Outreach

Outreach activities

I love sharing the natural history of reptiles, and the science of how they cope with heat, with people of all ages. Whenever I can, I make outreach hands-on: I bring the same tools I use in my research, from 3D-printed operative temperature models to thermal imaging cameras, so that people can experience the science for themselves.

One of my favourite activities is “See the world through a lizard’s eyes”: I connect a handheld thermal camera to a screen and let people see themselves the way a lizard would. Simple, but unreasonably effective! Another is “How to catch a lizard”, where I show how researchers catch lizards with the lasso technique, and, when the weather allows, catch a few from the nearest rock outcrop to show off the local lizard diversity.

Where I have done outreach

2026 Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden Native and invasive lizards of South Florida, with high school students

2025 Reno community engagement Talks on Great Basin reptiles with Washoe County Parks and Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation

2024–2025 Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Summer Camp Great Basin herpetofauna and how we study wild lizards

2023–2025 UNR Natural History Museum Two hands-on thermal-biology activities, now part of the museum’s events

Thermal cameras at the UNR Natural History Museum

Showing visitors the world through a thermal camera, with lizard photos and thermal images on the board behind.

Seeing yourself the way a lizard would: a thermal image taken during an outreach event.

Live thermal video on the big screen.

Public talks

2025 To lay or not to lay: how climate mediates the conflicting interests of mothers and embryos to determine lizard reproductive strategies in the Great Basin Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation, Rosewood Series

2024 A day in the life of a lizard: stories from two years of studying the herpetofauna of the Great Basin Desert of Northern Nevada Great Basin Bird Observatory