Ep.19 Establishing a bone museum in regional QLD

Meet Deb and Jaimie Cook, two highly motivated educators who are putting together the Gympie Bone Museum Project in QLD. This is on top of running two successful STEM businesses in Dissection Connection and RockHoundZ! “Every kid says to me I’ll have to have a dig pit! So, I’ll be having some sort of a sandbox where they can get in and dig out their own bones. This also lends it to having guests come in and if we bury something in particular in that dig pit we can perhaps have an expert in that particular animal come in”. We also look at how your students can learn science whilst visiting a farm and we revisit a grab from a past episode in which Dr Timothy Smith explains the benefits of the National Youth Science Forum. Top 3 learnings

Just do it. Start small and aim big! Grow something that people can get involved in.
Listen your audience. Listen to the people who visit your museum, make things as hands-on as possible and respond to people’s needs.
Don’t be afraid to show works in progress.

Hosted by Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education About Debra Cook
Debra Cook was brought to Gympie by a job too good to refuse with the Forestry Research Centre at Fraser Rd and it's probably the best thing that ever happened to her.  With an academic background in chemistry and a professional background in secondary schools science education, she now runs Dissection Connection biological specimen supplies & Rockhoundz geology specimen supplies with her partner, Jaimie Cook.  Jaimie's professional background is in ecology, agriculture and forestry science research.  The businesses supply schools, universities and medical training facilities. But a funny thing happened on the way to their first $Million. The Cooroy to Curra highway project was announced and it looked like Gympie might be in danger of becoming another forgotten regional QLD town.  A downturn in the fortunes of the town not only threatened the supply chain for their businesses, it also threatened to put the brakes on the growth and vibrancy of our beautiful town.  So they gathered a skeleton crew of like-minded people devoted to the future of Gympie and the Gympie Bone Museum Project was born.
About Jaimie Cook
Jaimie graduated with a Bachelor of Natural Resources from the University of New England in 1990, majoring in biological resources management. He started his career with the CSIRO’s Division of Wildlife and Ecology in the Rangelands program, based in Canberra. His main duties consisted of conducting experiments in western NSW in the demography of native pasture grasses subjected to grazing by native marsupials and domestic stock. In 1996 he moved to Gympie and QDPI&F as the Ecology Technician on a range of fire ecology and native forest sustainability issues. From 2001 his research focus shifted to plant biotechnology. As a research scientist, he headed projects on cryopreservation and tissue culture of Pinus hybrids and worked on the Wollemi Pine commercialisation project. Since 2008 he’s run Dissection Connection biological specimen supplies & RockhoundZ geology specimen supplies with his partner Debra Cook, supplying schools, universities and medical training facilities. Jaimie is one of seven directors of The Gympie Bone Museum Project Ltd. His main roles are science direction, specimen sourcing, licensing and fund raising.
About the Gympie Bone Museum
The Gympie Bone Museum Project intends to be a world-class facility for the study and teaching of comparative anatomy as well as a tourism destination and community meeting place. The primary object of the project is to help “highway-proof” Gympie by building a facility that will attract scientists, school groups, tourists, artists and community groups who will be able to use the museum to study, to explore or to hold classes, events and parties. 
The museum will be a collection of modern bones displayed in interesting and innovative ways.  As much as possibl