Sex & Bugs & Rock n’ Roll

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Smithsonian OFI in The OFI Blog

The logo for the foundation (British Ecological Society’s symbol with a twist)

How can we make science more accessible to the public? How can we make it genuinely interesting and fun without requiring extensive prerequisite knowledge? Dr. Emma Sayer has discovered the perfect answer to both.

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Fellow alum and current Research Associate Emma Sayer was one of the organizers of a hit ‘science roadshow’ called Sex & Bugs & Rock n’ Roll in the UK last year, with other Ph.D students working alongside her.

The road crew poses for a picture as they prepare for a job.

They held bug hunts in order to identify different species and compete against each other, gave a personality test to find out what kind of animal someone would be according to their traits, discussed pollinators and the global decrease of the overall pollinator populations, swabbed people’s clothes for bacteria and grew it on an agar plate publicly, and many other fun activities involving ecological science.

Their stand at the music festival, complete with various supplies for future activities.

This roadshow set up shop at music festival stalls three times with greatly positive reactions from the community before the British Ecological Society (BES) - also the backer of this roadshow - asked Sayer and her colleagues to do the same at the International Congress of Ecology, which was held in London last year.

The BES additionally requested that Sayer and her group make the festival circuit once more this summer.

For more information, check out this article here.