Amy

I love the different rubrics that I read about. I plan on modifying one of those rubrics to use in my class. I want to set deadlines for each part of the project so that it isn't so overwhelming for students. I hope this helps students do quality work.

Which citizen-science project did your research? Provide a brief background. I looked at Project Budburst first but struggled with how to access long term data. I saw how you could look at 1 observation at a time, but not how you could link the data to see trend over time. I then switched to E-bird. E-bird is site where you collect information on birds using checklists to record bird sightings. The information is then shared to help with conservation. Is the database accessible to anyone? Could someone who has not participated in the project use the data? Can students access the information? The data is available for people to view. I had already had an account with them, so I don't know if you need to make an account to see the data. I have not participated in a project yet, but was still able to view the data. Students can access the information. My elementary students might get lost, though, since there are so many different things they can view. How might your students use this citizen-science project data to conduct an investigation? My students can use this information to help conduct an investigation on a specific bird. They can view areas in the world that has that species of birds and look at patterns.

I did Project Feeder Watch. My students loved trying to identify and count the birds at the feeder. A challenge that we faced was that our feeder is located at the end of a hiking path, so sometimes other classes or visitors would scare the birds away before we could identify and count them. By doing this with my class, students came up with a lot of wondering questions about the relationship between different birds. This caused us to try to be mindful of the interactions with the birds while we were observing them. This project helps students to care more about our planet and helps them to develop critically thinking skills.

The most impactful part of creating my sound map was just sitting in silence and really relying on my sense of sound. At first it was hard to tell how far away the sound was coming, but after a few minutes, it became easier to decipher the distance. I have my students use sound maps and it does help them to really focus on the sense of sound. I also have them draw detailed pictures of an ephemeral flower. Then they have to try and match someone else's drawing to the actual flower. It encourages them to really draw a detailed picture using their observations. It is similar to the lemon activity.

I have used Project Feeder Watch and one that involved herptiles. My students lost interest in the herptiles since they are not found in the colder months. I would really like to do the Project Budburst. I didn't realize that that project also had home connections for families and great additional projects. I want to do the one about if monarchs prefer to lay their eggs in flowering/nonflowering milkweed.

Inquiry is when someone has a wondering about something. They start to ask questions and make observations. They then create an investigation to answer their wondering. This often leads to more questions and might require some research. They collect data from the investigation, analyze the data, draw conclusions, and then finally share out about their wondering.