Annette Anderson Email and Phone Number

In December 2015, I co-founded EEK! Environmental Education for Kids.We are passionate about engaging and educating children with their local waterways and environment; the issues with stormwater and pollution; and what they can do to help. We were awarded a community grant from Yarra Ranges Council to begin taking our program into local schools in 2017.We will also be expanding our program into more kindergartens, primary and high schools in 2017.

PEG was awarded Yarra Ranges Council Community Grants in 2016 and 2017 and a Knox City Council community grant in 2017. We teach primary school children about platypus and the dangers they face. During these sessions we run an interactive question and answer question with students and highlight issues platypus face with hands-on games. At the end of the session we give the students the elastic band challenge. We tell the children the problems of elastic bands/ plastic rings entering waterways through stormwater and the threat they pose to platypus. Each school is challenged to collect as many bands as they can in one month. Students love the challenge and immediately start collecting bands. In 2016, we visited 12 schools and the students collected over 17,000 bands!

I am identifying soil and litter invertebrates for a Latrobe University PhD student as part of his research into Lyrebirds and their effects on soil turnover.

I have been an active volunteer in a number of activities (see below) across the Dandenong Ranges. These include school and pre-school visits educating children about healthy waterways and macroinvertebrates; running insect identification workshops, community engagement at festivals, participating in Melbourne Water Waterwatch program and supervising summer placement students from Monash University. Specific activities include:- Participant in the citizen science Dandenong Burrowing Crayfish survey with Yarra Ranges Council August 2016.- Involved with Yarra Ranges Council ‘Don’t Trash the Platypus’ project to engage the community about stormwater issues.- Green Belt Operator with Melbourne Water’s Waterbug census program since March 2015. - Lecture and practical on macroinvertebrate monitoring for the Diploma of Conservation and Land Management at Swinburne University of Technology.- Festivals: Hands–on macroinvertebrate/healthy waterway activities at the following: Belgrave Platypus Festival, Ecotopia, Kurth Kiln Heritage Festival, Minibeasts festival, Science in the Park: Wildlife Counts at Coolart Wetlands. - Macroinvertebrate (waterbug) sessions in local schools and kindergartens. What they can tell us about the health of our waterways?- Birdsland Discovery Day as part of the Kids in Nature Play Week. Pre-school children were introduced to minibeasts in the garden and from the local creek.- Birds, Bugs and other Beasties at Birdsland. Children were taken on a walk through Birdsland Reserve discovering birds along the way. At the end of the walk they had a hunt for both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates.- Supervision of summer placement students from Monash University in conjunction with Johns Hill Landcare Group and Melbourne Water.- Fly, Beetle, Bug, Thrip or Lacewing! What is it? Planned, developed and ran a workshop on the identification of terrestrial insect orders for Johns Hill Landcare Members held at Emerald Lake Park (October 2014).

I was responsible for conducting safety assessments of 120 sites across Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula that are monitored by Waterwatch volunteers. During this time I Assessed potential risks volunteer monitors may encounter e.g. tripping hazards, falling branches, erosion, and recommend risk control measures. I also assisted with a Waterbug Census Training Day at Darebin Parklands, August 2016

During my time at cesar, I worked as a research consultant investigating pesticide resistance in aphids. I was responsible on a day to day basis for maintaining aphid cultures, running pesticide bioassays and writing reports.

During this time, I was involved with the FunctionalBio project (half-time) within the School of Biology and Environmental Science (UCD). I worked as part of a team on a research project investigating functional biodiversity in Irish forests, primarily the diversity of soil decomposers and predatory and parasitoid arthropods from fogging samples. Specific duties included identification of parasitoid Hymenoptera; data analysis and publication, and contributing to report writing.

During this time, I worked on the Agri-Baseline research group (half-time) within the School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine (UCD). I was part of a team on a research project establishing an environmental baseline for the evaluation of Irish agri-environmental policy project investigating. Specific duties included collection of terrestrial arthropods, identification of parasitoid Hymenoptera; data analysis and publication; report writing; budget management and financial reporting; teaching undergraduates

'The value of parasitic Hymenoptera as indicators of biological diversity in agro-ecosystems’ within the School of Biology and Environmental Science (UCD) This was a independent project attached to the much larger Ag-Biota project. Specific duties included collection of arthropods, identification of parasitoid Hymenoptera, data analysis and publication, day to day running of the project including biannual written reports, budget management and financial reporting; teaching undergraduate practical classes

Ag-Biota research group within the School of Biology and Environmental Science (UCD). Worked as part of a team on a research project investigating and monitoring biodiversity in Irish agro-ecosystems. One of the main aims of the Ag-Biota project was to identify key indicator groups. Specific tasks included identification of parasitoid Hymenoptera and spiders; collection of arthropods and earthworms; liaising with other project partners at other institutes; assisting PhD students; and assisting with report writing.

GRDC funded project titled 'Soil Processes under grazed pastures - their impact on crop production' headed by Dr Bill Bellotti and Dr Jeff Baldock. I was responsible for the day to day running of the laboratory, and amongst other tasks – mineral nitrogen analyses of soil and supervision of students using the facility.

Classification of soil arthropods; microbial biomass analyses of soils, chemical analyses of soils and termite mound material with Dr John Holt