Outreach

Child's drawing titled Ice and Worms: Dr. Andres at his microscope, with fridges of ice and worms under the bench — “Ice and Worms”, by Tona, a young visitor to the lab

Information is only useful if it can be used to alter a process. That is true of an animal reading a magnetic field, and it is true of us. Science is not exempt from the loop it studies.

So we do not treat knowledge as the product and everything else as publicity. We generate knowledge, and we work to integrate both the knowledge and the activity of pursuing it into the society the lab sits inside. Publishing and presenting are the minimum. They move findings to other specialists. Outreach and training are how the work reaches further, into people who will never read our papers, and into students whose futures are not confined to biology.

What is worth transferring is not only what we found. It is how we decided to believe it. How to tell a claim from a conclusion. How to ask what evidence would have to look like for a statement to be wrong. How to notice when a result disagrees with the expectation, and say so out loud rather than quietly. That method is portable. It is useful for decisions about science, and for decisions that have nothing to do with science.

We take that seriously because the position carries a public trust. Scientists are supported by a society in order to generate knowledge, to communicate it, and to hand back the tools that come with it. The tools are the part most easily left out. We try not to leave them out.

That changes how the lab spends its time. We take the work into schools and community groups, we host visitors in the laboratory, and we build things for a general audience. Children who visit leave with something they made. Some of them send drawings back.

What we make for people outside the lab

WormTV A YouTube channel of Caenorhabditis elegans biology, made as an open resource for anyone curious about the animal. It has been watched more than 41,000 times. Visit the channel

Cover of The Amazing World of Worms, a scientific coloring book

The Amazing World of Worms A scientific coloring book introducing children to the worm and to the idea of looking closely at living things. We give copies away at outreach events, and it is also available to buy. Find the book Press and media The lab's work has been covered by NPR, NBC News, Scientific American, The Scientist and outlets in several countries. The full list

The visitor art gallery

Children who visit the lab draw what they saw, and they give us the drawings. A drawing of a worm by a five year old is a record of a scientific observation, so we keep them and we show them. The titles and the descriptions are the artists' own words.

Child's drawing titled This is my garden — **“This is my garden”**This is my garden. It is raining and the worms are coming up becasue it's cloudy. It starts raining worms!Ethan

Child's drawing titled Get some out — **“Get some out”**These are worms in the freezer. Dr. Andres is opening the door to get some out.Jackson

Child's drawing titled Worm Lab — **“Worm Lab”**Diagram detailing how one gets to the worm lab.Nora

Child's drawing titled Microscope in the middle — **“Microscope in the middle”**Accurate depiction of the microscope setup at the Campus Care Center where the worms were first displayed.Lewis

Child's drawing titled Ice and Worms — **“Ice and Worms”**This is Dr. Andres in his lab. He is looking at his phone before he looks through his microscope. Next to the microscope are little circles that have worms inside them. If you look under the table that the microscope is on, you will see fridges. Those fridges (the one closest to the microscope) carry tools to look at the worms. The other fridges carry ice and worms!Tona

Child's drawing titled One bad guy worm — **“One bad guy worm”**There was one bad guy worm that stole a lollipop and hurt another worm. The car down bellow is taking him to the worm hospital. On the second plate a bad worm stole a donut. The top policeworm is chasing after him.Nolan

Child's drawing titled A little kid worm — **“A little kid worm”**A little kid worm is stuck in a building of fire. He is sticking his head out saying “Help, help over here” and the worm fireman is trying to save him.Nolan

Child's drawing titled Untitled — **“Untitled”**

Child's drawing titled Hold the food — **“Hold the food”**This is the tube that holds the food for the worms.

With thanks to the artists at the Illinois State University Child Care Center. Only the names the children gave us are shown.

Who we have worked with

College Mentors for Kids. Boy Scouts of America. The Illinois State University Child Care Center. Normal Community High School. We arrange visits for any community member who asks, and we have run after-school sessions designed to build an early appetite for the natural world rather than to teach a syllabus.

What we actually do with visitors

The activities are chosen for the age of the group, and all of them end with the visitor having done something rather than watched something. Each one also carries a piece of method. Predict before you measure. Build the model, then test it against the real thing. Say what would change your mind before you look.

Extracting DNA

Students build a model of DNA from pipe cleaners and marshmallows, then extract real DNA from frozen peas, or from their own cheek cells, using household reagents. It takes thirty to forty five minutes, and the point lands when the DNA becomes visible.

Magnetic worms

Children shape a worm from modeling clay, which we bake in the laboratory autoclave for about forty five minutes. A magnet and a pair of googly eyes go on afterwards, and the worm goes home on a fridge door.

Asking a worm what it likes

For fifth and sixth graders. The group first votes on its own favorite condiments, then tests whether real worms move toward or away from each one on an agar plate. Popcorn butter is a reliable worm favorite.

Building an electromagnet

Students wind copper wire around a bolt, make a working electromagnet, and then go around the room testing what is and is not magnetic. Thirty to forty five minutes, and it scales up or down easily.

If you want us to visit, or to visit us

Write to avidal@ilstu.edu. Tell us the age of the group, roughly how many, and how long we have. We will tell you honestly whether what we do will work for them.