Lauren

As an informal educator, before and after assessments are really great. A pre - assessment to gauge general knowledge on the subject and a post assessment to see what they've learned. These are done verbally and as a group discussion. I think assessing inquiry-based projects are also discussion based during the project - checking in to see what they're doing. why they're doing, if they can explain their process.

This is so accurate for so many students. When I do outreach into classrooms, it definitely takes some explaining for students to understand that there's not always one answer to something.

@Stephanie I was wondering the same thing! This would be cool to see with all U.S. Lakes and watersheds.

1. Which citizen-science project did your research? Provide a brief background. - I researched Seek and iNaturalist. Since I work outdoors, these are the best tools to have while on the trail. Seek was created by iNaturalist and is more kid friendly. While these programs do not look at specific species or types of creatures, just by taking a picture of something (plant, animal, insect, fungus, etc), you can find out the local numbers of that species, the most common times during the year to see it, and how many have spotted recently. 2. Is the database accessible to anyone? Could someone who has not participated in the project use the data? Can students access the information? - The database is accessible to anyone. Both apps allow you to view all of the local activity and data that has been captured. Students can easily access data to learn more. 3. How might your students use this citizen-science project data to conduct an investigation? - These apps would be particularly helpful in conducting investigations about local populations and their yearly seasonal patterns.

- What citizen-science project did you do? Previously, I did Frog Watch. This project includes going out to areas with frogs and toads, listening for calls, and keeping track of numbers. - What challenges, if any, did you experience? Sometimes, you could show up to a location and find nothing! - What learning outcomes might you expect from having your students participate in this project? Even you set up a project just right, you may have unexpected outcomes. This project also helps students get better at scientific observation and collecting data.

The most impactful thing about creating my sound map was the mix of human and wildlife noises. I am in an area with a lot of people, so it's interesting to hear how everything meshes. In a lesson, I think that you could expand on a sound map to include other senses to help observe the natural world more fully. 

Our programs seek to model all 3 of UC Davis' teaching practices.   1. Position youth as people who do science. -- I start our environmental education programs by saying, "Today, you are scientists". We talk about what it means to be a scientist and what jobs we need to do that day to show that we are scientists. 2. Attend to the unexpected. -- Any program where we head out into the woods is bound to have unexpected leaps. A deer may pop out, we may find jelly ear mushrooms on a log as we climb over, there could be salamanders hiding under a rock near the vernal pool, etc. I encourage learners to stop and look at whatever interests us (within reason for time restraints) and to question why it's there and what it does. We may also go out and find nothing! 3. Frame the work locally and globally. -- We promote native species since they are our local species and we want kids to have ties with our local environment. I'd like to work more on connecting globally through citizen science -- hence why I'm here!

• I am an informal educator, so many of our lessons are open inquiry. At a previous outreach program, we would bring 3 animals into the classroom -- a cockroach, a salamander, and a snake. We would talk about each animal and discuss its life cycle, and how its life cycle was influenced by its environment. We discussed what kind of adaptations that animal had in relation to its life cycle. For example, salamanders needed to live near the water since their jelly-like eggs needed to stay in water to survive. When salamander eggs hatch, they are born with gills. With cockroaches, they can lay 60 eggs and we ask -- why? Why do they need to many babies? After discussion, many students figure out that insects have a lot of predators and, in order to continue on with their species, they need a lot of babies to compensate for the loss. At the end of the lesson, we give each student a picture of a habitat. Their job is to create an animal that could live in that habitat and explain why. They could even have a Pokemon live there, but needed to be able to explain why they would be able to survive in that habitat and what adaptations they have to make it  possible.
• The science practices that are developed through this activity include asking questions, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations, and engaging in argument from evidence.
• This activity was constructed specifically to be open ended and inquiry based. Even when showing the animals we ask, "What do you notice about this animal?" and "Why do you think it is this way?".