
because I do know that sometimes you do that.
So yeah, do you work with any lawmakers?
Erica: So that's a great question, Brian,
and so I don't, I would say I don't directly
work with lawyers, but a lot of my work is
very relevant to policy.
So, I think a lot about fire policy and how
to manage fire.
So, for example, I don't know if you know,
but in Pennsylvania, there was not an effort
to do prescribed fire burning in Pennsylvania
because there just wasn't the right regulations
enforced, so there was a lot of risk for people
that actually do a management fire for any
reason.
And once that was relaxed, people were able
to go in and do, and do fire.
So a lot of the work and the questions 
I ask are very dependent on what policies
are out there.
We know, for example, that one size does not
fit all for fire policy in the U.S.
In Yellowstone, it's a very climate driven
fire regime, but in Arizona, it's driven from
past fuels or fire suppression and Smokey
the Bear.
And now there's all these fuels up there that
are ready to burn, sort of independent of
what's going to happen with the climate.
So there's these different factors that are
going on in different regions, and so that's
very relevant to, to policy.
With regard to climate change, a lot of work
that I do touches on that.
There are, but there are organizations like
the Natural Resources Defense Council and
other groups that actually have lawyers and
have a whole armada [laughs] of folks that
are trying to really attack the policy, the
policy side of what we do.
But, I am focused more on the science.
Cheraine: And do you ever work with politicians
or things like that, kind of on the policy
side?
Erica: Yeah, well, I did go to, this was a
long time ago now, but I did go to D.C. to
work with a bill, essentially was part of
a, a lobbying effort I guess you’d call
it, to try to tell people why having dead
wood in the forest was a good thing, and that
salvage logging after a fire might not always
be the best thing for that system.
And so, as, but I was brought in as a scientist.
And actually, in the next couple weeks, I'm
going down to the national academies and am
going to talk about fire policy in D.C. with
other scientists but also other policy makers
will be there.
So, in a lot of my writing, I'm doing more
outreach writing right now, talking to the
press.
I would say that's probably the main route
by which I end up influencing policy is through
outreach activities.
Cheraine: Camia at Park Forest wants to know,
"if you couldn't have your current job, what
else would you do?"
Erica: I have thought about this before, mainly
because my brother-in-law asks these kinds
of questions all the time [laughing] in long
car rides.
So, I, I think my answer is actually going
to be international policy, or international
development kind of issues, international
relations.
I, I think that comes partly from my time
at Tufts University, which as a Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy, I took one of
the best courses there I've ever taken about
the Middle East and Middle East policy.
And it's influenced the way I listen to the
news every day.
And also because my work takes me to all these
other places and all these other countries,
and I realize my science is happening in the
context of all these much larger policy dimensions,
so I've always found that to be really, really
interesting, and I would love to, love to
do that.
Totally different [laughing]
Cheraine: Dante at Park Forest wants to know,
"do you have hobbies besides running?"
[laughing]
Erica: [laughing] All I do is run.
I run every day, all the time.
Yes, Dante, I do.
I love to read.
I don't have too much time to do that, but
I did just join a book club with some friends
recently, so I'm trying to be better.
And then I also love movies.
I really, really love movies.
My brother is actually an actor and is teaching
acting out in LA, and I actually grew up doing
musicals and having a lot of, some stage presence
during some musicals.
I don't sing very well, but it was fun to
get up there anyway.
And so, I, I love movies.
I'm kind of a geek when it comes to watching
movies and staying up with Oscar runs, and
all of that stuff, so.
Cheraine: You know, we've talked a lot of
times, and I did not know anything about the
musicals, because for sure we would've figured
out a way.
Erica: I was listening to Hamilton on the
way over here, so.
Cheraine: Awesome!
Gabby at Park Forest has a quick question,
which is "how long have you been at Penn State?"
Erica: So I've been here since 2007, so I
guess this is my 10th year.
Cheraine: Wow.
That's a, that's a good run, right?
Erica: Yeah, that's a good run.
Cheraine: Tyler at Park Forest wants to know,
"where was your most favorite place to work
outside of Pennsylvania?"
That's probably tough, right?
Because -
Erica: [sighs] Yeah.
I guess, Tyler, I’d have to say Southern
Africa, just because it is so beautiful.
It's kind of like southern California, very
Mediterranean climate, very dry, beautiful
blue skies, really interesting ecosystems,
tons of biodiversity, beautiful flowers all the time
 but also because it's a really complex
place socially, you know.
It's just culturally really challenging to
be in that place, and it's not an easy place
to be, but it, it's certainly a rewarding
place if you can navigate it.
Cheraine: So we're nearing the end of the
chat, but I want to squeeze another question
in.
And this is another combined one from Erin
and Annalise at Park Forest, and they want
to know, "in South Africa, do you get to hang
out with a lot of people, and do you understand
what they're saying?"
And you know, sort of some of the cultural
differences, because obviously there are different
languages spoken there.
Erica: Yeah, yes, absolutely.
So that's a really good question.
I mean, one of the reasons that it is easier
to work in South Africa is that most people
speak English, even some of the indigenous
people, so it is easier to, to get around.
I worked in Zambia for my Master's, that was
the bit from Montana to Zambia, and that was
also because it was a former British colony
it had English as a base language.
So I've been able to navigate with English
primarily, but it makes me mad that I don't
know more of the local language, you know.
And, and taking Spanish or taking Chinese
or taking any of these other languages is
really, really important and you will go farther.
I took French forever, and I took Russian
actually for four years, and I can still read
Cyrillic, which is kind of cool, but I haven't
been able to use it in my research thus far,
but just that, that cultural awareness of,
of understanding different cultures and different
languages is really important.
So yes, I do work with people.
I work with a lot of park rangers and managers
of these ecosystems, but you know, more broadly
other scientists, and of course living there
for six months you get a broader community
as well.
Cheraine: And actually I remember when we
came to your house, I heard your children
speaking some of the language.
Erica: Yeah!
Cheraine: It seemed like they picked up the
language, too, so I think it's good while
you're young to also, you know, to -
Erica: A lot faster than I did [laughing]
Cheraine: Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
I was pretty impressed, because, you know,
some of the languages do involve the clicks
that we’ve heard, which is a little more
difficult.
So, that is the end of our chat!
That was the last question.
We had many more questions.
I'm sorry we couldn't get to all of them.
And this was our last chat for WiSciFiles.
Thank you to everyone who has joined us for all of our chats and who joined us today.
Again, a special thank you to the 5th graders
at Park Forest Elementary School in State
College and to the 7th graders from Armstrong
Middle School in Bristol Township.
And you know, I hope that you guys will all
share the videos and share what you've learned
from these chats, and definitely give us feedback
about things that you liked about it.
You know, this is something that we're hoping to
be able to do more of in the future, even
though this is the last chat of the season.
So, everything that we've done here is
going to be posted at wpsu.org/wiscifiles
so you can have access to it, as much as you
want to.
Erica, thank you again -
Erica:Thank you, Cheraine.
Cheraine: for being here, and thanks to everyone.
Bye bye!
Erica: Thanks so much. Great questions!
