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Our web of life
In my research I discover about the environment and our impact on it. My research should therefore affect the way that I live my life (and other live theirs). Because of this I think it is vital to engage with others about my research.
One really effective way of engaging with other people about my research is to ask them to take part. I have recently run two large projects in which I have asked Bristol shoppers and local school children to rear 'alien' insects and see if 'their alien has been zapped'. This interactive project allowed people to enter their results online and compare their results with others. Over 2000 people have taken part.
The aim of these projects is to undertake real scientific research while demonstrating that we are all part of 'our web of life' - we depend on all other animals and plants, even (and especially) the tiny little insects that hardly anyone notices!
Conker Tree Science.
My latest project is Conker Tree Science, which gets school children and members of the public to be real scientists, by rearing parasitic wasps (natural pest controllers) from an 'alien' moth (the horse chestnut leaf miner, which has recently arrived in Britain but is damaging our conker trees. It is funded by NERC
I have promoted this project widely in the media, including
- BBC News
- ITV West
- BBC Radio Bristol (five times)
This work has also featured in many newspapers, including:
- The Bristol Evening Post: 17 Mar 2009 | 7 Jul 2009 | 7 Sep 2009
It has also been a featured project on the School Science website
'Has your alien been zapped?' - Schools project
A horse chestnut leaf showing the blotches formed by the leaf miner. Young school children
discovered the rate of parasitism of the 'alien' leaf miner by natural pest controllers
This time the 'alien' insect is the horse chestnut leaf miner (a small moth called (Cameraria orhidella) and it may have been zapped by a parasitic wasp, which acts as a natural pest controller.
The moth has been spreading across Europe and recently arrived in Bristol.
'Has your alien been zapped?' - Shopping Centre project
One weekend in Bristol prestigious Cabot Circus shopping centre I and a team from the University of Bristol (Dr Darren Evans and many postgraduate students) ask a couple of thousand shoppers to look after an 'alien' insect. This alien insect has not come from outer space, but is a small moth that lives inside a leaf and has come to Britain from a different part of the world. The shoppers are asked to see if they find a moth or they find a natural pest controller, and to enter their results on our website.
Biodiversity jenga
When I ran biodiversity jenga in a Bristol shopping centre my children came along to
play
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
John Muir
Each block in the tower has an animal or plant on it and once enough are removed the tower collapses and the dolls on top fall off. This is a great way of illustrating to people our interdependence on biodiversity and the interdependence of all animals and plants with each other.
During 2009 I have run biodiversity jenga in a Bristol shopping centre for National Science and Engineering Week , the Bristol Festival of Nature, and Bristol's Bioblitz.
In the autumn of 2010, biodiversity jenga will make an appearance in the House of Parliament to help communicate the importance of biodiversity to MPs.
Communicate 09
I attended the Communicate conference in 2009 with a bursary from the NCCPE (National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement). I was asked by the NCCPE to write a reflection on my experience.
Photo header: Damage to a horse chestnut tree by the horse chestnut leaf miner moth (Cameraria ohridella) in mid July 2009, just after I ran a project for schools looking at the pest control of the horse chestnut leaf miner. The elm and maple either side show how green the leaves of horse chestnut should be at this time of year.