friends or foes—an outreach science initiative for the collection of airborne fungal spores by high school students

Funding Information: This work was financially supported by the Funda\u00E7\u00E3o para a Ci\u00EAncia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the project \u201CFATE\u201D (PTDC/CTA-AMB/6587/2020), MOSTMICRO-ITQB R&D Unit (UIDB/04612/2020, UIDP/04612/2020), and LS4FUTURE Associated Laboratory (LA/P/ 0087/2020). The authors are thankful to the project \u201CScience Open to Oeiras,\u201D Oeiras Science and Innovation Strategy, Oeiras municipality. The author D.P. is grateful to the FCT funding for the PhD scholarship PD/BD/138913/2018. The authors are indebted to James Yates (ITQB NOVA) for the careful proofreading of the manuscript. All members of the Silva Pereira lab are also thanked for the useful discussions, as well as the undergrad student Pedro Ant\u00F3nio (FCT NOVA), who has provided some technical help on the DNA extractions during a research internship. Finally, the authors are extremely grateful to all high school teachers and students who participated in this project. In the ESM, the teachers were Paula Conten\u00E7as and Susana Tavares, and the students were Matilde Fonseca, Maria Sim\u00F5es, Maria Marques, Carolina Deodato, Teresa Gomes, Miguel Ferreira, Joana Sousa, Vasco Apolin\u00E1rio, Henrique Pereira, Jo\u00E3o Azevedo, Rodrigo Barata, Mafalda Martins, Jos\u00E9 Maria Sobral, Margarida Brito, Rodrigo Castanha, Afonso Pereira, Dinis Rebelo, Francisca Almeida, In\u00EAs Semi\u00E3o, Lu\u00EDs Costa, Margarida Moreira, Maria Leonor Costa, Maria Henriques, Marta e Sales, Rita Moreno, Sara Mota, and Leonor Mendes; in the CCB, the teacher was Helena Alves, and the students were Afonso Lopes, Carolina Aires, Francisco Carvalho, Hugo Melo, Jo\u00E3o Gonzaga, Jo\u00E3o Parente, Mafalda Marques, Mariana Gil, Mariana Serrano, Matilde Maur\u00EDcio, Raquel Ribeiro, and Ricardo Ramires; from LFB, the teacher was Cristina Dias, and the students were J\u00FAlia Oliveira, L\u00EDvia Calandrin, Madalena Silva, and Mafalda Pereira. In the ARC, the teachers were Margarida Almeida and S\u00E9rgio Pinho, and in the ESQM, the teachers were Ana Coutinho, Cristina Cordeiro, and Manuela Santos; in these two schools, the students\u2019 names, regrettably, were not collected. C.S.P. supervised the project and the interpretation of data; C.S.P. prepared the final version of the manuscript. D.P. and J.M.P.J. ensured the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data and contributed to the drafting of the manuscript; P.C. prepared the video, and R.N. and R.R., from the science communication office, coordinated the communication with the high schools. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Funda\u00E7\u00E3o para a Ci\u00EAncia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the project \u201CFATE\u201D (PTDC/CTA-AMB/6587/2020), MOSTMICRO-ITQB R&D Unit (UIDB/04612/2020, UIDP/04612/2020), and LS4FUTURE Associated Laboratory (LA/P/ 0087/2020). The authors are thankful to the project \u201CScience Open to Oeiras,\u201D Oeiras Science and Innovation Strategy, Oeiras municipality. The author D.P. is grateful to the FCT funding for the PhD scholarship PD/BD/138913/2018. Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Piontkivska et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International license.