Raven opens her field notebook to a fresh page. She writes five short lines at the top.
"Date, weather, place, what I saw, what I wonder," she reads. "Every entry starts the same way."
Rocket peeks over. "Why the same every time?"
Nova flashes a cyan grid in the air. "Same shape, easy to compare," she says. "Try finding the rainy days without it."
Memories fade. Notebooks do not.
A field notebook is where a naturalist writes down observations right away.
Scientists have kept field notebooks for hundreds of years.
Old notebooks still help scientists today. They show what lived where, and when.
Your notebook can be any notebook. A few stapled pages work fine.
Every entry in this course starts with the same five lines.
The same shape makes entries easy to compare later.
| Line | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date | The day, month and year | May 4 |
| Weather | Sun, clouds, wind, rain, warm or cold | Cloudy and cool, light wind |
| Place | Where you sat | Back step by the big bush |
| What I saw | Observations only. Use your senses. | Two brown birds hopping under the bush |
| What I wonder | Questions and inferences, marked as guesses | Are they looking for seeds? |
Notice where the inference went. It is in "What I wonder", written as a question.
"What I saw" stays pure. Only observations go there.
If you are not sure what something is, write what you can see. "Small brown bird" is perfect.
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Guesses belong in "What I saw". | ? |
| Every entry starts with the date. | ? |
| You must know the name of every animal you write down. | ? |
| The same five lines make entries easy to compare. | ? |
Your notebook is ready! Tomorrow you fill in a real entry, sketch and all.