Teaching Sequence

20 minutes – Part A: The Need for Data
30 minutes – Part B: Gathering Data for Scientists
20 minutes – Part C: Swooping in on Citizen Science
25 minutes – Part D: What We Can do With Our Data
15 minutes – Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: The Need for Data

Preparation

At least a week prior to this lesson, give the class the Student Worksheet. Invite students to fill in the the table titled 'Part A: Recording Observations' by making a tally of plants and animals they see when coming to or from school one day. This tally should be done at the pace they usually travel to school. Students do not need to know the species of the plants or animals, just to tally how many they pass.

Have a conversation with the class about issues they may have collecting data. For instance, students may be driven or catch a bus to school, in this case allow students to complete this activity during a 10 minute walk or a regular route they walk.

Step 1.

Ask students what they think the purpose of their homework was, especially the need to record the weather. Suggested answer: to become aware of the weather, plants and animals in our environment.

Ask the class if they think the data they collected would be the same this time of year in 50 years, and why? If needed, encourage student to draw on learning from subjects such as science and geography, when answering. Guide students toward the understanding that various changes to our environment will affect the flora and fauna around us. It is important to understand these possible changes and take action to improve the environment now. Explain to students that maths skills play a big part in this process, and it all starts with data collection.

Step 2.

Explain that students will now be learning about an important scientific concept called phenology. Phenology is a field of science that connects behaviours of plants and animals with environmental factors, like climate change. This field of science relies heavily on data and mathematical analysis.

Play the following video to introduce the class to phenology:

Phenology and nature's shifting rhythms - Regina Brinker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNs3XpRmRfI)

Once complete, begin a class discussion around the following points:

What is phenology? Suggested answer – the study of nature’s rhythms.
As a community, why should we be aware of phenology? Suggested answer – because our actions affect the environment. If we are aware of phenological changes we can create positive change in our environment.
How does phenology relate to birds? Suggested answer – many behaviours of birds are relevant to phenology, such as breeding and nesting, swooping and singing.
Why do you think scientists study phenology? Suggested answer – studying phenology allows scientists to assist populations of flora and fauna and also relates to wider environmental issues, like climate change.
What maths skills do you think phenological researchers would use? If you are completing the following 2 lessons in this unit of work, instruct the class that they will be resisting these answers in the reflection of lesson 3, to see if anything has changed.

Conclude this discussion by explaining that because animals are so responsive to their environment, gathering data on birds' nesting behaviours, for example, can tell us a lot about our changing climate. Explain that gathering this data can be highly challenging for scientists because there are far too many species and sites to study. Many scientists are now asking intelligent and engaged people, just like your students, to help gather data instead of relying only on professional scientists. This process is called citizen science, and soon the class will be analysing data from an active citizen science project.

Part B: Gathering Data for Scientists

Step 1.

Invite students to look at the data from their homework and individually fill questions 1-3 (available in the Student Worksheet):

Is the data that you have collected categorical/qualitative or numerical/quantitative? Suggested answer – Plants, birds and other animals are categorical/qualitative. Weather and temperature are numerical/quantitative.
How much data did you collect in following categories:
- Plants
- Birds
- Other animals
How much data would you have if you continued to collect every day for a year? Suggested answer – students' answers should be their previous answers x 365.

Step 2.

Invite students to share their answers to question 2 so you can calculate a class totals for each category (plant, bird and other animal) on the board.

Step 3.

Allow the class to work in pairs and complete the remaining questions of the Student Worksheet:

How much data would you have if the whole class continued collecting every day for a year

If we had a whole year's data from the class, what patterns might we be able to see? Suggested answer – We may be able to find patterns in plant growth and flowering times, and migration periods and breeding cycles or animals.
Could this type of data be useful for anyone and why/why not? Suggested answers – Yes, scientists may find this phenological data useful for tracking changing animals and plant behaviours. Over longer periods of time, this type of data might show changes to the environment. If properly analysed, councils might be interested in this data in their town planning. The analysed results of this data may be of interest to the community so they could find out how they can improve their environment.
How long should we collect this data and should we throw out old data? Why? Variable answers as long as reasons are justified. You may wish to explain that Earthwatch's ClimateWatch program is Australia's leading citizen science provider, and to prove changes in climate they use data sets reaching back 20 years or longer.
Could we have collected our data differently? What are new ways of collecting this data? Suggested answers – Using the internet and apps. Getting others in the school or local community to help.

Provision for Learning Support: In place of Step 3, run a group hatted activity where students consider a different community category's interest in local biodiversity.

Invite students to form small groups then offer them the categories of either scientists, councils and communities. Explain to students that they will now be looking at biodiversity from the perspective of their allocated community category.

Encourage students to discus what they know about their community category. Invite students to discuss and record why their community category would be interested in local biodiversity. Encourage students to consider and share what data might be useful to their group and what they may use this data for. Once complete, ask the groups to think about how they would like the data to be displayed: as raw data, in tables or graphs?

Part C: Swooping in on Citizen Science

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will be using data about an important Australian species, the magpie. Ask students why they think you chose the magpie, leading them to the answers that they are an iconic species (and therefore easy to identify), and they can be found throughout much of Australia (and therefore potential to get data from multiple sites).

