> Children's book "My friends Triops", edited by the Project LIFE Charcos, was the motto to talk about the conservation of Temporary Ponds at the Pavilion of Knowledge in Lisbon.
The Pavilion of Knowledge - Alive Science Centre of Lisbon, invited the biologist Vanda Brotas for a "Meeting with the Scientist", an initiative of the Alive Science Centre where students of primary school have the possibility to contact with a researcher of many areas of knowledge.
Vanda Brotas, Biologist and Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, researcher in the area of Marine Ecology, develops her work around the dynamics of Phytoplankton. However, her participation in the "Meeting with the Scientist" with a group of about 50 schoolchildren from Lisbon was not to speak about marine environments, nor Phytoplankton, but of a small and temporary freshwater habitat: Mediterranean Temporary Ponds. This is about her last children's tale titled "My Friends Triops" edited by the LIFE Charcos Project, which tells the story of two children who know Triops Vicente, a little known animal of the species Triops vicentinus that lives in the Temporary ponds in the Southwest Coast of Portugal.
This book tells the stories of children that want to save the habitat of these small animals, threatened by the construction of a road. In the Pavilion of Knowledge, the author uncovered some episodes of the children's story and satisfied the curiosity of the "little scientists" who were unaware of the Temporary Ponds and their inhabitants. Little by little they learned more about the life of these animals from the group of Large Branpiopods.
There were many arms in the air waiting to ask questions. The answers, which were not always easy, were also supported by the researcher Margarida Machado from CCMAR, a specialist of these freshwater crustaceans, who was also present in this initiative, and participated in the open dialogue between students and who does science. There was talks about Temporary Ponds, Triops, fairy-shrimps, Iberian Spadefoot Toad, other amphibians and turtles, including exotic species that are sometimes released in the wild and may cause ecological problems in natural habitats and its resources.
The objective of this interaction, which took place on June the 2nd, was to talk a little about the importance of Mediterranean Temporary Ponds conservation and to promote face-to-face dialogue between students and those who do science, in order to give a more real sense of the life and work of these researchers.
In the end students received a copy of the children's story "My friends Triops" and had an autograph of the author and scientist Vanda Brotas.
