Bugged out: A High School outreach class using display drawers to highlight the importance of insects

Agora Days is an annual, four-day program at University Laboratory High School (Urbana, IL) where regular classes are suspended and elective courses on a wide variety of topics are offered. These elective courses can be proposed by students, teachers, or other members of the community on topics not normally covered by the high school curriculum, without the pressure of homework or exams. For Agora Days 2025, I conducted a course titled “Bugged Out: From Fashion to Forensics,” where we explored the impacts and uses of insects in our daily lives through self-paced activities and outreach drawers. Previous research has demonstrated that while students may initially fear insects, engaging with insect collections and participating in activities can help to boost their comfort levels, which is why I structured this course to be self-paced with the outreach drawers at the center of the lessons. Here, I will present the general course structure, activities, outreach drawer layouts, and a short, post-course reflection. I also conducted a short survey gauging the students’ opinions and knowledge on insects before and after the course. Using outreach drawers from the Illinois Natural History Survey Insect Collection allowed the students to interact with the insects they learned about in the lesson, while offering me, a graduate student, a free and accessible resource to facilitate this outreach event. My intention is to share my course curriculum and outreach drawer layout for other insect collections to utilize for similar outreach events.