User:Ndoiron/CitizenScience
Students in the One Laptop Per Child project could be using their computers to take part in citizen science projects. With written lesson plans, I can help the Cambridge Friends School and other Boston schools get started.
Citizen science has taken off with the advent of the Internet, but the Audobon Christmas Bird Count has been a reliable source of scientific data for over a hundred years.
The first examples which I've found, each with hundreds of reports a month:
- eBird, a North American bird watch project. Includes guides for what birds to expect and when.
- Project Budburst, a seasonal flower project. Volunteers can choose one of the popularly-tracked flowers or a local species and record the first leaves, buds, and flowers.
Please add more projects below
Is citizen science a good fit for the laptop project?
Citizen science is ideal for laptop schools because it requires no extra equipment or technology. The laptops have built-in cameras, so photos can be uploaded to Flickr, used in school papers, and linked in reports to the project. Students 6-12 are able to make observations about nature.
What about schools (like Cambridge) in the city?
Urban schools can use a park or courtyard to track plants and birds. I recall a nature outreach program to city schools claiming that most students couldn't name 10 animal and plant species which lived near them.
What else can laptops do for projects?
The laptops can use User:Ndoiron/socialCalc to graph results ( I intend to provide sample data sets from the projects, so they can see the point and discover trends ), can load Google Maps, and support certain downloadable maps (I am working on a program to convert Google Maps's KML to these downloadable maps).
The Measure activity can take sensor input into the microphone jack. Thermometers and heart rate monitors are available.
What's the final thought?
This allows students to take part in a real science experiment. It helps them to study and observe nature science them, in their backyard, the city park, or elsewhere in the community.
