Dr Robbie Wilson (centre) and students Eddie White and Estelle van der Linde with dung beetle collection kits

Robbie is working to bridge the devide between research and teaching at the University of Queensland. As course co-ordinator of the first year biology course - Biodiversity and the Environment, Robbie is giving first year students an opportunity to get there hands dirty in some real research. Groups of students were given a 'dung beetle collection kit' to set in there back yards. The next week students brought in their catch to identify to get a measure of dung beetle diversity in their backyards. The data set will be combined with a larger dataset collected by our own Ben Barth, investigating dung beetle biodiversity in urban areas. Dung beetles like specific kinds of dung, so if dung beetle diversity is high in an area, presumably diversity of the larger vertebrates that provide their food will be high. The data will identify ways in which urban developments can be designed for the retention of biodiversity. For the full story visit UQ News.