Citizen science is the wave of the future with legions of ordinary citizens working with scientists to collect data for the purpose of conservation. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has an extraordinary citizen science program engaging thousands in studying LA’s urban wildlife so that officials can make better policy decisions for a sustainable future. For the past year, I’ve been accompanying my middle and high school research writing students on species cataloguing outings from fungi to birds. Most recently, we attended an event at Los Angeles City Hall for BioBlitz LA — a summer project with the goal of collecting and recording at least 10,000 species photos from around the city! We took a tour of City Hall and learned more about local government while we were at it.
I’m encouraging other educators to get their students engaged in the Natural History Museum’s citizen science program — though it’s just as fun for adults! The next program is coming up on August 29. You can read more about the program and our recent BioBlitz LA outing in the Beverly Press HERE. And get involved directly with the Citizen Science program HERE.