Wisconsin Nature Mapping

In grad school a few years back I got into the phenomenon of Participatory Mapping, also known as Community Mapping.

For our friends in Wisconsin, you'd be especially interested in Wisconsin Nature Mapping. Spot a bobcat? Log it. Is that a Northern River Otter? Mark its location. House cat? Yep, there's a tick box for that.

The purpose of this project is to help state biologists make better-informed decisions on wildlife action plans. They can't be everywhere at once, but everyone is somewhere right now. And as every scientists knows, data is priceless.

So, Wisconsinites or anyone passing through the state, next time you see a cool animal, or even a not-cool one, log on, put in your thumbtack and log your sighting. Your contribution will not go unappreciated.

And by the way, if you want to check out my contribution, click on the Critters Map link on the home page. When the map pops up, find Bayfield County in the north along Lake Superior. Zoom into the Apostle Islands. In the mammals box on the right, check Deer, White-tailed. See the entry on York Island? That's me. I'm quite surprised that after four years I'm the only person to report a deer sighting on any of the islands.

Stream Monitoring in Northern Virginia

Learning through doing, making a contribution, volunteering your time with other enthusiasts...that's an important aspect of citizen science. For those interested in ecology and water quality, the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program in Fairfax County,Virginia is definitely worth a look. Even if you don't reside in the NOVA area, browsing this site will show you the important role volunteers play in environmental evaluation and management. Check your local areas for similar programs.

Here's the program in a nutshell (clamshell may be more appropriate). One way to measure a stream's water quality is by the abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates living in the soil. The process is to set up a net in a shallow stream, disturb the sediment upstream, and capture the tiny creatures as they flow away. You net a variety of these benthic macroinvertebrates, mostly clams, aquatic worms and insect larvae.

On shore, you count the samples collected. You want to shoot for at least a couple hundred, but keep in mind more is not necessarily better. What also counts is proportion. In general, from what I've learned in my brief stint thus far, is too high a percentage of clams is bad. These hardy creatures have a high tolerance for questionable environments. Too many means a lack of other more finicky species, such as damselflies whose larvae require a much more specific (and higher quality) aquatic environment.

There's so much more to this endeavor, and I encourage you to browse their website and sign up. One hard part of doing any science is actually gathering data. Ecological monitoring requires constant, accurate sampling over time and area. Lots of work, and there's definitely a place for volunteers. The volunteers in this program come from all age groups, and there's a fair share of teenagers. One kid I met was a student at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. Yippee for brains!

MasterMines by Filament Games

I frequently browse the web for "Citizen Science", but decided to tag a specific discipline to my usual query. Tonight, it happened to be "Limnology". The first return was a link to Filament Games. What a treasure trove of teaching tools! In fact, as per their About Us page, the company is "a game production studio that exclusively creates learning games."

The specific link Google brought me to was their game Citizen Science, described as "an adventure game that teaches science and limnology." Now, you'd think this story ends with me exploring lake and river environments. Turns out that the game is still in development, so I didn't get very far. In fact, I didn't get beyond choosing a character.

Not dismayed, I went to their Projects page for a browse-around. This site is pretty amazing, especially for school-aged kids. With about 30 projects to choose from, including Landform Detectives, Eco Defenders, and Oncology, there's something for the little budding citizen scientist in your life. What's more, the games are not limited to scientific endeavors. Want to learn about congressional representation? Try Law Craft, or Represent Me!

There are so many games for a youngster, or, I admit, adults as well. I'll call out just one though, and that's MasterMines. You are a juvenile researcher in a geology lab. Your mission: travel around the planet, collect mineral samples, and bring them back to the lab for analysis. Once in the lab you use a variety of tools to identify the sample. As you progress through the game you are given more tools for mineral identification (a microscope for analyzing crystal structure is next).

At the start there are four tests (streak, luster, hardness, color). Each station allows you to discover a specific quality of the rock. Afterwards, you take the mineral to the lab specialist who guides you through a series of questions based on your findings. What is the hardness? Is its luster vitreous? At the end, you have identified the material.

I could go on and on about how cool it is to see kids being taught the fundamentals of geology just as any classically trained geologist would. It's also cool to finally see a game that is educational and not simple-minded (simple to play, but definitely not a such a breeze that you can play it on mental autopilot). Most of all, this game is interesting, as I imagine the other games to be. Thank you people at Filament Games for these engaging, well-conceived games.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll continue my geologic education with Landform Detectives...

