Serious Gaming
Zombie Ant Experience
The Zombie Ant Experience is a Virtual Reality game designed by UCF scientists, game design students and alumni. In this “serious game” you will learn more about zombie ants and related topics like ant and fungal biology, infectious disease, and evolution. By taking on the role of the zombie-making fungus Ophiocordyceps your ultimate goal is to successfully manipulate the behavior of your ant host and spread your spores to infect more ants.
You cannot download the game yet because it is currently under development. But, you might find us at local events like Otronicon at the Orlando Science Center where you can help us by testing our prototype!
Community Science
Zombie Fungus Foray
The Zombie Fungus Foray is a community science initiative for the discovery of Ophiocordyceps species using the free iNaturalist app! Ophiocordyceps are parasitic fungi, also known as “Zombie Fungi”, that infect ants and secrete mind-altering substances that cause them to behave in peculiar ways. iNaturalist allows you to take pictures and upload them for scientific use, as well as locate where these zombie ants have been found before! Join our project page at:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/the-zombie-fungus-foray
Active Learning Lesson Plans
International Microbiology Literacy Initiative
Our lab is contributing to the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative (IMLI) which aims to increase microbiology literacy in society through the introduction of microbiology curricula in schools. The Initiative aims to bring personal activity/experience/interest-relevant microbiology to children to enrich their education and aid their decision-making as adults. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, and all the confusion about measures to reduce transmission, and global warming and the key roles microbes play in greenhouse gas fluxes, the knowledge and understanding that the IMLI wishes to transmit is a rather timely endeavor.
The current focus of the initiative is the creation of a school curriculum, a collection of 200+ knowledge frameworks of child interest-centric topics. The idea is that these frameworks, written in non-specialist language, will serve as a school “microbiology curriculum” resource, interpretable by teachers for all types of teaching aims and age groups. The curriculum will become freely accessible in multiple languages!
You can already download our contribution (in English) through this link: IMLI – Zombie Ants Lesson Plan
Social Media
TikTok
Join us on TikTok as we talk about all things zombie ant! Check out our spooky science week series, highlighting the bizarre behaviors exhibited in Ophiocordyceps-infected ants, or join us on our adventure to start an ant colony from a single queen! You can find our page at https://www.tiktok.com/@thezombiefungusforay or by searching for TheZombieFungusForay on the app!