Let’s Talk Science presents School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Science is Magic

It’s not often I get to combine parasites with my non-academic interests but the “Let’s Talk Science presents School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Science is Magic” allowed us to do just that.

This event was incredibly successful at introducing kids (and sometimes their parents!) to magic that’s all around them, and the science behind it. The event used most of the Katz Building on the University of Alberta Campus with various themed rooms to visit, such as Divination, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Herbology, Muggle Studies and Ancient Runes. Each of these rooms had a dedicated team of graduate students who helped develop demonstrations and volunteer in these rooms throughout that day.

A team of HPI members and other graduate students studying parasites from University of Alberta worked together to run a ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ themed room about parasites! A visit to our booth, usually started with a simple explanation of what is a parasite: “A parasite is an animal that lives in or on another animal!” Next, we had some samples of common external parasites like lice and bed bugs, followed by lots of “that’s what bed bugs look like?!”. Of course the infamous HPI papier-mache tick was there as well to help visualize the incredible blood meals a tick can take. We also had examples of preserved internal parasites, few people in Alberta get personal experience with or ever get the chance to see. We had an interactive Dicrocoelium lifecycle, also known as the zombie ants, which was of course a big hit with the kids. We also had an interactive flea lifecycle highlighting that the adults can be found on the host, but most life stages are in the environment!

The final activity in the room was a station to “Make Your Own Obscurus”, which from the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is a magical parasite of humans. Glue, glitter and pom-poms were well utilized while we encouraged kids to think about how a parasite stays attached to the host outside or inside the body.

It was great to see so many little witches and wizards come by and get to learn more about the parasites around them!