One of the difficulties with online instruction is that the students cannot engage in exploration together. Prior to March 13th, my students and I had been exploring the natural world through hikes and discussions using a National Geographic Explorer Grant. We were just beginning to work in the school garden.
In attempting to find a way to re-create the excitement and explorer mindset, I decided to use iNaturalist. iNaturalist would offer my students explorations by others to begin considering and rekindling their interests in the natural world from the cushion of their couch.
In order to help students begin with iNaturalist, the first assignment would be to interact with discoveries of others.
Being that our next unit of study is North Africa and Southwest Asia (also referred to as the Middle East), I selected iNaturalist postings within those countries. By creating a project, I was able to pull all of the species shared for my students to explore.
Your students could explore locally, nationally, or internationally in iNaturalist. In the video below, Anne Lewis, a 2019 National Geographic Fellow, explains how to set up a project in iNaturalist.
After setting up the project for my students based on the region for our unit of study, I needed to identify a method for students to collect their data and share their thoughts with me within the online course. I knew that I wanted a graphic organizer in order to help the students pull together their explorations and a summary of their thoughts. The first online guru that I always turn to is Matt Miller with Ditch That Textbook.
Lo and behold, right smack on his page about graphic organizers I found the Google Drawing template that I knew was IT!
A color-coded Word Web / Semantic Map!!!
I immediately set about adding my thoughts and ideas to Matt Miller’s Google Drawing Template. And voila! I had a way for my students to now share and summarize their explorations of the species found in the North Africa and Southwest Asia Region! Students are able to double click in each box (red, blue, and green) in order to add their notes and thoughts.
After loading the assignment into Google Classroom for my students, I created a how-to-navigate-the-project video. iNaturalist has observations from around the world. If one of my students was really interested in a species and just kept clicking, then he would end up another region and completely outside of the project parameters. Thus, my solution was a video to explain to them more about staying within the region and navigating the project.
My students have enjoyed learning about the species found in North Africa and Southwest Asia. As an educator, their summaries and comments were even better than I could have imagined. Several students have given me permission to share their web maps. As a practice, I always ask for parent written permission at the beginning of the school year. As a courtesy, I ask the students before I publish.
His summary is thoughtful about the species observed and the region.
Shared by LT-S
as that surprised him.
Shared by FWL
Over the next two weeks, my online lessons will be integrating more with iNaturalist. Closer to the end of April/beginning of May in celebration of Earth Day, I plan to engage the students in a local, stay-at-home bioblitz that can be done in their backyard, while walking in their neighborhood, and even from their apartment window.
Stay tuned if you’d like those resources…..
Additional Resources
Anne Lewis – Youtube Videos on using iNaturalist
Copy of My iNaturalist Google Drawing Web Map
25 Graphic Organizers for Google Draw
Intersecting Paths 