All articles were written for the course Science Communication and Journalism of 2025.
Every year the Science Communication and Journalism course offers students the opportunity to go through the entire process of creating journalistic articles and gain hands-on experience in science journalism. Students learn how to pitch their ideas and draft initial story outlines, conduct interviews with scientists, and then bring everything together into compelling stories that highlight the work of researchers across diverse scientific fields.
The process doesn’t stop there. With multiple rounds of review and revision, their stories evolve into polished articles ready for publication. And, this year some pieces have made it out onto UKrant. In this article we showcase three of the published stories that share a common theme: uncovering the work ecologists and conservationists do to study and protect nature in the Netherlands, along with the challanges they face.
Waders under pressure – by Elizabeth van der Zeijden-Los
For her article, Elizabeth talked with ecologist Thomas Lameris about his work on migratory birds. The Wadden Sea is the place to go for studying wading birds, but this does not always make for easy work.
Click here for the English version.
Invisible predators. How can we protect the mustelids? – by Fanny Spikman
In this piece, Fanny discusses how scientists deal with studying elusive species, in this case mustelids, a family of carnivorous mammals including weasels, stotes, and polecats. Fanny talked to UG ecologist Pieter Otte to find out the different methods he uses to track, record, and study these animals.
Click here for the English version.
Raising the dykes? Add a tide pool – by Marit Nygård
In her article, Marit discusses a complicated issue, that of the dykes. The dykes provide safety to humans from the rising sea waters, but they represent a danger to the other creatures living there. But there might be a solution in sight.
Click here for the English version.
If you want to see more work from our talented students, follow our instagram page (@bridgingscience) to get notified when we post a new article.
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