Field Safe: a risk management workshop for polar early career field scientists

Stay tuned for future ADVANCEing FieldSafety Workshops for polar early career scientists to be announced in 2024. 

FieldSafe is a facilitated, self-paced virtual workshop designed to mitigate environmental and inter‐personal risks in remote field environments. This particular FieldSafe Workshop series is tailored to polar early career scientists. In addition to traditional environmental field risk management topics, FieldSafe’s content focuses on tools to help create supportive field team environments including Codes of Conduct, open communication through debriefing, decision-making for supportive group culture, and positive privilege.  Several strategies are introduced for managing interpersonal incidents or microaggressions to keep the team intact and functioning, including AdvanceGeo’s popular bystander intervention training. The workshop is hosted by CIRES and the Earth Science Observation Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, with support from the ADVANCEGeo Partnership and the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO). 

This training workshop will be run as a two-part series, taking place on the following dates/times: 

  • Part one: Approximately 45-60 minutes self-paced online curriculum followed by group discussion on Zoom on August 22nd – 2.30pm to 4.00pm ET | 12.30pm to 2.00pm MT |10.30am to 12.00pm AKT  

  • Part two: Approximately 1.5 hours self-paced online curriculum followed by group discussion on Zoom on August 25th – 3.30pm to 4.30pm ET |1.30pm to 2.30pm MT |11.30am to 12.30pm AKT  

Field Safe provides tools to address a growing awareness of the challenges of working far away from support networks and resources traditionally found at home. Add in bad weather, steep terrain, and heavy packs and even a well-oiled team can fray. Taking a deliberate approach to managing behaviors and hazards in the field can keep every individual safe and the team performing. 

The training format for FieldSafe is mostly self-paced, with a series of self-paced short, recorded content videos and reinforcement activities (grouped into three parts/modules) plus two live facilitated discussions on Zoom. Each self-paced module is aimed to be at most 60-75 minutes to complete, all of which must be completed before the live Zoom sessions take place. In total, the FieldSafe workshop requires a five-to-six-hour commitment over one week. 

On August 22nd the facilitated Zoom discussion will be an hour and a half long, beginning with a recap of module one and then moving into a 30-minute break-out session with an Antarctic or Arctic field safety professional sharing their expertise on field safety as it relates to remote polar environments.  

On August 25th the facilitated Zoom discussion will debrief modules two and three and move on to the course conclusion.  

To register for this FieldSafe workshop, you *must* identify as a polar early career scientist, and be able to attend both parts of the training. The training will be capped at 20 participants (with spots allocated on a first come, first served basis). Please do not register if you are unable to fully commit to attending the workshop on these dates, as this will take away the opportunity for others to do so. You will not be considered fully registered until you register by filling out the pre-event survey.  

Registration is for the workshop is NOW FULL but waiting list is still open! Sign up to the waiting list here. 

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