Astronomy On A Budget: Meade Extreme Universe Telescope

Yes, it would be nice to spend a few grand on a telescope. Robotic equatorial mount, precision worm gears for smooth tracking, GO TO computer and of course coma-free optics are a few requirements for my hypothetical instrument. But alas, I don't have that kind of cash to spare, so what's an amateur to do?

We might scoff at the idea of a $100 telescope, but the amount of fun a frugal amateur can squeeze from this telescope is actually pretty cool. Take for example the Meade Extreme Universe 60mm, or any line of Meade Model 285. Mechanical driver? That's you. GO TO functionality? That's you. Dip into your savings to buy it? Nope, not at all.

I use one of the Model 285s that my wife gave me for Christmas seven years ago. She bought it for around $50 (on sale from $100). It came with a couple eyepieces, which I'll refer to with these decided un-technical names: normal, wide, and pinpoint views. And then there's the 5 X 24 viewfinder (sighting scope) on the side which proves quite handy when hunting celestial creatures.

So, let's get to the point: how does it perform? Not bad, with a few minor aggravations. First, the aggravations. The telescope can be a bit wobbly at times. If you bump it, or if there's a decent breeze, the object you are viewing will wobble. Bump it hard enough, the object will completely track out of view. And that's honestly about it. You could say that Saturn in the scope looks nothing like it does on the box, or Jupiter is a white dot, not red at all. But come on, are you really that surprised that the packaging lied to you?

Now the good stuff. Okay, so Jupiter in this telescope looks nothing like the iconic Voyager images. But if you look, you can see a few cloud bands. And depending on how the planet is rotated, you might even be able to see the Great Red Eye (though it will probably be gray). Reader Beware: I have yet to see the GRE, so I'm guessing in this possibility.

Moving on through the solar system to Saturn. Ah, now there's something amazing. You will have no trouble seeing its rings. Even though you know Saturn's there and it has rings, seeing them for yourself is quite impressive. Now look a bit more carefully. You see the few small dots around the glowing yellow orb? Those probably aren't background stars. You got it...those are a few of Saturn's moons. No go back and look at Jupiter again. Yep, more moons.

Speaking of moons, cheap, good quality telescopes are great instruments for viewing our own celestial companion. You can peek in on it any time it's out, but here are two common pieces of advice. First, get a moon filter. These are usually around 15 bucks. Screw it into the eyepiece and have a look. This accessory helps dim light and brings out stronger contrasts for your viewing pleasure. Seriously, if you haven't looked at the moon using one of these, you're missing out on some stunning features.

The second point of advice: look at the moon in its crescent states: waxing or waning, it doesn't matter. Whereas a full moon has light shining directly on it from a nadir, the off-angle source of light during these times creates shadows across the moon's surface to really pop out it's topography. In short, these shadows let you see better detail of craters and mountains.

And let's now leave our solar system and look at a couple deep sky objects. While it would be cool to look at whirling pinwheel galaxies and count stars in clusters, keep in mind that this is not usually possible with smaller telescopes (or some bigger ones, for that matter). That's not a reason for you not to get interested in affordable backyard astronomy. I'm just trying to prevent a huge let down. The good news is you can see quite a few Messier objects with remarkable detail. Two come to mind, both of them classics: The Orion Nebula, and the Pleiades. And here's something interesting to try. Remember the moon filter? The dark one that brought out features on the moon? These filters come in a variety of colors which may help pop out the color in celestial bodies.

Biopunk Manifesto: Science For the People

After watching this mini-lecture from our friends at FORA.tv I have a deeper appreciation for the potential of citizen science. You see, I had always viewed the subject as a hobby more or less, something to keep my mind active as well as a medium for teaching my daughter about the universe. If in the course of my tinkerings I happened to meet up with like-minded enthusiasts, then all the better. We could get together in a garage and talk shop, solve problems, build something. Maybe even we would make a contribution to our collective understanding of the world around us.

But citizen science is an entire movement, a body with its own momentum powered by the steam of the people pursuing their interests. Yeah, that’s worded a bit corny, but check out this video to a Citizen Science in Biology think-session. Sure, tinkering with your friends is still important, but on a deeper level citizen science is about scientific literacy and empowerment. Pay special attention to Meredith Patterson’s Biopunk Manifesto.