Daphnia Detectives: the case of the pillowcase, pegs and pink particles

The Daphnia Detectives project was developed to communicate our research findings on the impacts of microplastics in freshwater environments using Daphnia (the water flea) as a model organism. A pillowcase, some pegs and pink particles form an integral element of the Daphnia Detectives activities, and are a good example of how everyday and specialist items can be blended to fit science communication needs. The project has developed a bank of open access online resources covering the topic of microplastics and Daphnia, from experimental design stages through to example results and data sets that can be used to explore data analysis themes, in addition to in-person sessions with schools to highlight this topic and provide hands-on experience with some of the techniques. Although the online content is designed to tie into the UK school curriculum as a way to bring real- world and current examples of ‘research in action’ into the classroom, it has the potential to be of interest to wider audiences, including as an interactive event at the 2022 British Science Festival. We also reflect on the refreshing insights that public engagement can have on researchers and the scientific process highlighted through this project.