Manchester Fly Facility / Outreach

Outreach

Manchester Fly Facility delivers a programme of school and public engagement activities to communicate the importance of Drosophila research.

School outreach

The droso4schools project is our creative science communication and education project to promote Drosophila as a teaching tool.

Purpose of our school outreach activities

The droso4schools project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of flies as a powerful teaching tool, by showing the parallels that can be drawn with human biology.

Our work aims to share the educational benefits of fly research with a wide audience through our long-term school collaborations.

For more information, see the ‘Why Fly?’ section of the droso4schools website.

Learning resources

A number of resources are available to support outreach activities on the droso4schools learning resources page, such as free-to-download school biology lessons.

Explanations are in plain English designed to help teachers with lesson preparation, students with revision and homework task, but they also provide well illustrated information for all those who take an interest.

View learning resources here

Our own school resources are linked out on the site, but can also be accessed through our online repositories:

Training

To reach out to university students and researchers unfamiliar with Drosophila research, we have developed a fly genetics training package, an e-assessment and other training resources. For more detail, read about our training.

The droso4schools website also provides information in the following areas:

  • organs– provides an overview of the physiological similarities between flies and humans;
  • teacher information– a list of the services , activities and resources available through the droso4schools project;
  • blog– featuring updates from the Manchester Fly Facility team.

 

Public outreach

Promoting awareness of the importance of Drosophila and other genetic invertebrate organisms is a key part of the Fly Facility’s work.

Public engagement activities

We have developed a diverse suite of interactive practical activities to provide fundamental insights into how the fly can be used to understand biological processes and, ultimately, cure diseases.

As part of our work, we use these activities to engage with adults and children at science fairs, festivals, conferences and other events.

Our public engagement activities focus on:

  • promoting better understanding of the importance of fly research amongst non-specialist audiences;
  • using flies as a powerful teaching tool in our school outreach work, with the droso4schools website dedicated specifically to our outreach work in schools;
  • celebrating the important scientific breakthroughs achieved through fly research;
  • stimulating a conversation around fly research and encouraging the public to discuss, ask questions and contribute their ideas and opinions.

Further information about our public engagement activities can be found in the activities section of the droso4public website.

Learn more about our public engagement work

Our outreach resources can be used to help you in your own public engagement activities. The resources from our public outreach website, but can also be accessed here:

We encourage you to share any other resources related to fly research, which can be added to the ‘further resources’ section of the website. If you have a website, information or files that you would like to add, please send them via email to Professor Andreas Prokop at andreas.prokop@manchester.ac.uk

View our outreach resources

The droso4public website also provides links to support outreach activities in the following areas:

  • Lay articles – simple explanations of contemporary fly research.
  • Fly art – a gallery of artistic images and sculptures which can be used for presentations and outreach activities.
  • History – explaining the history and context of fly research and its impact on scientific discovery.

 

The University of Manchester