One of the smallest school districts in the state has taken to NatureMapping in a big way. Find out how Orchard Prairie School is promoting biodiversity studies through citizens and school-based data collection and research. Orchard Prairie 5-7th grade students have written a book!
Little River Boy »

This had been a 7-year project to identify the training, materials, and support needed to incorporate NatureMapping into a K-12 school district, grade by grade. Project CAT was designed to provide collaborative research on cougars in rural and suburban settings to better understand cougar-human interactions. K-12 students, teachers and local community members assisted researchers in this extensive study of regional cougar population. Almost all students have had the opportunity to go into the field and observe researchers collaring the cats.
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Chase Middle School has taken NatureMapping to the technology level and has incorporated elements of the Program into their curriculum. 270 8th grade students produce the Glenrose Watershed Gazette, documenting their NatureMapping experiences for the past 2 years. Read the 2001 Edition (8MB pdf)

There are many ways to explain biodiversity. One of the best is the poem written by Chase Middle School 8th grader Alyssa Jordan.

In 1997, Diane Petersen's Waterville Elementary 4th and 5th graders created Adopt a Farmer Project that continues today to study the Short-horned lizard. Cathi Nelson's 2nd graders assisted by conducting food preferrence studies (e.g., catching different sized bugs to see what the lizards eat). The Short-horned lizard is the most common lizard in the United States (also known as the Horny toad) and its numbers are decreasing. Scientists know very little about them, and the Waterville Short-horned lizard task force of farmers and students are taking the lead to study this lizard.

This was a 5-year study initiated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Ungulate Scientist and the West Valley School District. NatureMapping's interest was to:
1. Identify the logistics in long-term, wide-ranging data collection efforts (e.g., across the central and northeast part of Washington) with trained volunteers working with middle and high school students.
2. Learn how to integrate research data collection efforts with NatureMapping data collection to build a better picture of the mule deer habitat.
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Do you want to learn about bats and satellites? Echo the Bat is an interactive program that first tells the story about Echo and asks the students (grades 3-5) to track his journey to find his mother. There is an activity section for students and teachers. NatureMapping is part of the activities. This program was featured in Science (April, 99) as one of the best programs to teach about remote sensing.

An introduction to NatureMapping is in Lesson 2.