Invite students to form groups of 3-4 and share their experiences with magpies. After a few minutes, ask the class:

What is the nature of your group's magpie experiences? You may find that phenological behaviours, like swooping, singing and seeing baby magpies are very common. You may even find that students have been swooped in common areas and know to avoid these places in spring. This local knowledge of phenological behaviour is exactly why citizen science works, people are wise to their own environment.

Extension Activity: Explain to the class that they will be creating research questions about the magpie that they believe mathematical skills could help answer. Invite students to work in pairs to review what they already know about the magpie and come up with maths related questions. If needed, offer the class one of the following starter questions: When do magpies swoop? Where do they live? Are they only in Australia and why?

List the class questions, removing any double up and grouping similar questions. Once you have a final list of questions, invite the class to form small groups and select a question from the board that they would like to investigate. Allow students 10-15 minutes to answer their question by using the ClimateWatch website: https://climatewatch.org.au/species/birds/australian-magpie, and other reliable sources. Challenge students to find information about the mathematical skills used to find these answers.

Invite each group to present the answer to the class.

Step 2.

Describe the ClimateWatch app to the class by adapting the following text: 'this app allows citizen scientists to record behaviours of key species, including the magpie. This phenological data is collected over long periods of time and analysed to better understand how climate change is affecting these species'.

Invite students to work in pairs to create a list of the types of data that they think such an app would collect and why? Explain to the class that they will need to think about this challenge from two perspectives:

what data scientists want
what data is possible for a citizen scientist to record using their phone.

If needed, run a demonstration using location as an example: 'location could be recored using a phone's GPS and would give scientists the ability to map where the species was recorded'.

Step 3.

Now, invite students to open the ClimateWatch app on an internet enabled device. In groups of 3-4, students will explore the app and then select the ‘Birds’ icon, followed by ‘Australian Magpie’. Select ‘Record Sighting’ and study the variables on this screen. Alternatively, display the ClimateWatch Recording Page Factsheet.

Invite the class to continue working in their groups and answer the following questions (available in the Student Worksheet):

What data from your list is not on the app? Why do you think this data may not be included?
What data is on the app that is not on your list? Why do you think this data has been included?
After your analysis above, is there anything from your list that you think should be added to the app?

Bring the class together and talk through their answer to the final question. Hold a discussion around how students' ideas for the app may work and how scientists may be able to use this data. For every suggestion allow the class to offer some of the mathematical skills that they know of that could be used in the analysis of this data.

Part D: What We Can Do With Data

Arrange for the class to go outside to use the ClimateWatch app and record any sitings of magpies and any other ClimateWatch species in your area. Depending on how many devices are available, you may choose to form small groups for this activity. Before leaving the class, make sure that all devices have the ClimateWatch app downloaded and that students have registered using their school emails, or you have created a class profile that students are logged into by contacting the ClimateWatch Manage climatewatch@earthwatch.org.au.

Depending on the class' familiarity with this species, you may wish to project an image of a magpie and a selection of other ClimateWatch species in your area. You could also show the class similar species such as the magpie lark, currawong and butcher bird, discussing the differences between these species.

Step 1.

Explain to the class that the aim of this outdoor activity is to see citizen science in action. In particular, students will be thinking about how data collection in citizen science projects is both an amazing tool as well as a challenge for scientists. Challenge the class to consider if they think citizen science can lead to accurate, reliable data or are there easy to make mistakes that will make the data invalid? Explain how students will be working together to record any ClimateWatch species that they may see, then review your outdoor learning guidelines, such as:

You can either complete this part of the lesson in the school yard or a local park or piece of bushland.

Your school’s science or geography faculties may have a set of binoculars that you can borrow.

If you are planning on collecting data year to year, consider purchasing data loggers. Data loggers can measure a variety of weather conditions adding valuable data the students' investigation. Earthwatch recommend the following data loggers OneTemp, some of which can be placed outdoors all year long.

Step 2.

Depart for the outdoor learning space. Once you arrive, invite students to explore the space and record any ClimateWatch species they see. Encourage students to note what is working well and what is challenging in their data collection. Once complete, return to class.

Step 3.

Back in the classroom, invite students to consider the data collection process and answer the following (available in the Student Worksheet):

What are two things that could make your data invalid? Suggested answer – pictures of a certain species such as birds that looks like a magpie, e.g. currawongs.
Why is it important for the data to be accurate? Suggested answers – so your conclusions made are based on data that is valid, as well as decisions taken are appropriate)

Ask students what they think happens to the data that has been collected. It is stored and verified by a panel of experts into a database that is available to everyone. Let students know that their data will be updated on the database periodically.

Step 4.

If you are progressing to the next lesson, show students the data from the Magpie Data Set. Explain that this data comes from other citizen scientists using the ClimateWatch app. Review the data and discuss the following:

What is the type of data collected (categorical, qualitative, discrete)
Is the data a population or a sample? How can we tell?
What is the time frame?
When are most birds sighted?

Finally, encourage your class to download the ClimateWatch app to their devices and continue recording species in their local area.

Reflection

Step 1.

Invite students to look back at their answer from Part A of the lesson 'What maths skills do you think phenological researchers would use?' and add any other skills they can now think of.

Step 2.

To further consolidate learning, invite students to complete the pros and cons of citizen science table in their student worksheet.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Note: Cool Australia and Earthwatch have also partnered to create citizen science units of work for science and geography. To further enhance students' learning, consider teaming up with teachers in these complementary faculties to run a cross-curricular project on phenology and citizen science.

Citizen Science - Collecting Data

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