Not explaining science, to me, seems perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world.

- Carl Sagan -

OUTREACH

While we work on the front of knowledge discovering new and incredible things about the world around us, it also comes to us to share that knowledge, both with other scientists as well as the general public. I have been fortunate in the number and variety of opportunities I have had to share my love and knowledge of science with others.

Auburn University Museum of Natural History

The Auburn University Museum of Natural History (AUMNH) host a large number of outreach events every year, and I have been lucky enough to participate in many of these events. We host an open house every year on Auburn's Homecoming Football weekend where we open up the museum to the public and allow people come through the various research collections. As people pass through our collection we get to show them a large diversity of organisms as well as explain how a research museum works--how the specimens are used, who uses them, and all of the different sorts of information we can gain from these collections.

We also travel with specimens to schools, and other outreach programs both on campus and off to teach people about the diversity of southeastern United States and Alabama in particular. We share stories and interesting facts about plants and animals that people might see in their own back yards.

Junior Mad Scientist

As a member of the organization for Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) I get to participate in a fantastic outreach program every fall called Junior Mad Scientist. Junior Mad Scientist takes place every fall. It is open to children from age 5 to 12. GWIS created the Junior Mad Scientist event to give female graduate students both an outlet and the resources to design and create their own outreach modules. The event is set up as a series of booths and children and their parents can wander freely from one module to another.

I have participated in two modules. In one event I assisted in a booth where children learned about how DNA codes for different physical traits and in the process created their own "DNA bracelets." In another event I and a fellow grad student designed a module around the different types of spider webs and how they capture insects. Students learned about orb and tangle webs. They then created their own insect and "flew" it through one of the webs to see how their insect fared in each type of web; learned the potential costs of extravagant wings and spiny legs in the process!

WEHLE NATURE CENTER

The Wehle Nature Center Field Days are part of a fantastic program run by the Alabama Natural Heritage Program, designed to bring outreach programs to under-served students, grades 5-8, who attend schools in Alabama's Black Belt region.

Over the years I have attended numerous field days. Depending on what other subjects are being presented on a given day, I have designed two programs. One is looking at the prey contents of pitcher plants which are carnivorous plants native to southern Alabama. I give a short talk on the biology of carnivorous plants and we walk to a carnivorous plant bog located on the property. We then give the students collected "pitchers" (the leaves of pitcher plants) to dissect so they can identify the types of prey the plants collected.

The second program is general knowledge about spiders. I bring in (well contained) live spiders for the students to pass around while I briefly talk about the diversity and biology of spiders. Then we go out along one of the nature center's walking trails and collect spiders using a number of different methods (hand collection, beat sheets, sweep nets) and identify and talk about the different spiders we were able to find.