Hi All,
I’m giving a talk for high school science teachers next year on using iNaturalist – not for posting observations but instead to answer student-led research questions.
During the talk I’m planning on introducing teachers to the web application and show them how to filter, then sift through observations to collect data that can be used to answer (high-school level) research questions. I also wanted to give them a list of sample questions they can use.
Here are questions I’ve brainstormed so far. I would love any additional suggestions people have for research questions, especially for vertebrates, morphological variation, and animal behavior!
Ideal questions a) can be answered via a bar chart or line graph, b) don’t require the data to be downloaded, are c) relatively simple to filter for the relevant species, and d) do not require the user to know how to identify species (i.e., what color flower is the animal on ; what species of flower is the animal on
)
Thanks!
1. What is the frequency of the number of rows of Prairie Blazing Star in bloom?
2. What is the frequency of different counts of squash bees in the flower?
3. What human structures do we see raccoons interacting with?
4. What is the frequency of perching structures for red-tailed hawks?
5. How many ducklings do mallards have?
6. How many oak galls do we see per leaf per gall species?
7. What color flowers do bumblebees most visit?
8. How is the timing of flowering of X species correlated to human population density?
9. Does the time of day song birds are photographed vary across the months?
10. For “sleeping” bees in the Tribe Eucerini in the project “Sleepy Bee Slumber Parties,” what is the variation in the number of bees per aggregation?
11. Which bird species are most frequently recorded in bird window strike collision projects?
12. What states / countries are migratory species in each month of the year? (Painted Ladies, Monarchs, Migratory Birds)?
13. What states/countries are widespread plant species in flower during each month of the year (dandelion, clover)?
14. What species of birds are found on each feeder type in the Project “Bird Feeders”?