On(line)SC

Nature Superhero

Citizen Science

Notes and Facilitation Points

• This is the third of four Nature Superhero lessons. They can be taught together or alone, but are best taught together. These lessons will teach that you don’t need to wear a cape or a mask to be a superhero for nature!

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• Stewardship can be promoted along with these lessons as students learn how to be a hero for nature through the lessons of bravery with the Lorax, citizen science, and food for thought.

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• Pre-lesson prep options: Look at the iNaturalist website and application to learn about this easy tool for studying nature.
• Slide #23 - Review the video before answering the crosscutting concepts.

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• Key questions to use throughout the lesson:

What do you see? What would you like to learn more about in nature?

How can you help the planet?

Notes and Facilitation Points

Crosscutting Concepts within this lesson

Slide #23

• Stability and Change: When the scenario presents a system that periodically experiences equilibrium: How might this system be affected by [sudden event not described in the scenario]? EX: How might sensitive macroinvertebrates be affected if clean water becomes polluted? Answer: They would die because sensitive macroinvertebrates cannot survive in polluted water.
• Stability and Change: When the scenario presents a system that periodically experiences equilibrium: How might this system be affected by [sudden event not described in the scenario]? EX: How might tolerant macroinvertebrates be affected if polluted water becomes clean?

Answer: They would be able to survive. Tolerant macroinvertebrates can live in polluted water because they are better equipped but they can also live in clean water.

On(line)SC

Nature Superhero

Citizen Science

Hello Naturalists!

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We learned about being nature

superheroes through The Lorax.

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Hopefully by now, you want to get out and make

an obvious difference in the community

Superheroes are known for jumping into the action, where they can see what’s going on first-hand. Now’s our chance to focus on the

citizens in our own community!

Today, we will become real-life scientists, helping people around the world!

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What are the first five words you think of when you see the word “scientist”?

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There are no wrong answers!

For many years, everyday people were not able to participate in scientific work or research.

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That was work that could only

be done by professional scientists.

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But today, thanks to modern technology, anyone can participate in scientific work even if you didn’t go to college to be a scientist.

Here at ONSC, everyone from toddlers to grandparents have been able to get involved in real-life science.

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We are going to share some ways that you can get

involved at home.

The idea of having non-scientist help scientists with their work and research is called citizen science.

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Citizen science not only allows people like you and me to assist with collecting scientific information, it also helps scientists with their research as well.

The more eyes and

ears open,the more likely we are

to discover

something amazing!

Why do you think butterflies have spots on their wings that look like eyes?

There are many different ways to get involved in citizen science projects.

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There are even ways to participate

in citizen science from your home.

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Whatever you love about nature, there is a project you can

get involved in!

This bird was spotted here

at ONSC.

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Any ideas what it might be?

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Citizen scientists can learn about species while

helping scientist.

Another great citizen science project you can use at home is iNaturalist.

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iNaturalist allows you to upload observations of any living thing (minus humans, pets, and livestock).

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It is used by over 1 million people worldwide!

You can start using iNaturalist either at their website inaturalist.org or you can download the iNaturalist app onto iPhone or Android, with your guardian's permission.

There are many wonderful things that you may

find when you

use this tool.

Look what we found!

Do you want to focus on something else?

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Maybe butterflies are your favorite animal and you want to find out how far a monarch butterfly migrates, or you’re really interested in checking out how streetlights in your hometown are affecting the nocturnal animals.

Now let’s become citizen scientists ourselves!

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Find a citizen science project like eBird or iNaturalist that you find interesting and get out there to do some

citizen science!

When you choose your project, keep track of what you notice every day, and make some observations yourself.

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Notice, wonder, and be inspired by the science that occurs your community!

Here at ONSC, we participate in several citizen science projects, but the one we focus on the most with students is our Creek Critters project.

When kids come out to

ONSC, they identify these tiny creatures and the data is sent to scientists so that they can learn how healthy our creek is!

To learn a little more about

Benthic Macroinvertebrate creek critters, continue to the next slide!

Well, fellow superheroes, that concludes today's discoveries of how to be nature superheroes!

Remember, there are many other nature superheroes just like us

all over the world working together to help protect the earth.

Works Cited

Slide 5 | Image #1 | "Science" by Shahid Abdullah is marked with CC PDM 1.0

Slide 6 | Image #1 | "Colorful Flowers" by Navdeep Raj is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Slide 7 | Image #1 | "Earth" by Kevin M. Gill is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Slide 8 | Image #1 | "Second year medical students from the UPNG School of Medicine and Health Science. Port Moresby General Hospital, PNG." by DFAT photo library is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Slide 9 | Image #1 | “Searching” ONSC Archive

Slide 10 | Image #1 | "Rose Melinda バラ メリンダ" by T.Kiya is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Slide 11 | Image #1 | "Butterfly eye - canon 550d" by @Doug88888 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Slide 12 | Image #1 | "Butterfly eye - canon 550d" by @Doug88888 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Image #2 | "butterfly" by E>mar is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Slide 13 | Image #1 | "File:Male Cardinal Woodpecker (Dendropicos fuscescens).jpg" by Alan Manson is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Slide 14 | Image #1 | “Red Bird” | ONSC Archive

Slide 15 | Image #1 | “Screen shot” | ONSC Archive

Slide 16 | Image #1 | "Frost Covered Pine Tree Needles" by O.S. Fisher is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Slide 17 | Image #1 | “Spotted Salamander” | ONSC Archive

Slide 18 | Image #1 | "Peacock Butterfly in the morning" by HaPe_Gera is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Slide 19 | Image #1 | "monarch butterfly on silk floss blossom" by minicooper93402 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 | Image #2 | "Monarch Butterfly" by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Slide 20 | Image #1 | "Red-Eyed Tree Frog" by teejaybee is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Slide 21 | Image #1 | "Purple Mountain on Fossil Creek" by Coconino NF Photography is marked with CC PDM 1.0

Slide 22 | Image #1 | "John Cantrell, Jim Killebrew, and Janet Smith sorting macroinvertebrate stream animals" by USFWS/Southeast is licensed under CC BY 2.0 | Image #2 | "Students stirring up macroinvertebrates" by USFWS/Southeast is marked with CC PDM 1.0

Slide 23 | Image #1 | "Liz Kessler and Michael Kenny collecting macroinvertebrates" by USFWS/Southeast is licensed under CC BY 2.0 |

Slide 25 | Image #1 | "SuperHero" by 'J' Jose Maria Perez Nuñez is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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