Club NIPI: Science Fair & Nature Project for Young Citizen Scientists
Want to share your world? Nature Invention Perspectives and Integration Club for young Citizen Scientists
Karen Fisher Favret the FractalMom
Average rating:
4.7
Number of reviews:(178)
What's included
1 live meeting
45 mins in-class hours per weekClass Experience
US Grade 1 - 4
Students will learn to communicate about the nature they observe around them to fellow club members, their families, their communities, and Citizen Science networks. We will be thinking up projects for the Outschool Science Fair, and helping learners complete their projects. Learns can collaborate or work alone on their projects. They will learn to use smart-phones or tablets to document their own species lists on iNaturalist, and get help identifying every species they find from a global network of volunteer curators. They can participate in same-time Soundwalks with club members in other places, and compare what they hear. They will learn to document sound levels, and do experiments allowing them to visualize the vibrations that of sound-waves. For an introduction to what we are listening for, and why, first try-out the My Soundscape Intro: the Sounds that Surround us!
Other Details
Parental Guidance
Connecting to the apps and websites below is optional for all participants. The kids I have worked with have been very engaged using iPads to document and get help identifying all the species they encounter on Soundwalks (mushrooms, weeds, birds, and trees!). They enjoy using smartphones to measure the sound levels (dB) around them, and being able to see the spectrograms, drawn in realtime, on SongSleuth. If you would like to be able to share our bat recordings, EchoMeter is a free app that will display these Ultrasonic recordings (or you can obtain your own EchoMeter Touch from Wildlife Acoustics and discover the ultrasonic world in your own backyard). Zooniverse.org uses Citizen Scientists to do all sorts of projects, like classifying galaxies and identifying patterns in storm damage to structures after hurricanes. But all these ways of communicating science are secondary to learning to observe, and listen, to what is around you in your own community.
Supply List
All you need for a Soundwalk is yourself. If you would like to take a notebook, or use the Soundwalk Tally sheet for the Club, or use a camera, recording device, smartphone/iPhone, or tablet/iPad to document what you observe, you can share your findings with the Club NIPI and the world of Citizen Scientists connected through iNaturalist. Or find your own way to communicate with your family and community!
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Joined February, 2019
4.7
178reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
Doctoral Degree in Science from Cornell University
I am an oceangrapher-Mom who switched to soundscape ecology when my kids were young and we moved to Montreal. My kids and I started recording with a hydrophone in the lake and a recorder on a floating dock at the University of Montreal's Biological research station, and kept on listening in our backyard and the roof of their school. Soundwalks are a fun way to start doing Citizen Science. Reviews
Live Group Class
$12
weekly1x per week
45 min
Completed by 175 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 6-12
3-15 learners per class
