Lesson plan for eDNA outreach

Would you like to teach school students about eDNA metabarcoding in a way that goes beyond the usual explanation of just “what is eDNA”? Check out my lesson plan and activity below for a 2-hour session that works great with high school learners. I was interested in teaching 16-year-old students about eDNA sampling, eDNA extractions,…

Science outreach is prize-worthy!

I recently won another prize for my contributions towards science outreach. This time it wasn’t a science communication competition- it was at a scientific conference full of scientists! I feel like this is a huge step forward for science communication, because in the scientific community we are often made to feel like communicating science is…

Young Science Communicator Winner

I am pleased to announce that I have won the ‘open’ category for Young Science Communicator of 2018 with NRF-SAASTA! My entry below, named “Finding fish“, illustrates our environmental DNA research through cartoon! This exciting work is being carried out in the von der Heyden lab at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in collaboration with the Molecular Ecology…

Celebrating #worldelephantday

It’s world elephant day today, and I’ve just returned from Tsavo East national park, Kenya. This park is home to the largest group of elephants in Kenya, with over 12,500 individuals, representing around one third of all elephants in the country. It was breathtaking to see these animals. We saw them at the watering hole,…

Chapati the cat

Today we did do work (I promise!), but we also found an abandoned cat. We fed it milk and it escalated, and it is now named chapati…!