Learning plant biodiversity in nature: the use of the citizen–science platform iNaturalist as a collaborative tool in secondary education

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Date
2021Author
Version
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Type
Artículo / Artikulua
Version
Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa
Impact
|
10.3390/su13020735
Abstract
Biodiversity is a concept of great scientific interest and social value studied in different subjects of the secondary education curriculum. Citizen–science programs may contribute to increasing the engagement of students when studying biodiversity. This work aimed to explore the use of the citizen–science platform iNaturalist as a complement of the elaboration of herbaria in an outdoor activity ...
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Biodiversity is a concept of great scientific interest and social value studied in different subjects of the secondary education curriculum. Citizen–science programs may contribute to increasing the engagement of students when studying biodiversity. This work aimed to explore the use of the citizen–science platform iNaturalist as a complement of the elaboration of herbaria in an outdoor activity for 4th course 16-year-old students in the Basaula Reserve. The platform iNaturalist was chosen for its suitability to develop collaborative projects in an educational context. The Basaula project was created and 122 students were trained to record plant species in an outdoor activity. A total of 32 species were recorded, among them the most abundant were beech (Fagus sylvatica) and holm oak (Quercus ilex). The students positively evaluated their experience, highlighting its adequacy to record biodiversity data and make a virtual herbarium. Students valued the innovative character
of iNaturalist and its usefulness for research but also the opportunity to integrate mobile devices in school education. We concluded that iNaturalist is a valuable tool to carry out collaborative projects dealing with biodiversity in secondary education. [--]
Subject
iNaturalist,
Citizen–science,
Secondary education,
Biodiversity informatics,
Species identification,
Smartphone applications,
Outdoor education
Publisher
MDPI
Published in
Sustainability 2021, 13, 735
Departament
Universidad Pública de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB /
Universidad Pública de Navarra. Departamento de Ciencias /
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Zientziak Saila
Publisher version
Sponsorship
This research was funded by the Education Department of the Navarra Government, grant number CENEDUCA3/2019.