Special Topics

ENED 5495 - Special Topics: field methods for citizen science and monitoring

Summer 2007

This new course is designed to introduce upper-level undergraduate and graduate environmental education students to a range of methods for site-based citizen science and monitoring efforts. As the need for biological monitoring rapidly outstrips the resources of governmental and regulatory agencies, interest in citizen science and monitoring is also growing rapidly. In addition, citizen science and monitoring efforts are invaluable tools with which nature centers and environmental learning centers can engage public audiences in ongoing learning about natural history, ecology and how humans impact and interact with nature. Environmental educators are increasingly being called upon to run such programs and they need the hands-on training and experience to prepare them for this professional responsibility.

The course will be based at Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center www.boudlerlake.org, and will include a hands-on introduction to field methods for conducting citizen science and ecological monitoring integrated with interpretation of natural and cultural features including sampling organisms in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, study design, data collection and basic statistics.

Course Syllabus

Citizen Science Programs & Training

• Minnesota Master Naturalist Program
• Great Lakes Worm Watch
• Monarch Larva Monitoring Project
• A list of Citizen Science projects in Minnesota -click here