Transdisciplinary theme- Who We Are

Central idea- Information is optimized through evaluation.

Last week, students observed the biodiversity that is currently growing in our prairie. Although we made the effort of collecting data on such a large area less daunting by using 10’x10′ sample areas, students found that it was still quite difficult to pinpoint the exact types of biodiversity present.  So we explored using a citizen science app called INaturalist.  INaturalist allows users to upload photographs of unknown plants and animals and gives access to over a 1/2 million citizen scientists who may be able to help with identification. This app allowed us to identify some things that were difficult to classify.

Students then used the data we collected to drive their decision-making on how best to help establish a prairie ecosystem. Check out the video below to see how we plan to take action.