An Undergraduate Citizen Science Research Experience: Using Technology to Monitor Japanese Beetle Populations Across New York State The Beetle Project Nikki Shrimpton, Dean, Central New York Center Linda S. Jones, Assistant Professor/Mentor Sadie Ross, Director of Sustainability Jeremy Stone, Instructional Technologist Project funded by a USDA—NIFA—Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grant (2011—2014) and a SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) (2012—2013).

What is Citizen Science? It can take various forms, perhaps most commonly: Citizen Scientists can collect data that is then analyzed by professional researchers Citizen Scientists can help analyze the data collected by professional researchers The earliest Citizen Science projects focused on collecting data. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count, for examples dates back to 1900. The analysis of data has become more common as members of the general public have had more access to computers that can process large amounts of information. Zooniverse projects are examples of this latter classification.

Why Citizen Science for Sustainability? Students become familiar with nature and engage in learning about the natural world Biophilia Understanding of systems science Students participate in the type of scientific research that is essential to understanding the complex environmental issues in sustainability. Students engage in their community Civic leadership and participation STEM recruitment and retention through place based learning that engages the student in interesting subject matter.

End with another tool that combines all the active learning approaches discussed above. New citizen science project from Cornell Lab.

Huntington Camp ADK residency site Built on Google Maps. Has great resources associated with it. Huntington Camp ADK residency site

Robust social networking capabilities Robust social networking capabilities. Can do predictive activities and also explore other parts of the world.

SquirrelMapper: Development of an Informal Evolution Education Opportunity for the Urban and Rural Public Historical records indicate that the black morph form of gray squirrels was much more prevalent than the gray morph until the late 1800s (Schorger 1949). Over time, there has been a diminution of the black morph from the rural portion of the larger landscape with pockets of black squirrels remaining (or recovering) in urban areas. What happened? Various hypotheses for why this occurred – old growth vs. secondary growth, hunting pressure, road mortality

http://squirrelmapper.org/

Japanesebeetles.esc.edu

Japanese Beetles—Why? Multi-dimensional, Interdisciplinary Species Climate, Soils, Vegetation, Ecosystems Economics, Policy, History Japanese beetle life cycle—illustrated by APHIS employee Joel Floyd, www.aphis.usda.gov The soil from each sample point is searched for Japanese beetle grubs and eggs—Kohen Joiner, ENVS, Summer 2012

The Beetle Project Students collect data related to climate, soils, and the Japanese beetle life cycle Students contribute their data to an online science community Photo of plot 1 taken just before sampling—Jennifer Stalter, ENVS, Fall 2011. Map of Plot 1—Jennifer Stalter, ENVS, Fall 2011

Climate Literacy Earth’s dynamic climate Define climate before discussing change Connect climate characteristics & species adaptations Dynamic processes influencing climate change History of the Earth’s changing climate Combination of physical, biological, and chemical processes How climate is changing/predicted to change in the local environment Figure accessed at www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/39313.html Marcell and DeGaetano 2007.

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Project Context: STEM and Citizen Science STEM Education Increase student interest in and understanding of the environment around them Provide students with field experiences with related to their personal life Oops, I just did scientific research Citizen Science Promote a sense of community On or off campus. Send them into the town to check out the ball fields. Begin discussion of brainstorming to come up with a project idea—how do these projects come to be—will follow up this discussion in final working session—move into discussion of the Beetle project specifically.

Making your own citizen science project Citizenscience.esc.edu

Resource for other projects

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Coming Soon in Drupal 7 The next version in built in Drupal 7 and has a lot of new and exciting features. It allows for different icons, circle, polygon, polyline, and rectangle overlays, etc. You no longer need to know the coordinates of a location, this version you can just click and save the point.