Outreach
Want an entomologist to visit your classroom/library/community center/nonprofit/etc.??
I am available for visits in person (within an hour drive of Ithaca, NY) or via zoom! Find my info on the Contact page to set up a meeting and we can tailor a presentation to the needs of your group. I can talk about most bug-related science topics, careers in entomology, what it's like to be a scientist, and more!
Insect Consulting
Are you producing a film with insects and want to check that your bugs are accurate for the setting? Painting a mural with insects and want to make sure they look right anatomically? Writing a book and want to double-check something about the life cycle or ecology of a particular species? You've come to the right place! I would be thrilled to assist you in your creative endeavors to ensure your insect accuracy is spot-on! For small projects, I am happy to consult free of charge. For larger projects (along the lines of full or very involved book edits - AKA, requests that will require large portions of my time) I may ask that we work out a reasonable consultancy fee.
Acting Techniques to Improve Your SciComm!
This 2-hour workshop was developed by me over the course of a year, and was first run at the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America in Vancouver, Canada. Below you can find the workshop slides - anyone is welcome to use them for educational purposes, though I'd appreciate a citation if you use my ideas! The acting games are not my own, and are played by actors all around the world, thus those should not be cited as mine!
GRASSHOPR
"Annika and Hayley were fantastic! The live stick bugs, the engaging powerpoint, the bug exploration, all of it was amazing and the kids always looked forward to their lessons every week" - Teacher feedback, GRASSHOPR program 2022
In 2021 and 2022, I was a fellow in the the Graduate Student School Outreach Program (GRASSHOPR) at Cornell, through the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement. Each year I and my coworker Hayley Schroeder were paired with one or more elementary school classes (for a total of eight classes and 68 students!) to come in once a week for four weeks to teach a one-hour class called Befriend a Bug! Our students in 1st through 3rd grade learned about what insects look like, where they live, what they eat, and designed their very own insect to put to the test in a game about adaptations and trade-offs. For the 2023-24 academic year, I was a board member of the organization!
