Annette Anderson (PhD).
Annette completed a PhD investigating the impacts of sulfonylurea herbicides on production and nitrogen fixation of legumes at the University of Adelaide. Her love of insects developed whilst completing a Bachelor of Science (Honors) majoring in Zoology at James Cook University of North Queensland.
Annette has been involved in many research projects and programs nationally and internationally in ecology, invertebrate biodiversity and agronomy. Annette was employed for over 9 years as a researcher in Ireland, investigating invertebrate biodiversity in forests and agricultural grasslands. This work focused primarily on beneficial parasitoid wasps and their potential as indicators of other invertebrate biodiversity in agricultural grasslands.
During her time in Ireland she also ran the undergraduate Agricultural Zoology practical programs and lectured in Applied Zoology and taught Masters programs (Conservation and Management of Rural Ecosystems). Annette’s research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals.
Recently, Annette took time off work to spend more time with her son. During this time off she has been involved with Melbourne Water’s Waterwatch program and discovered the fascinating world of aquatic invertebrates and what they can tell us about the health of our local waterways.
She is passionate about educating primary school students about their local environment and has done voluntary macro-invertebrate/healthy waterway sessions with local schools and kindergartens. She strongly believes that young children need to be aware of human impacts on the environment and realise that we all have to take responsibility. But, they should also know that small things can make a big difference. By engaging primary school students, we can instill a sense of ownership of their local environment, creating future environmental stewards.
Jessica Lazarus, Bachelor of Educational Studies and Dip. Natural Resource Management.
Jessica knew she loved teaching and engaging with the community at a young age. This led her to then volunteer for over 10 years in the Marine Education field. During this time, she continued to study and work. Jessica has studied at Swinburne TAFE completing a Diploma of Natural Resource Management. Later Jess completed further study with University of Tasmania completing a Bachelor of Educational Studies.
Jessica eventually went on to work in other paid positions of environmental education. This allowed her to travel extensively throughout Victoria. Through her work trips, she developed her passion for not only marine life but for waterways and anything else that could creep and crawl! In 2004 Jessica won an “Award of Excellence for Marine Education” in the Primary Education category.
Jessica took time off to spend time with her 3 children, as two of her sons have High-functioning Autism and needed extra support. During this time she continued to undertake further studies with a focus on outdoor classrooms and sustainability education.
In 2013, Jessica returned to teaching in the environmental education sector and also joined Melbourne Water’s Waterwatch program.
Jessica loves working with children of all ages and engaging children within their local environment. She really wants to take the ‘EEK! Factor’ out of learning about what lives in their local environment and create a sense of awe and wonder!