The data collected in the Iimbovane Outreach Project has many potential uses in biodiversity or conservation biology. It gives the baseline on which other projects can build.
Did you know that ants have hair on their heads? Or that some species of ants loot the eggs of other ant species, bringing them back to their own nests and then forcing them into slavery? These were among the fascinating facts that were part of hands-on workshop entitled “Antastic!” held at Scifest Africa by team members of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology’s Iimbovane Outreach Project.
The Iimbovane Outreach Project held a fun but educational training session for 22 learners during this year’s Standard Bank Mathematics and Science Week. The workshop entitled “Better, Best Biodiversity!” took place on the 30th March 2011.
Following a request from the Cape Town Science Centre, the Iimbovane project presented educators from schools in the Cape Town Metropole with a workshop on ant diversity and its applications in the classroom.
The Iimbovane Outreach Project, an initiative of the Centre for Invasion Biology, which aims to educate school learners about biodiversity and environmental change by using ants as indicator species, has received a very generous grant from AfriSam to continue their work in Western Cape schools.