Posted by elgrady
USA-NPN Staff
• 2 weeks 6 days ago
Resources and examples on incorporating Nature’s Notebook into undergraduate courses
Hello undergraduate educators, and a warm welcome to those new to the Forum!
This post is intended to provide a brief overview of the ways Nature’s Notebook can be used in the undergraduate classroom. This is by no means an exhaustive list. If you have a resource to add or an example to share, please do so below! We are just at the beginning of compiling and developing resources for undergraduate educators and look forward to sharing more comprehensive resources in the future.
If you have questions or want to chat about how this might work in your context, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
Background
Nature’s Notebook, the USA-NPN’s phenology observation platform, is a great resource for engaging undergraduates with environmental concepts. Our new app (coming soon) includes a more-intuitive user interface and new features to make tracking phenology easy and fun.
Undergraduate educators across the country use Nature’s Notebook in their classrooms in different ways. Some have students track phenology across a whole semester, others during a shorter 6-week unit, while others focus just on analysis of Nature’s Notebook data, utilizing the Phenology Visualization Tool and Phenology Observation Portal.
With Nature’s Notebook…
- Students can track seasonal events on your campus, creating a long-term local dataset and contributing to a national database used by researchers, land managers, and decision-makers.
- Students can easily visualize their and others’ data with the Phenology Visualization Tool.
- Instructors can view student observations, track participation, and edit student observations for quality control.
The improved app includes new features such as…
- Interactive Map Tool: Displays site and individual plant locations, allowing students to easily find plants independently.
- Built-In Educational Resources: Includes phenophase definitions and reference photos to support accurate observations
- Observation Levels: Features increasing levels of difficulty
Resources
Explore the LPP map to learn about other Programs across the country. Filter to the “Colleges and Universities” category to find other undergraduate education-focused Programs.
Local Phenology Program Handbook
The LPP Handbook is currently our best guidance for how to set up phenology observing with your students. While the guide is tailored to the more traditional Local Phenology Program model (one that recruits and trains volunteers from the community), the core concepts for set up and management are the same. We plan to eventually develop a guide specifically for undergraduate educators. More on this soon!
Nature’s Notebook intro video series and slides
You are welcome to use these videos with your students or download the slides to use or adapt as you need.
Examples
Salisbury University (phenology observing, whole semester, large introductory course) – The Salisbury University Phenology Project is a CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) incorporated into an Intro Ecology and Evolution course. Since 2021, students observe 120 individual trees on campus each semester. Learn more here.
University at Buffalo (phenology observing, whole semester, large introductory course) – 250 students at the University of Buffalo collect phenology each semester as part of an Environmental Science Course. Learn more here.
Colby College (phenology observing, whole semester, focused course) – Students at Colby College participate in phenology observing as part of a “Phenology: Ecology of the Seasons” course and compare their own observations to those recorded by Henry David Thoreau. Learn more here.
Western Michigan University (phenology observing, six-weeks, large introductory course) – As part of an introductory biology course, students participate in a six-week-long research project, observing tree and bird phenology in groups. Students analyze their data and present a culminating oral presentation. Learn more here.
St. Olaf College (phenology analysis, two class periods, large introductory course) – Students at St. Olaf College use previously collected Nature’s Notebook data to investigate species’ sensitivity to temperature in a short activity across two class periods. The activity is available here.
University of California, Los Angeles (phenology observing + observer interviews, whole semester, focused course) – Students enrolled in a "Science Writing for Public Engagement and Community Science Projects” course at UCLA interview Nature’s Notebook observers and write creative pieces to tell observer stories. Find the observer stories here.
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