North Campus Citizen Science Essay

North Campus Citizen Scientist Project
For my Applied Leadership Project I have been promoting citizen science at Miami Dade College North Campus as well as in my hometown of Key Biscayne. Citizen Science is when community members participate in the scientific data collection of their surrounding environment. They can observe wild plants and animals and report it for scientific processing. It is really easy to become a citizen scientist, as easy as downloading an app called iNaturalist on any smartphone device. This application allows anyone to contribute to scientific research by giving the option to record plants and wildlife, through photo documentation or written documentation, and if a species of a plant or animal is unknown, scientists on iNaturalist will identify the species. The contributed research aids local and global scientists in their research of different habitats across the world, and it makes it easier for them to track migration patterns, invasive species, and other animal behaviors. It’s necessary to have college students participate,
After the semester is over, I hope this project continues to host semester bio blitz events, as well as expand from North Campus to other MDC campuses. This will be important, as it will have students realize that wildlife can be found in many places. After presenting on the subject to various audiences, I can conclude that many people are interested in participating in citizen science. Even with the interest, I’ve noticed that not many know about citizen science and the resources they can use to become a citizen scientist. There are many projects one can join in their own community that relates to data collection, including the smartphone applications that can be found on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store. I would hope to leave my mark by educating as many people as I can about citizen