Nature's Notebook Public Outreach

      The user experience of Nature's Notebook is incredibly straightforward and simple to use. This project is advertised or mentioned on several webpages that give citizen science project suggestions. Also, Nature's Notebook comes up easily in a "conservation citizen science" Google search. I was able to find this project through a third party website suggestion. Once you are on the Nature's Notebook website, it is easy to locate the Citizen Science project. Citizen scientists simply have to create an account with iNaturalist and then they can login to their Nature's Notebook "Observation Deck" and begin exploring. Overall, the process is very simple and does not need to be improved in any way.       I do think that this project has a positive effect on conservation. As I mentioned in my last blog post, the data collected from this program has been used in numerous academic journals. Additionally, this data has been used to guide policy change. Academic journals are significant educational materials and advocacy efforts are an effective means of outreach so I do feel that USANPN is successful in both of these arenas. Additionally, Nature's Notebook has an education program that includes a curriculum and specific lesson plans that educators can use to teach phenology. Furthermore, their website provides training materials for educators and previously used educational materials (Nature's Notebook, 2018). Educational materials are available for educators of all ages from Kindergarten to college. Last but not least, there is a section on their website that gives citizens an opportunity to become "Local Phenology Leaders" (Nature's Notebook, 2018). Overall, I feel that Nature's Notebook has a successful education program. I do think that they could improve their overall outreach by explaining more in-depth what the data is used for. The website only says that "Researchers, resource managers, educators and others use your data for scientific discovery and decision-making. Your data are a big deal!Phenology data help us predict threats to people and the environment such as wildfires, drought or flooding. They help us decide the timing of events, from when to harvest or irrigate land to when to conduct controlled burns in forests." This is pretty vague. USANPN does provide a list of academic journals that have used Nature's Notebook data, but does not offer any information related to how data has informed decision making.I do not think that there are stated goals other than the ones listed on the website. Though they are vague about what the data is used for, they do say that it will be used for education, policy, and scientific discovery. That seems to cover all of the bases. This is inherent in the scientific discovery goal, but I think that USANPN wants to use Nature's Notebook as a way to get people more involved with nature and conservation, in addition to furthering science. I do not think that USANPN favors one goal, scientific discovery or education, over the other. They have a lot of information and programs on their website related to both goals. If I were in charge of Nature's Notebook, the only thing that I would change is what I have already mentioned and that is being more specific about what the data is used for. I really enjoy that Nature's Notebook staff sends emails each week reminding participants to go outside and observe and record their findings. The emails also contain links to articles about current events with USANPN and the citizen science project.       

References

Nature's Notebook. (2018). Education program. Retrieved from https://www.usanpn.org/nn/education