At the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (IIS) I am involved in development of interdisciplinary education in which I also teach. I have a background in interdisciplinary studies and ecology at Wageningen University (WUR).

I all my education the connection between science and society plays a big role. I enjoy guiding new students in the academy and to let them think about the relevance and role of the university. Also, I like to help them understand (and critically reflect on) complex scientific material and to enable them to translate this to practical use. With students who are more advanced in their program, I like to work as equals on their personal development or project work. In the education I develop I always try to find connections to broader society and like to find overlap/collaboration with various partners such as artists or business professionals. Furthermore, I encourage students to think about their own future roles in society.

At the education lab (onderwijslab) of the IIS I am involved in developing new education on ‘science & society’. An example of this is a new course that focusses on area development and specifically ecology and social aspects within neighborhoods of Amsterdam. We collaborate with a multitude of partners from the city. Questions we address in the course are: How are neighborhoods developed? How do visions of professionals relate to actual development? And, what can you, as a student do to improve certain aspects?

At the Faculty of Science I have co-developed the Tesla minor (in which I still teach). Here we work with companies, government, sports facilities, and a theater schools in order to train science students in 21th century (or ‘soft’) skills, and to utilize scientific knowledge in organizations. Website made by students: www.teslaminor.nl 

For the combined honours programme of the UvA and VU I developed a course on ‘extinction’. A long-standing personal fascination. In this course we address the topic of extinction of species, and specifically the 6^th mass extinction event that we are arguably experiencing in our current age. We perceive the topic from different angles and ask questions s.a. What has happened in other mass extinction events (e.g. 66 million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct)? How did thinking about extinction change during the Enlightenment? What are causes and consequences of the current mass extinction? And, is there anything we can do about it? More info: http://studiegids.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2016-2017/zoek-vak/vak/1546072 

With former students I have started Stiching Anna’s Tuin & Ruigte (AT&R). AT&R is an area of 1 hectare on Science Park Amsterdam, and serves as living lab for ecological an agrological experiments and information sharing. Also, we regularly organize education for different target groups.

More information on Anna's Tuin & Ruigte: 

- www.annastuin.nl

- www.facebook.com/annastuinenruigte

In 2015 I published a book on Academic Skills. See: https://www.bol.com/nl/p/academic-skills/9200000059203214