While in New York City in March, Elsa Youngsteadt and I met with Andrew Collins (check out his research here), a graduate student at Columbia University. We have been discussing some ongoing projects related to School of Ants outreach, and we enjoyed the opportunity to meet him in person (and we even roped him into doing some field work in the medians with us in between his classes!). He was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about all things science and education.
When we think New York City, we think urban jungle – a land of concrete and steel inhabited by few species beside ourselves. While it’s true our city is not the Brazilian Rainforest or Tanzanian Serengeti, the green spaces found here do support substantial and ecologically valuable wildlife populations. Working as an ecologist and educator in NYC provides the unique opportunity to explore this dynamic urban ecosystem and to inform others of the biodiversity that exists all around us.
Thanks, Andrew! We had a lot of fun talking with a fellow educator/entomologist while in NYC. Andrew has some exciting things lined up for the School of Ants this year — We’ll keep you posted about that and all of the exciting things that we have in store for educators, particularly new ways to incorporate the School of Ants into your curriculum!
[…] can find a link to the interview that came from our discussion here -> http://yourwildlife.org/2013/03/science-education-q-a-with-andrew-collins/ Sifting out ants during a median collection. Share this: Pin ItLike this:Like […]