Diario del proyecto Eaton Canyon Biodiversity Project

Every year Los Angeles County teachers use Eaton Canyon and other natural areas to enhance their biology and botany coursework. Students are often sent out to make observations using iNaturalist, learning about the biodiversity of the San Gabriel Mountains and foothills.

Here are some tips to get the most out of this experience and possibly create life-long naturalists.

As a teacher, it is a good idea to become familiar and comfortable with iNaturalist yourself before asking students to do the same. If you are new to iNaturatist or looking for tips on how to enhance your classroom experience, please read the Teacher’s Guide on iNaturalist.

The Getting Started section on iNaturalist is a good place for students to begin.

Rather than have students upload observations and wild guess what species they saw, students can virtually explore over 1,000 species catalogued by the Eaton Canyon Biodiversity Project. The species in the project are sorted by the number of verified observations made within the canyon on iNaturalist. So the most common species, ones your students will most likely observe, are listed first. By reviewing the Species Organized by Taxa page, they will gain familiarity with what they might encounter during an in-person visit to Eaton Canyon.

iNaturalist is often not the best tool for younger students. Instead, Seek by iNaturalist may prove more appropriate. Seek provides important tools such as automated species identification and nature journaling while using a simplified interface. In short, Seek is a remarkably powerful tool that may be better adapted to the educational needs of elementary school students while iNaturalist may be the better choice for middle and high school classes