My family and I have learned to love iNat, and I would like to incorporate it into our homeschool. This year, my daughter will be learning about common plants and animals in Utah’s forests, wetlands, and deserts. Would it make sense to create three private projects to sort our observations into these different habitats? Or is there a better way to utilize iNat for education? Another alternative would be just to continue to use iNat to help us identify organisms, but then we could categorize our observations in a binder or other hard copy.
One possibility is to make the 3 separate projects as you said, and then use an umbrella project to compare the 3.
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Perfect use case for iNat projects!
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For this purpose, I would use tags or an observation field instead of a project.
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There are other projects relating to habitats that could help you decide which method is best for you. Try searching for keywords in projects. The main one from my corner of the world is https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/habitats-s-afr which uses observation fields linked to the project.
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Can you clarify if you intend to use just your own observations, or from others (both of which are perfectly fine). For example if you want to use observations from other folks, that means you can’t use tags as suggested above as you can only add tags to your own records.
You can add observation fields to any record, not just your own.
Hmm, interesting question. I had thought we would just use our own observations, but that is an interesting idea to include others’. I will have to look at observation fields—not familiar with that yet. Thanks, all!
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The advantage of projects over using fields as aggregators, is that the project page becomes an aggregation point for the participants, too. You can tie in journal posts of progress, outings, mini-objectives, informative material, etc, and if you attract the attention or support of anyone with expertise, it gives them a convenient place to join and participate, either through IDs or commentary. When other iNatters see individuals posting observations, they are seen as just another iNatter amongst the throng that iNat has become, but when they see them posting observations as part of a project, they look more closely at the organised activity. That often leads to new paricipants… perhaps other homeschoolers in your area see your project and either look to do the same thing, or reach out and your two groups see a way to collaborate and leverage the connection. iNat is so much more than just the observations… it is the network of people it can connect you with!
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