Adrienne

I like the idea of a rubric, but sometimes giving out those numbers seems too subjective to me. I think it would be good to have regular mini due dates to ensure all stages of the project are going smoothly, rather than one due date for the whole project. That can help students who struggle with time management, as well. During some of these stages, it might be beneficial to have group discussions about everyone's project, also, to add peer input and support. It's important that kids know they're not alone in doing the project, even if it is self-led work. In real life, they would have access to mentors and peers, as well, and we shouldn't shy away from having as many eyes on our projects as possible to help us stay on the right track.

The scientific process can be overwhelming for many students, so it's best to break it down into smaller chunks of information and then step back and see how all that information fits together. It's also challenging to fit all that we want to do in a short period of time. In my job, I visit schools once or maybe twice a year, and I will only have between 45 minutes to an hour with the students each day. This means I have to work closely with their teachers ahead of time to assess what the students already know and what they need to work on so that during the short class time we can accomplish as much as possible.

These are all great points! I would like to be better at providing dedicated time for nature journaling. Also, I appreciate the reminder to be inclusive for those kids who are not confident readers/writers yet by providing picture guides.

I'd actually like to share about a citizen-science project in which I participated the last couple of years. It's a study of urban coyote diets via analyzing coyote scat. Volunteers first go through a short training session on how to identify coyote scat and where it might be found. Then we learn how to collect samples, label them, and store them before bringing them to the urban wildlife researcher. They then use equipment that will help separate and identify whatever it was that the coyotes had eaten. Some of the more challenging parts of this were 1. having to get up early to find the freshest scat samples, 2. finding scat, and 3. storing samples that can be a little smelly. I found that my dog is actually great at finding coyote scat, so that challenge was more easily overcome. I expect anyone who uses this project with kids would find that kids can quickly overcome initial squeamishness and learn to appreciate the wildlife in their own backyards, so to speak. I also would hope kids could get a better understanding of the scientific process and work that goes into establishing a volunteer base and collecting data. But I also expect students to find out how fun projects like this can be. Every time I log my volunteer hours for this project, I reflect on how grateful I am to be able to call what is essentially taking a walk "hard-earned volunteer time."

It would be interesting and valuable to sit for a longer period of time and/or at different times of day to compare sounds. I know that during the day I may hear more human sounds like cars or mowers, and at night I would hear more frogs, toads, owls, and chuck-will's-widows. This activity could also be repeated throughout the year, since right now I'm hearing summer sounds of cicadas and the birds that stick around through the summer. In the spring and fall I may hear more variety of migrating birds. These are just the things I expect, but I'm sure if I'm paying close enough attention, I would encounter something unexpected that I never would have noticed without focusing on the sounds!

I teach mostly in the classroom, but I hope to be able to offer more outdoor experiences for kids to help them make connections about what they learn in the classroom and what they see in their own neighborhoods. It's important to offer opportunities for kids to contribute to science in a meaningful way in their own habitats. I also hope to help other educators make connections with local scientists who specialize in certain areas of science - aquatic science and water quality, urban wildlife, herpetology, entomology, etc. This will help kids see themselves in these roles and find what interests them while seeing the application of their knowledge and skills on a broader, even global, scale.

I have taught our Junior Master Naturalist group how to use iNaturalist to identify things like invertebrates, plants, birds/bird sounds, tracks and scat, reptiles, and amphibians. We have also used Tree Trails to add data about trees to the AgriLife's database. This tool provides places to input tree measurements, GPS data, and tree species. It then gives feedback about how much that tree is worth monetarily, by how it provides shade for energy savings, habitat to beneficial wildlife, or even just perceived value to the community. The best thing to help kids master the technology and process used is to allow them to do it themselves. With adults, we have walked through the process using detailed lecture-style presentations. I don't think that would work as well with kids not only because experience-based learning is so much more beneficial, but also because kids often grasp technology faster than the older students.