Discussion: ► COE 506 | WyoBio: Providing Technology for Teaching Biodiversity and Environmental Science in and outside of the Classroom

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2014-09-05T15:03:29-06:00

Friday, September 26: 2:20 - 2:50pm

Abstract:
The Wyoming Biodiversity Citizen Science Initiative, or WyoBio, is Wyoming’s new citizen science web portal that allows anyone anywhere access to information about Wyoming’s plants, animals and fungi. Through WyoBio, users can upload observations of organisms they find, see others’ observations and professional datasets of Wyoming’s organisms, play with map layers, and download lesson plans and resources. This session will focus on an introduction to the web portal, plus hands-on exploration of the website and tool with guided activities and a question/answer session.

Description:
The Wyoming Biodiversity Citizen Science Initiative, or WyoBio, is a tool for educators, students, hikers, anglers, biologists and many others. WyoBio uses the power of cutting edge programming technologies to provide online mapping and database structure and access to make biodiversity data from Wyoming available to anyone, anywhere. WyoBio allows users to upload an observation (or multiple observations) to the website and immediately see it on a map. Much of the power of WyoBio comes from existing professional species location data that includes thousands of observations. All citizen science and professional observations can be filtered to locate species of interest. For many species, range and distribution maps are provided as well. Map layers that can be explored include climate, geology, elevation, hydrology, and human disturbance, and multiple layers can be displayed simultaneously. Science standards-based lesson plans can be downloaded that are meaningful and use WyoBio to get students outdoors and using technology. WyoBio also provides access to resources such as identification guides, surveying protocols, supply lists, links and more.

This presentation will introduce teachers to WyoBio, outlining how it provides students with hands-on learning activities for collecting biological data, identifying organisms, using technology to manage data, and answering biological questions. We will provide time for attendees to explore WyoBio resources and practice using the web portal by completing an optional activity, as well as ask questions and provide feedback.

Presented by:

Brenna Marsicek, Biodiversity Institute, University of Wyoming, Brenna.Marsicek@uwyo.edu

Dorothy Tuthill, Biodiversity Institute, University of Wyoming, DTuthill@uwyo.edu

Teal Wyckoff, Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center, University of Wyoming, Wyckoff@uwyo.edu