Outreach

Comics and Animation

I’ve been exploring how we can communicate science findings through the medium of comics and animation. I run a blog which depicts scientific papers as cartoons. I was also awarded a public engagement fellowship by Newcastle’s Great North Museum with which I developed an animated film working with Roots and Wings, Newcastle. To further develop this, I’ve completed online courses in film-making and animation from the National Film and Television School and hands-on workshops in film-making and editing at the Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle.

Science Meets Theatre

I’ve been collaborating with Cap-A-Pie Theatre, Newcastle to develop theatre pieces based on research at the university. We’ve had several performances stemming from their Performing Research workshops between 2014 and 2017. With funding from the Wellcome Trust and Newcastle University, we’ve subsequently developed a children’s theatre production about insect sensory ecology. We ran ‘Insect Drama’ workshops with children and adults. The production entitled ‘Six Legs’ has played at several venues and primary schools from 2016 and is still going strong. I also illustrated and wrote a comic as an accompanying program. We developed an educational pack supporting the school curriculum based on this show.

Talks And Demos

I’ve given several invited public lectures and presentations including for the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, The King’s CE School Wolverhampton, Pint of Science, the National Media Museum, Bradford, The British Science Association, Centre for Life, FabLab London, and the Northumbria Natural History Society.