Education
Can I use Chicago Wildlife Watch in the classroom?
Absolutely! Chicago Wildlife Watch, just like all the Zooniverse projects, offers a unique opportunity to explore real scientific data while making a contribution to cutting-edge research. We would like to stress that as each image is marked by the volunteers, it really does not matter if your students don't mark all the features. That being said, the task itself is simple enough that we believe most people can take part and make a worthwhile contribution regardless of age.
What resources are there to support use in the classroom?
Over the summer of 2014, teen interns at Adler Planetarium developed a floor activity to bring awareness to the fact that nature is everywhere and we live in nature. A Lesson plan for this activity can be found on ZooTeach.
Videos are also a great tool to introduce students to Chicago Wildlife Watch. Here are a couple of our favorites:
TropicMind.com: Ecosystem and Food Chain (aimed for younger children)
Bill Nye: The Science Guy - Biodiversity
We also recommend checking out the Urban Wildlife Institute webpage for more information on the organization.
Partner resources
Please visit Lincoln Park Zoo's Educator's Resources webpage to access curriculum guides, zoo field trip and self-tour information, accessibility kits and links to several multi-media apps.
The Adler Planetarium is dedicated to helping the public experience science and discover the universe through field trips, school partnerships, child and teen programming. See the Teach and Learn section of the Adler's website for details.
Fulfilling volunteer hours on Chicago Wildlife Watch
Many students participate in Zooniverse as part of classroom assignments and/or to fulfill student service hour requirements for graduation, scholarship eligibility, etc. Follow these steps to generate a signed Volunteer Certificate documenting your contributions and effort.
Step 1: Register at Zooniverse.org
Create a Zooniverse account by clicking 'Register' in the upper-right corner of the Zooniverse.org homepage. Only your name and email are captured, and we do not share email addresses outside of Zooniverse.
Note: Registration is not required to participate in Zooniverse, but it is useful in this case to create a Volunteer Certificate documenting the number of hours you spent classifying and the number of classifications you did. Volunteer certificates are often required documentation for service learning hours.
Step 2: Participate!
Be sure to be logged in while you participate so that your stats and hours of participation are recorded and can be included in your certificate.
Step 3: Generate your Volunteer Certificate
Go to zooniverse.org, sign in, and click ‘More Stats’. Then click on ‘Generate Volunteer Certificate’ (the button to the bottom-right of your stats bar chart). Use the drop-down options on the upper-right of the stats bar cart to filter to a specific time period and/or project, if needed for your assignment.