Outreach.
The communication of science to the general public is one of my academic priorities.
7. Khelifa R. (2022). Soda geyser trend becomes sinister as people target animals for YouTube content. The Conversation https://theconversation.com/soda-geyser-trend-becomes-sinister-as-people-target-animals-for-youtube-content-176752
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Khelifa R. (2021). Observations on the response of dragonflies to the British Columbia 2021 historic heat wave. Argia 33 (3): 13-14
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Khelifa R. & Mahdjoub H (2021). EcoDragons: a game for environmental education and public outreach. Insect 12(9), 776
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Khelifa R. (2021). When sex becomes a wrestling game in a dragonfly: female refusal behavior to male harassers. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 102:e01916.
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Khelifa R. (2019). Females ‘assist’ sneaker males to dupe dominant males in a rare endemic damselfly: sexual conflict at its finest. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 100( 4):e01598
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Khelifa R. (2017) Goldfinches need protection – migrating songbirds might be vanishing from North Africa. The Conversation https://theconversation.com/goldfinches-need-protection-migrating-songbirds-might-be-vanishing-from-north-africa-80820
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Khelifa, R. (2017). Playing dead. Biosphere 26: 44-53
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Khelifa R. & Mahdjoub H. (2021). Insects 12(9), 776
Environmental education is crucial to tackling the rising ecological and societal issues on our planet. Although there are various ways to approach environmental education and raise public awareness, games are potentially an effective vehicle of knowledge and engagement because they vulgarise the scientific information in a universal ‘language’ and bring people together. I designed a board game, EcoDragons, that integrates principles of ecology, biological conservation, life history, and taxonomy. The protagonists of the game are dragonflies and damselflies. The aim of the game is to colonize habitats with different species and use ecological processes (e.g. predation, competition, mutualism) and conservation measures (e.g. restoration, reintroduction) to face random environmental perturbations (e.g. climate warming, drought, and biological invasion). There are currently two versions of the game; a Western Canadian based on species of British Columbia and a European, both including 39 species. Each species has a body size score, an environmental sensitivity score, and habitat preference. The winner of the game is the one who restored the largest number of habitats, established and maintained the largest number of species, occupied a higher number of habitats, and solved more environmental issues. While the current EcoDragon was based on Western Canadian dragonflies, the concept is highly adaptable to dragonflies of other regions (changing the species names), or even to other taxonomic groups. Thus, EcoDragons has a global outreach potential to educate the public about ecology, conservation, and organismic life history, and probably engage them in community science and environmental advocacy.
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PROJECT/PROGRAMME TITLE: Under NDA
COMPANY: Plimsoll Productions GENRE: Natural History SECTOR: Broadcast Television Scientific consulting for a British wildlife documentary producer for two landmark natural history series for Disney+ and Nat Geo. The filming took place in British Columbia. My job was to give advice on different aspects of the organism and natural habitat they were interested in. I worked with a talented team of producers, directors, and cameramen. The documentary will have a large outreach and a great impact on natural history and environmental education. |
Since January 2017, I have managed the website and social media of the IUCN Dragonfly Specialist Group. I regularly post videos and pictures about dragonflies on DSG facebook page to educate the general public and raise their awareness about biodiversity.
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With my colleagues in Algeria, we are working on a series of video on the biodiversity of North Africa from the perspective of dragonflies. This initiative is to engage the public in research and conservation. |
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