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Backyard Explorer 3 to 5 / Week 12 / Monday
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Week 12 · Citizen Scientist

Monday

Many eyes see more
// Your records help protect living things
⏱ about 15 min

Monday: Many Eyes See More

Rocket spreads twelve weeks of notebook pages across the workshop floor. "We saw so much!" he says.

Raven kneels and sorts the pages by date. "Every page has a date, a place and what we saw."

Nova hovers over the pile and glows. "Those are records," she says. "Scientists need records like these. More than they could ever make alone."

Rocket looks up. "You mean our notebooks could help real scientists?"

Rocket and Raven show their explorer report to a grown-up at a picnic table.

What a citizen scientist does

A citizen scientist is an everyday person who collects careful observations.

You do not need a lab or a degree. You need eyes, a notebook and honesty.

Scientists cannot be everywhere. One scientist can watch one park on one day.

Thousands of people can watch thousands of yards, parks and sidewalks every day.

When those people share what they see, scientists get a picture nobody could make alone.

You have been doing this for twelve weeks. Every notebook page with a date is a record.

What makes a good record

A good sighting record answers five questions.

QuestionExampleWhy it matters
What did you see?a small brown bird with a striped chestso others know which living thing it was
Where?the hedge by the park creek pathso the record can go on a map
When?the date and the time of dayso the record can be counted by month
How many?threeso counts can be compared
How sure are you?very sure, or not sureso scientists know how much to trust it
RECORD CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Who can be a citizen scientist?
Why do scientists want records from many people?
Which question lets a record be counted by month?
An everyday person who collects careful observations is a citizen ____.
A sighting record needs a date so it can be counted by ____.
A record should say how ____ you are about what you saw.
StatementTrue or false?
You need a lab to be a citizen scientist.?
A good record includes the date.?
It is fine to leave out the place where you saw something.?
Saying "I am not sure" makes a record more honest.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEPlace, date and honesty are what make a record useful to scientists.
Try it
Go to a window or outside with your grown-up. Watch for five minutes.
Make one full record: what, where, when, how many, how sure.
Read it aloud. Could a stranger understand it without asking you anything?
Safety first
Stay with your grown-up if you go outside.
Look with your eyes. Never touch a wild animal, nest, egg, mushroom or unknown plant.
Wash your hands when you come back in.
What do we call a note that says who saw what, where and when?
WHY THIS EXERCISEA sighting record is the basic unit of citizen science.
Draw the living thing from your record. Add labels for the five questions.

You are already a citizen scientist! Tomorrow we follow a record from a notebook to the whole world.