Science Journal for Kids and Teens collaborates with scientists to adapt their peer-reviewed research for students and their teachers. Their repository holds hundreds of freely available scientific articles written for students. Our lab has contributed two articles to Science Journal for Kids about our zombie ants:

• Which chemical makes ants walk like zombies? (upper reading level)

This article is adapted from:
Beckerson, W.C., Krider, C., Mohammad, U.A., de Bekker, C. (2023): 28 minutes later: investigating the role of aflatrem-like compounds in Ophiocordyceps parasite manipulation of zombie ants. In: Animal Behaviour  doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.06.011

• How do some fungi turn insects into zombies? (upper and lower reading level)

This article is adapted from:
de Bekker, C., Beckerson, W.C., Elya, C. (2021): Mechanisms behind the madness: How do zombie-making fungal entomopathogens affect host behavior to increase transmission? In: mBio, e0187221 doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01872-21

Both articles and the corresponding teacher's keys are freely downloadable from the website!

Our lab is contributing to the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative (IMLI) which aims to increase microbiology literacy in society. The Initiative aims to bring personal activity/experience/interest-relevant microbiology to children to enrich their education and aid their decision-making as adults. The current focus of the initiative is the creation of a collection of 200+ knowledge frameworks of child interest-centric topics. These frameworks, written in non-specialist language, will serve as a “microbiology curriculum” resource, interpretable by teachers for all types of teaching aims and age groups. The curriculum will become freely accessible in multiple languages!

You can download our contribution (in English).