Posted by Dr Marcus Reckermann, International Baltic Earth Secretariat
Summer Schools are usually a very special leaning environment. Students from different countries and different backgrounds come together for a week or two, to jointly learn and live at an attractive location. Personal and scientific partner- and friendships made at these occasions can last for a lifetime. Every year, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) co-organize the 8-day Baltic Earth Summer School on “The climate of the Baltic Sea region” at the Askö field station of Stockholm University in the Swedish archipelago. However, in this year, the pandemic prevented the physical meeting on the island, so we had to switch to the online alternative, using a video conference software.
This is the sixth Baltic Earth Summer School, and ten lecturers from Swedish, Finnish, Polish and German research institutes share their experience and competence. Students learn about meteorology, hydrology, oceanography, biogeochemistry as well as the regional climate of the Baltic Sea, and how to model those properties. Hands-on practical sessions provide the opportunity to work with statistical software, learn something about science communication and to jointly develop a hypothetical scientific project.
Although we cannot meet in person this time, the online format proves to be a good and feasible alternative – still, we hope to be back on Askö next year, in person!
