Karin

As an informal educator, we are trying to figure out ways to do this with homeschool families. As with working with other educators, it is more about teaching others how to do this. So actually seeing what others have written is extremely helpful for other trainings. I like Vanessa's idea of creating a Kit for teachers to purchase to help them with supplies and time.

I started researching eMammal because I wasn't familiar with that, but I found the data difficult to download, so I need to do a little more research to figure out how to get to the data. So I went to eBird. eBird allows you to look at data for different species, or to look up data by region. You can easily compare sightings of different species over a year and see when they are most common. You can see who logged in the data and the date. Anyone can enter data with an account and it is accessible to anyone. It's very easy to get to the data and you do not have to be a participant to get the data. There are multiple ways students could use this data. You could look to see what birds are in your area. Students could compare the last date that a bird was seen during migration, and compare it to years past- to see if there are changes in last seen dates. They could also compare to other parts of the country, or other countries where the bird might live.

The most impactful part of the sound map was really being able to focus on sounds- just sounds. If I had just been observing the area and using all my senses, I don't think I would have noticed all of those sounds. It helps you to be still and really focus. I think giving students the opportunity to use their senses one at a time, or to focus on small sections is important for really noticing details. We often feel rushed and we don't take the time to focus- we get a more generalized picture when we have to rush and miss the details.  

We have used NestWatch and FeederWatch- not necessarily in a class but as something for volunteers to help with. Monarch Watch is a popular program that we do every fall and is incorporated into our Monarch Program. Students learn about Monarchs and help to catch and tag Monarchs during migration. Teachers are encouraged to use data from the program and others that track migration patterns in the classroom. I love using citizen science programs whenever I can in a program, or at least mention them. I think that students feel much more connected to the animal, and science when they are part of something that matters.