About me
Amelie Vanderstock
I am a science communicator, artist and educator conducting PhD research on native bees at the University of Sydney. I use citizen science to explore the diversity and awareness of pollinators in urban community gardens and bushland.
I’m passionate about accessible, playful, and creative approaches to ecological science that involve active participation of our broader community. I am especially interested in involving young people as co-creators of scientific research, and grounding our inquiry in everyday experiences with our local environment- because we can all BEE Scientists.
I share this passion for urban ecology and pollinators through public education events such as workshops, original musical theatre performances as well as other collaborative art mediums. It takes collaboration to cross-pollinate creativity, community and ecology!
Music
As ‘Amelie Ecology’ I write and perform educational, ecology music for children (and inner children!) at festivals, in schools and in community.
‘An insect cabaret’ is a science meets musical theatre show about the ecology of invertebrates. Contact me to book a show for your school/ community.
With inspiring collaborators, I just won a grant from Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust to produce my first full studio album + teaching/learning resource booklet! I’ll be sharing my journey so watch this space.
More details on musical projects here!
Upcoming gigs here!
If you are interested in collaborating on creative projects, or have ideas to share, I’d love to hear from you!
You can find Amelie Ecology wherever you listen to your music.
Click the social links below!
Workshops
I regularly facilitate native bee workshops for all ages with local councils, festivals and community organisations to share knowledge and skills about native pollinators and their role in our cities.
In these workshops we explore the diversity of native bees, how to recognise them and where to find them as well how we can support them in our local environment.
Children’s workshops involve a combination of interactive play, musical theatre and craft to explore the diversity and ecology of native bees and wild insect pollinators.
I can customise workshops to suit your goals and audience. Please feel free to contact me to organise or collaborate on a workshop/event.
PhD Projects
Cross-pollinating insect and community resilience in urban environments is a project exploring how native bees connect urban agricultural and native bushland environments with members of the public. Specifically, I am studying connectivity and resilience of urban plant-pollinator systems in Sydney's community gardens and bushland using a network approach. This project involves citizen science and invites members of the public to join in workshops and participatory research.
Let’s BEE Scientists is a project where together with high school students, we co-designed an experiment using artificial flowers to test wild pollinator preferences in the Blue Mountains, NSW. This citizen science project brought together high schoolers, primary schoolers and their families to understand more about our local pollinators and the scientific process by BEE-ing the scientists ourselves.
You can find me in the Invertebrate Behaviour and Ecology Lab in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney.
