Making Science Real for Kids!

~Students Can Be Scientists

I recently attended a science workshop at the University of Minnesota that was amazing!  I learned about so many cool Citizen Science Projects that can get your students out of their seats and collecting real data.  Students can see a real purpose for the skills that are being taught in the classroom while engaging in some real exciting science experiments. 

 

What is Citizen Scientist?  It’s when an individual volunteers to collect research and collaborate with professional scientists. There are many great resources on-line where students can get help scientists gather and report data on different topics.

Wow! How cool is that?! My students can learn how to work with real scientists as they learn how to research, collect data, record data, and analyze data. Learning about Citizen Science Projects got me so excited about getting my students into the Outdoor Classroom!  So currently I’m looking for projects that I can integrate into my curriculum.  I’m also focusing on the ones that will support the frameworks that I need to cover this year! 

This is a list that I will continue to add to.  

Feel free to share this resource with other teachers. 

Cornell University:  http://citizenscience.org

Ebird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/   Students identify and report birds sightings. 

Natures Notebook: 

The Great Sunflower Project: https://www.greatsunflower.org

This project is so cool.  Students can track how many pollinators land on and individual flower at a time. 

Journey North: http://learner.org/jnorth/

MLMP:  Monarch Larva Monarch Project : http://www.monarchparasites.org   Monarch Health/Monarch Parasite GA

Monarch Watch: http://www.monarchwatch.org

Dragonfly:  Minnesota Odonata Survey Project http://www.mndragonfly.org

                       

SciStarter: This site has citizen science projects that you can do across grade levels. https://scistarter.com/index.html

Weather:  http://www.cocorahs.org

*Another project is Send a Monarch to Mexico:  http://learner.org/jnorth/tm/symbolic/symbolic_migration_packet2016.pdf  Deadline is October 14, 2016