As a mark of respect to Ian, perhaps we can keep this thread open, instead of automatically closing it later.
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Thank you for this. It is so good to see people welcoming the idea that we can all learn from each other, regardless of age, etc.
I’m studying primary education, and I’d love to plan some field work lessons for primary school children, based around using iNat.
I’m currently trying to encourage more of my peers to start using iNat, as it really is the best way of learning to ID mushrooms in my experience. I’ve been learning for two years now, but I feel like I’ve learnt more in the last two weeks using iNat than in the entire first year of learning. (in combination with online research and forums of course, never rely on AI.)
Sadly, not enough people in my area use it, especially not for mushrooms. I’ve already made more mushroom observations than everyone else here combined I think. This is frustrating because I was really hoping there would be people to help me ID things, as I’m still very much a novice.
I definitely consider myself a devotee, and will carry on building upon this amazing community that has been laid out for us by the older generation of iNat users.
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Yes, fungi are quite difficult to ID from pics alone in many cases, and there aren’t many fungus IDers on iNat (though the ones that are do heroic work!).
If thinking about using iNat with primary schoolers be aware of the age restriction for app use (need to be 13 for own account). You can check out more info in the Teacher’s Guide if you haven’t seen it before.
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I’ve looked into it and it seems parents can set up accounts for them, but it’s definitely something I’d want to do more thorough research and planning on before. I’m still only a first year and I haven’t even been put in schools yet, so I’ve got plenty of time.
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including me
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As a young iNatter, I feel that iNat has given me a lot more information on different fields that I wouldn’t have otherwise found out on my own. There are a lot of very knowledgeable people on here, and being able to communicate and discuss really helps.
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Sorry for replying to you Zaida! I meant to reply to the thread.
Two of the people who have taught me the most are @zdanko and @mettcollsuss, who are extremely good ambassadors for flies and ants.
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New article published today about the value of observations from young people: https://theconversation.com/children-and-teenagers-can-carry-out-valuable-wildlife-research-heres-how-198048
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I’ve seen you IDing and confirming/correcting a lot of my observations (I’m only a casual nature lover, no scientist) and it’s honestly very impressive, especially at your age! It seems like you’ll have a bright future ahead of you. Best of luck!
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This is great life advice in general, I must say. I’m just now getting to my mid 20s and I’m learning from younger and correcting older and vice versa. Humans feed on knowledge and experience throughout their lives and even centuries after our deaths, our contributions to society could still be felt or appreciated. Think about the people who named species after themselves 200+ years ago. Crazy to think about.
Naming a species after yourself is considered somewhat unethical by most researchers… Patronyms are given by other researchers for friends or significant figures in a field of interest.
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Patronym - only men? - but he did name the beetle for his daughters (why?)
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1398034-Mariazofia
I don’t understand the question, but I assume that patronyms are called that because most of the early taxonomists were men…
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Oh I definitely agree. But then again, a lot of species will have the finder’s last name next to it followed by the year.
The name you see after the binomial, like Linnaeus with the date, is the scientist who wrote the description, the ‘author’ of that taxon. It is a manufactured label / box and the author tells us what’s in it. (My words, not the formal definition)
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Oh okay. I was wondering what that meant.
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the broader term for these cases is eponym
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Oh interesting - can come from history, geography, literature, mythology or science (as well as people)
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oooo this was cool, sorry i late :) that’s one thing i really love abt inat is that there are so many other kids my age, it’s truly amazing.
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