P. Wilson, J. Porche, A. Urquidez, and B. La Rosa (students who participated in 'Phage Hunters' course) explaining bacteriophage phenotypic diversity at our activity booth at Wilson Elementary's 2020 STEAM Night. Picture credits: S. Pfeifer.
Scientific outreach is important to promote public awareness of science in general and evolutionary literacy specifically. Our lab participates in several public outreach activities such as ASU’s Ask a Biologist (a biology learning resource tool for students, teachers, and parents) and BioBridge Program (a two-week event aimed to help incoming students with the transition from high school to college), Kyrene de la Colina Elementary School’s DISCOVERoom (a weekly STEM-based learning program which takes place during lunch recess), as well as Wilson Elementary School’s STEAM (Science/ Technology/ Engineering/ Art/ Mathematics) Night.
For example, Sydney Fikse and Maria Kowal (two undergraduates in the lab) have set up websites for K12 students to learn about anthropogenic factors that have impacted animal evolution and the evolution and genetics of bacteriophages, respectively.
In addition, and as part of our Phage Hunters class, we have created a variety of outreach materials to teach children and students about the wonderful world of bacteriophages:
5-7th grade (Answer key)
(credits: J. Abaidoo, G. Beltran, T. Hua, R. Kapoor, L. Llyod, C. Lopez Jimenez, L. Luong, J. Menolascino, A. Morais, L. Reyes, B. Schmit, L. Soto Herrera, M. Sy, & A. Urquidez Negrete)
Phage Gallery
(credits: N. Green & S. Sabbara)
Let’s build a phage!
(credits: J. Porche & P. Wilson)
Crossword puzzle
(credits: R. Johal & A. Robinson)
Several of these materials are based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number (NSF CAREER DEB-2045343). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.