I know phones seem ubiquitous and everyone has one, but students in an UB program may not. You might want to ask funders for point and shoot cameras and SD cards as loaners.
Will students have access to computers and wifi during program time as well? There is value in learning how to use the web uploader.
Also, having students send their photos to a shared space is a good way to teach data quality. You can review the anonymous photos for the DQA.
Back to the kit list: small nets, bug jars, field guides, white Rite in the Rain index cards (for background), and Easy Macro Lens.
A bunch of 15cm/6inch rulers to put in photos helps get students closer to the subject, helps with focus, and helps with scale of insects and plants for identifiers. I suspect students also feel more āscientificā and data quality improves.
Iāve run an outreach project for MS/HS students, some from very low SES schools and we were worried about this too. The teachers honestly laughed at us and said āevery kid has a smartphoneā and didnāt want us to provide any cheap point/shoot cameras or stuff with our money. So I would definitely ask before going this route!
I have gotten laser pointer lenses as cheap macros and they were a bit popular. I think bug catching supplies and rulers could def be useful. Kids donāt want to use field guides in general, so if you get these be sure to explicitly teach their use.
Thank You Anne, this is the first time I am piloting the use of iNaturalist. We will not have access to field gear. I will bring my personal equipment though. There is likely merit in making some mistakes so that we may improve going forward.
Checking in, @cssam64. Any updates on the project and the students? I know itās probably early days yet. In some areas, students arenāt even out of school yet. But I also wanted to bump this convo up before 2 months passed. Iām really curious to hear a report out: what worked, what didnāt, what you wish you would have known, etc.