This free course, Citizen science and global biodiversity, deals with the importance of biodiversity and explores how anyone can contribute to and be involved in identifying and recording wildlife, as a citizen scientist. It looks at what citizen science is, and how citizen science facilitates public involvement in scientific research activities as individuals learn and build skills.Traditional biological keys are introduced and online recording is demonstrated using citizen science techniques and practical activities using the www.iSpotnature.org platform. The course goes on to demonstrate how, once a species is identified, web resources can be used to research its ecology. The role of citizen science is illustrated through a number of case studies from across the world. Finally, the course concludes by exploring the impact citizen scientists are having on recording biodiversity around the globe.Transcript This OpenLearn science course was produced with the kind support of Dangoor Education, the educational arm of The Exilarch's Foundation. This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation. Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation – which also displays your Open University badge.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction and guidance
- Introduction and guidance
- What is a badged open course?
- How to get a badge
- Acknowledgements
- Week1Week 1: What is citizen science?
- Introduction
- 1 What is citizen science?
- 2 Defining citizen science
- 3 Who is a citizen scientist?
- 4 Why citizen science?
- 5 Motivation: understanding why people do citizen science
- 6 Can citizens contribute to science?
- 7 How do we do it? Approaches to citizen science
- 8 Citizen science in action – the growth of citizen science
- 9 Creating a support structure for citizen science
- 10 This week’s quiz
- 11 Summary of Week 1
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week2Week 2: Global biodiversity
- Introduction
- 1 Identity
- 1.1 Why use Latin?
- 2 Diversity
- 3 Measuring biodiversity
- 4 Biodiversity patterns
- 4.1 Spatial scale
- 4.2 Time-scale
- 5 Biodiversity drivers
- 5.1 Climate
- 5.2 Geological drivers
- 5.3 Human drivers
- 6 Interaction of spatial and temporal scales
- 7 Contemporary global biodiversity challenges
- 7.1 The sixth mass extinction?
- 7.2 The Red List
- 7.3 A catastrophic decline?
- 8 This week’s quiz
- 9 Summary of Week 2
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week3Week 3: Using biological keys for species identification
- Introduction
- 1 Why is species identification important?
- 2 Identifying species
- 2.1 Example 2
- 2.2 Example 3
- 3 Current estimates of the total number of species
- 4 Types of biological key
- 5 Comparing biological keys
- 6 Using a biological key
- 7 Limitations of biological keys
- 7.1 Other issues using biological keys
- 8 This week’s quiz
- 9 Summary of Week 3
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week4Week 4: Biodiversity recording
- Introduction
- 1 A large-scale project
- 1.1 Case study on monitoring monarch butterflies
- 2 Plant surveying
- 3 Collecting insects
- 3.1 Sampling on the soil surface
- 3.2 Sampling flying insects
- 3.3 Light traps in the Grand Canyon
- 4 This week’s quiz
- 5 Summary of Week 4
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week5Week 5: Advanced species ID techniques
- Introduction
- 1 Small details are important
- 2 Using microscopes
- 2.1 USB microscopes
- 3 Examining specimens with a microscope
- 4 Using DNA sampling
- 5 Automated species identification from images and sounds
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary of Week 5
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Week6Week 6: Using web resources
- Introduction
- 1 Online resources supporting species identification
- 1.1 Identifying Katie’s moth
- 1.2 Searching for species information
- 2 Further research post-identification of the stinging nettle
- 3 Finding out basic information
- 4 Researching further information about a species
- 4.1 More examples
- 5 Time for reflection
- 5.1 What if there isn’t an answer to my question?
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary of Week 6
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week7Week 7: Joining an online citizen science community
- Introduction
- 1 Overview of iSpot
- 2 Using iSpot
- 3 Browsing iSpot
- 4 Registering on iSpot
- 5 Adding an observation
- 6 Adding species names to identifications
- 6.1 Using the Species Browser
- 6.2 The Species Browser and taxonomy
- 6.3 Using iSpot keys
- 6.4 Using the taxonomic hierarchy (‘tree of life’)
- 7 Personalising and customising iSpot
- 7.1 Customising your activity – iSpot Projects
- 7.2 Customising your view of iSpot – community filters
- 8 This week’s quiz
- 9 Summary of Week 7
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week8Week 8: Citizen science community
- Introduction
- 1 Ecosystems
- 2 Image analysis
- 3 Big data
- 4 Technology provides opportunities
- 4.1 Satellites – the next big advance in citizen science?
- 5 Reflections
- 5.1 The scope of citizen science projects
- 5.2 The development of skills required for identifying and using online resources
- 5.3 The contribution of citizen science projects to assessing biodiversity and the state of the planet
- 6 This week’s quiz
- Take the next step
- Tell us what you think
- References
- Acknowledgements
