As I mentioned yesterday, I have had many opportunities to work with scientists and researchers, but also with museums, and informal educators throughout this summer. When I was at NCCAT for the first professional development institute, I learned about citizen science for the first time. I feel like I had heard the term in the past, but I had never participated. The idea is the anyone can be a scientist and collect real data. With the help of technology and well designed apps, anyone can collect data that is used by scientists.
At our second professional development institute all of the Kenan Fellows had the opportunity to participate in a short “Bio Blitz” around Lake Raleigh.
We explored and tried to identify and photograph as many species of plants, animals and fungi in a 30 minute period. While the competitive nature had groups racing to find more species, we logged all of the findings on iNaturalist as real data about the biodiversity of the area.
Data Collection during our Bio Blitz
Our guides for the day were from Prairie Ridge Ecostation, which is a part of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and helped us to find ways to use these activities with students. As I was thinking about my experience at the Science of Sour event, and our morning of citizen science, I realized how many opportunities this summer I have had to work with informal educators. From the beginning of the summer at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, to listening to presentations from the staff of the Morehead Planetarium, and to talking with different museum representatives at the GES Center, I realize that, in my experience, classroom teachers are not as connected to the informal educators as we should be. I hope that I can use these resources in the future so that students can get excited about science inside and outside of the classroom.
Below are some resources that I have found to be really helpful this summer!
Citizen Science Resources:
Apps: iNaturalist Merlin Bird ID Nature’s Notebook
Websites: SciStarter – Reference for many different citizen science projects
Purposeful Gaming– This is one of my favorites. Two games that help librarians archive old texts that do not work with the text recognition software.
Community Collaborative Rain Snow & Hail Network– After purchasing a 30 dollar, standardized rain gauge, people collect daily data about the precipitation at their location.
Bio Blitz by National Geographic
Museums and Educational Areas:
Museum of Life and Science in Durham
Prairie Ridge Ecostation
NC Museum of Natural Sciences
Southern Appalachain Raptor Research
Teen Science Cafes