Activity Archive

Posts

Comments

"That was such a great read Syeda. I'm glad that you made the connection between this community science event and our BioBlitz this year, as I was thinking the same thing as I was reading your report. Whereas in BioBlitz we went out to view the animals, this project uses motion trail cameras to make the observations and then you observe the photos. I guess there are plusses and minuses for both projects, but in terms of locating fauna, this would probably generate a large number of hits, especially of wary wildlife that hide when people are around. Displacement and habitat disruption due to urban development and roadways is a very big issue and this is a great project to help identify issues and, as you said, help with future planning so that we can develop smarter for our changing world."
--( posted on Dec 8, 2021, commenting on the post Community Science Project: The Indy Wildlife Watch: An Initiative of the CUES )
 
"Hello Valentina, that sounds like a really interesting event that you participated in. Growing up in Australia, we are quite aware of the dangers of sharks, but also of just how few species actually pose a problem to humans. As this was titled, “A Shark’s Lunch,” was this primarily focussed on the feeding patterns of sharks? You mentioned a section on the megalodon’s diet of small whales, did they discuss modern day shark diets. I would be quite interested to hear if they found increasing ocean pollution becoming a problem for the sharks around the globe. I have had the fortune to meet a few sharks while scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, but none of them posed much threat to me…I too thank the stars that there are no megalodons swimming around these days!"
--( posted on Dec 7, 2021, commenting on the post Public science event – A Shark’s Lunch )
 
"That was very interesting Valentina. It is amazing that with all our technology available to us these days, that we are still so far from being able to efficiently utilize them to do these types of observations. They probably could have written a program to make the observations, but the amount of time it would take to code and test it would probably be more than the time it takes humans to identify the pictures themselves. I was wondering, did you have any prior experience with marine biology or did they organizers create template pictures based on the types of organisms they expected to be in the photographs? I personally had never heard of a 'tube dwelling worm' before and I cannot even see anything that looks remotely like a worm in the picture you posted, so unless I had something explicitly letting me know what to look for, I certainly would not be of much use at all on that particular project. You also mentioned that this involves an ultimate goal of noticing change over time, so i was wondering, did they say how often they do this particular exercise over this one area? I was wondering if this was a first round, or they are in the midst of the project and if so, have they already noticed any increase or decrease in organisms in this particular area?"
--( posted on Nov 30, 2021, commenting on the post Invader ID – Community Science Project )
 
"Hello Latesha, I too found this process intimidating, however, I totally agree with you regarding how good it is that these articles are available digitally and how that really does make it easier to word search the document for keywords as a means to assist with understanding. It was the Abstract for me, too, that provided the main key for my understanding of the paper as a whole. It is interesting how we come to these journals and there is so much information contained in them, and so much jargon, that our initial thought is to run away, but when you sit down and go through the document in a methodical way, starting generally and later hitting the details, really opens up the information hidden within."
--( posted on Oct 29, 2021, commenting on the post Scientific Journal Article )
 
"Hello Sanford, I liked your analysis of the scientific journal article. The points that you highlight make this seem like a very well thought out and executed study. It was nice to see your reaction to the inclusion of image used in their study, now I wish that you had included it in the worksheet so that I could have seen it too. I was also wondering if the study came to any conclusions? Do urban birds fly into class more than their rural brethren?"
--( posted on Oct 29, 2021, commenting on the post Scientific Journal Article )
 
"On October 9th, the NASA Night Sky Network, will be hosting Global Moon Party. The event will be live streamed on YouTube and starts at 6pm ET. There will be many presentations over three hours including tips for good viewing, facts about the moon as well as lunar photography and visualizations. You can get more information of the event and a link to the YouTube page here:- https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news-display.cfm?News_ID=977"
--( posted on Sep 22, 2021, commenting on the post Science in our City )