On the 12th of March, 2016, APECS Netherlands joined the ‘Pool tot Pool’ day in the museum of Peoples in Leiden. This yearly event about mainly scientific research in the Arctic and Antarctic focuses on a general public. In total there were four lectures by speakers from the Netherlands and Belgium, with topics such as invertebrates on Antarctica and climate change effects on Svalbard. At the same time there was a group of high school students, which presented posters on their school projects about Svalbard. APECS Netherlands was represented by Ariadna Szczybelski and Douwe Maat, who gave ‘pitch presentations’ about APECS and their own research, and presented accompanying posters during the day. The event was joined by approximately 150 people and therefore a great success. For APECS Netherlands this was a great opportunity to explain people about APECS in general and about the work that is done by early career scientists in the polar regions. The event also led to making new contacts (high school teacher and students and indirectly to APECS Belgium members) which will be useful for APECS NL to expand its network and develop teaching and outreach activities.
