One of my geeks is to find new ways to use iNat data to teach science concepts.
I created a Comparative Biodiversity umbrella project to compare the biodiversity of the Arctic with the Tropical rainforest. I try to keep the number of observations similar so students can better see the differences in the number of species and geographic scale of the two projects.
I’m playing around with this concept, looking at an urban area compared with a national park. Still a work in progress but I would love to see what other educators develop.
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This is a neat idea. It’s clever to choose areas with comparable numbers of observations. Although there are some issues in making the comparison, the issues themselves are interesting. The students will notice right away that the geographic areas are not equal, but how different are they? Time to pull out a globe, not a flat map. To what extent are the different numbers of observations due to population density, and does this matter? To the fact that the marine environment in the Arctic is relatively inaccessible? Does this matter? How does the observed diversity within different taxonomic groups differ, and why? Such a lot to ponder.
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All good points and ones I was going to write.
It also might be worth pointing out the difference between biodiversity and biomass. There are situations where an area is high biodiversity and low biomass (deserts are often an example of this), and situations where an area may have high biomass but low biodiversity (grassland ecosystems can fall into this category at times).
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This is a cool idea, I’m wondering how you’ve developed it?
I tried to compare biodiversity of equal-sized areas: http://weltanschuuang.blogspot.com/2022/09/where-is-most-biodiverse.html
But the results are very dependent on whether I “correct” for total observations (as an index of observing effort).
I also just realized that the results are different if filter for Research Grade total species. I’m wondering whether the large difference (~30% of total species) is due to a) laypeople making incorrect IDs that have not been corrected or b) experts identifying rare species and the IDs have not been independently verified (perhaps because there is no one qualified to do so on iNat)??
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Oh goodness. I totally missed this. Sorry about the 18 months response time.
This idea pretty much comes from brainstorming different ways to use iNaturalist data to teach. I want to change the paradigm about using iNat in the classroom.
The default mode has been to use iNat to collect data. While there is absolutely a place for that, to do it well from a pedagogical standpoint (not to mention identifier standpoint) requires more than just having the students download the app and sending them out on campus.
I am trying to change the default mode to being data use rather than data generation. The use of authentic data sets is a big topic in US science education these days and I think iNat is the perfect platform because once the students engage with the data, highly engaged and motivated students can then go on and become data contributors. By the time they do this, they will have had the experience of looking at multiple observations and seeing for themselves what a useful observation entails.
The Comparative Data project is just one way an educator might use iNat data.
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