BudburstLessonPlan
Project Budburst Lesson
In this lesson, students will
- take part in a citizen science experiment
- discuss mass collaboration
- make and read a scatter plot
What is citizen science?
Project Budburst has volunteers from around the world report when spring comes to their community, by reporting on flowers and other plants near them. Reports often tell when the first leaves, buds, and blooming flowers appear.
One of the greatest sources of information in science is not scientists or equipment, but the contribution of volunteer "citizen scientists." One of the most famous examples, an experiment which has been run for more than one hundred years, is the Audobon Bird Count. People all around the United States will identify and count birds near them, and scientists use these numbers.
Project Budburst is a newer project, but it is easier for you to get involved. Scientists can use the data to learn more about the climates in different places and the patterns of seasons over several years.
Experiment
Results: Scatter Plots
When you have only a few sets of information, you can put them together to make a line chart. When there are many different data sources, scientists are able to draw conclusions using a scatter plot. This is similar to a line chart without connecting the dots.
Consider a scatter plot with weights of animal brains compared to animal bodies. The trend shows that bigger animals have bigger brains. Humans and dolphins have unusually big brains for their size, which gives us an idea about the intelligence of other animals on this scale.
The data you are going to put in a scatter plot is taken directly from reports to Project Budburst during [[[[[YEAR]]]].
Latitude is the number of degrees north or south of the equator. Longitude is the number of degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian, which was defined to be 0 degrees longitude by [[SCIENTISTS]].
Half of the students in the class should analyze the statement: Changes in LATITUDE will be related to the DAY OF BLOOMING.
The other half should analyze the statement: Changes in LONGITUDE will be related to the DAY OF BLOOMING.
The latitude or longitude should be the x value, and day of blooming should be the y-value. Many answers will be plotted on the scatter chart, and we will try to find conclusions.
MAKE A HYPOTHESIS ENTER NUMBERS SORT NUMBERS BY X EXPLAIN WHY SORT PLOT REPORT CONCLUSIONS
