Citizen Scientists in the Making

On Friday, September 25, track 7 PhD candidate Ayat Abourashed organized a masterclass for the first group of students to take part in her pilot citizen science project this year. Students and teachers from Keizel Karel College and Damstede Lyceum came to Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam for a safe, physically distanced masterclass. The event started off with a presentation by Sander Koenraadt and Charlotte Linthout about mosquito biology and mosquitoes’ role in disease transmission. Afterwards, groups of students and teachers participated in an activity to create control strategies based on certain arbovirus cases; the discussions were lively and very creative! Eric van Gorp presented on the clinical aspects, epidemiology and impact of arboviruses and how a One Health approach relates to all this.

To end the event, Ayat and Sander gave a talk about citizen science by explaining how Muggenradar and Mosquito Alert work. Throughout the masterclass, both students and teachers were enthusiastic and asked lots of great questions and had the chance to see live samples of mosquito eggs, larvae and adults. Overall, the masterclass was a success, and we are looking forward to working with Keizel Karel College and Damstede Lyceum this semester!