Go outside…and find ants!

Kirsti: They say great minds think alike.

As Sarah posted her most recent piece Go outside!, I was drafting some words about ANTBLITZ which — among other scientific and community-driven goals — aims to get kids outdoors! SNAP

Part of the North Western Regional Science Hub, ANTBLITZ (via School of Ants) consists of a whole weekend of learning about the ant communities at the Armidale Tree Group. The idea originally was spawned from my desire to create a National Science Week project activity based around ants. While the regional hub has already launched the fantastic Little Things that Run the World at the art museum, ANTBLITZ is focused more directly on science.

Yes, it’s a month later than the specified dates for National Science Week…..but really, what ant in their right mind would be wandering around in Armidale mid-winter I ask you?!

In the event, the science of using ants as bio-indicators of land use and habitat restoration is cunningly disguised as a great day outside for community members. We invite people to be involved at the start of a potentially long term project for the tree group, something which could yield some really useful insights into invertebrate biodiversity over time.

Since one of the aims of School of Ants is to connect kids to nature through citizen science and learning outside, what better way than to get their whole family out and staring at the ground and peering down microscopes with them? They will also possibly discover a public space that opens up a world of outside play, observation, picnics, insects and birds they never knew existed.

I echo Sarah’s sentiments about the importance of outside play and connection to nature. These mind-boggling stats on the Victorian Child & Nature Connection website reveal just some of the negative effects of inside, sedentary (mostly screen) time, and how we can easily prevent them.

So if I manage to coax at least three families out of their homes that otherwise would not have engaged with nature on the weekend, I’ll feel like I have succeeded.

I’ll keep you posted!

Science for opening possibilities

Kirsti: Science is all about primary school extension projects for me right now. After my last blog entry about first year university biology, I’m taking it back some 15 years.

I’m a Scientist in a School. Two schools in fact.  I run a citizen science project called School of Ants at both schools in slightly different forms, and teach kids each week in grades from 3 to 5.  These schools are my second and third Scientist in Schools partnership, and I love it.

My personal gripe is that I don’t believe the majority of primary school students in Australia get exposed to enough science, or encouraged to ask their own questions – real questions.  Let alone answer them using a rigorous process of enquiry like the scientific method.  Science is often seen as daunting to teachers and students alike in primary school because we are so often told that we must invent something, solve a global issue or be the ‘smartest kid in the school’  to actually be doing science.

And of course this is bollocks!

In fact, primary school students in Devon, UK proved in 2010 that they too could publish science in a prestigious and high impact journal, Biology Letters. And the experience transformed their perception of science in fundamental ways.

In collaboration with a scientist – and much encouragement from their teachers – Blackawton Primary School students added to our knowledge bank on foraging bees: how they discriminate between flowers with and without nectar rewards. The paper is great, and the study designed, carried out and written by 8-10 year olds. BRILLIANT.

In their own words, their principal finding was that,

“Bumblebees can use a combination of colour and spatial relationships when deciding which colour flower to forage from.

We also discovered that science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before.”

I love being able to contribute to young people’s awe of nature. Just today my teacher colleague at PLC, Armidale and I decided that our measure of success in these first weeks of the project was the ‘squeal factor’. The girls have been so interested, so genuinely curious, fascinated and excited about ants that the squealing is in sheer delight of the discovery of spines, queens and hairs on the gasters of ants! They are learning about diversity, colony structure and habitat preference, and doing so with voracity. I am not limiting them in their questions or perceptions of what they can do.

Who knows? We might embark on a real scientific paper.  But for now, I’m happy helping to open possibilities in these kids’ lives.

Image of students conducting ant research published with permissions