Outreach & Communication
Oceanography Camp for Girls
I am the camp coordinator for OCG, a 3-week summer ocean science exploration program for young women, hosted by the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida.
Since I was a camper many years ago, it is great to be a mentor to inspire the girls to become marine scientists.
Girls Inc.
In the summer of 2019, I organized a 10 week program for Girls Inc. We did fun activities each week to understand all sizes of organisms from microbes to whales! The picture above shows us looking at live plankton under microscopes. The picture below shows us dissecting a lionfish.
St. Petersburg Science Festival
I have volunteered for the St. Petersburg Science Festival for a many years. Picutured above: Phage Heroes activity, where we teach kids about good viruses. Phage are a type of virus that infects bacteria.
In 2019 I created a new outreach activity called DNA Detectives. My work focuses on DNA barcoding of fish eggs, which can be hard to explain to people.
Oceanography Camp for Girls
St. Petersburg Science Festival
This activity embodies what I do in the lab by allowing kids to decode DNA from a fish egg and match which fish species it came from. Online activity: https://sites.google.com/view/dnadetectives/home
Art & Science Night
Think Macro Act Micro Art Gallery
In November of 2019 I hosted an event bringing local artists into USF's College of Marine Science to look under microscopes, paint with bacteria and interact with marine scientists in their natural habitats... labs! After the artists were inspired by the science, they had time to create a new piece of work, which we showed at a gallery night named "Think Macro Act Micro" in January of 2020. Artists showcased their paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures for a crowd of 100 people. In the middle of the show, there was a performance with acting, dancing and projected photos from microscope images. Read more here: https://www.usf.edu/marine-science/news/2020/think-macro-act-micro.aspx
taste of science
I am a city coordinator and event coordinator for the taste of science St. Petersburg chapter. We are an organization that brings scientists to local bars and restaurants to speak about their research and open up dialog with the community to answer questions people may be curious about.
Writing Samples
YouTube Videos
Podcast by Makenzie: Science in Your Life
Listen to this podcast to learn about how you do science in your everyday life. This podcast talks about cooking and hair from a scientist's perspective to relate it back to you.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NUVd05D1FqznL3FBnsCXYpK8C4igQu0A/view?usp=sharing
Spinybacked Orbweaver Circular Viruses Infographic
I made this infographic for a recent publication from my lab. Viruses are the most abundant entities on the planet and we know so little about them. This infographic talks about a couple of viruses that my lab discovered in spiders.
The Good Virus Gallery
Most viruses are thought of as being bad for humans, animals, plants and other organisms, but some viruses have good effects that can outweigh their bad effects. The good virus gallery should be used to show students how some viruses can be useful. These boards include examples of phage therapy, viruses that improve plant beauty, placenta origin, and viral mutualistic microbial symbiosis.
Transcript of boards: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rjBTxADgJw6FU5lG2uehVGbUZ2zgmwDv
Brazilian Pepper Invasive Species Storymap
Visit this page I made to learn about the Brazilian Pepper tree and how it became invasive in Florida. Learn how to help scientists record where this invasive plant lives.