Purpose: Explore how scientists solve problems as you create a field guide about your environment. Then, find out how you can help real scientists with their research!
Set-Up: Scientists study nature and conduct research to better understand how it works. They use what they learn to create solutions that help people, animals, and the environment. To learn new things and do research, scientists use a process called the scientific method.
Citizen science is when a scientist asks regular citizens to help with their research. It’s a way for everyday people to help scientists advance research.
Activity: To get started, gather a few sheets of blank paper, a pencil, and some markers or colored pencils. You’ll also need a set of “field tools” to help you to take field notes about your environment. You might want to include tools you have around the house, like a ruler, magnifying glass, camera, and thermometer.
Part 1: Make observations about your environment.
Observation is watching and noticing something using all of your senses, especially sight. Observations are a type of data. Data simply means information. It can be notes, drawings, photos, recordings or videos of what you see and hear.
Start by taking a minute to make some observations about your environment (the world around you!).
If you can, go outside, but it’s alright if you’re indoors—there are still plenty of things to observe! Walk around and explore your surroundings. With your pencil and paper, collect data by writing or drawing what you observe. Make sure to add lots of detail to your data, like information about size, quantity , or color. If you have questions about what you’re observing, write them down, too!
Part 2: Form scientific questions and hypotheses.
As scientists collect data, they ask scientific questions about their observations. Once scientists have a scientific question, they make an educated guess, or form a hypothesis, about what they think the answer is. The hypothesis can be tested to see what parts (if any) can be confirmed.
Once you have some observations, choose your 3 most interesting and form 2 scientific questions for each. If you’re wondering if your question is scientific, ask yourself: Is this testable? How could I find an answer? What experiment or test could I conduct?
Then, choose one question that: 1) you’re interested in trying to answer through more observation, and 2) you could collect data and measurements about.
Finally, look back are your scientific question: what’s your hypothesis? Use what you already know or can reason to answer your scientific question.
Part 3: Add detail to your data.
Next, see if you can confirm your hypothesis by observing your subject once more.
Use your set of “field tools” to add details about what your subject looks like, how big it is, what it sounds like, or how many you see. For example, you might use a ruler to measure the distance between two objects or a camera instead of sketching.
Part 4: Create a field guide.
When scientists come back from the field, they review their notes to make sure they’re detailed and think their data means. Thinking about and understanding data is called data analysis. Scientists might compare what they saw with other data, find a way to present it (like a graph, chart, etc.), or look at their data and decide they need to collect more!
So, use your data to create a field guide page about your subject! Include information like your subject’s name (if you know or can identify it), a picture or drawing, its defining characteristics, how you encountered the subject, and any other observations you think are important.
Once you’re done with your first field page, you can create more to tell others the story of your environment.
Optional Part 5: Participate in a citizen science project.
Now you know about the scientific method, but what can you do next? Become a citizen scientist!
To help you get started, Girl Scouts of the USA has partnered with SciStarter to offer Girl Scouts and volunteers a special portal to find and track citizen science projects.
SciStarter has almost 3,000 citizen science projects to choose from—and the dashboards include several citizen science projects that are well suited for Girl Scouts. There are projects that can be done in any season!
You can participate in Globe Observer from NASA and collect data about clouds, identify plants in your background with iNaturalist, or play an online game called StallCatchers to help with Alzheimer’s research. Whatever part of nature you’re interested in, there’s a citizen project for you!
Check out the “How to Use SciStarter Guide” for more information on citizen science projects and SciStarter.
And that’s it! You’ve completed part of the Cadette Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey! If you had fun doing this, you might want to participate in a citizen science project or Take Action with the rest of the Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey.
