Nature

Citizen Science

PowerfulOwlLeave a comment
forest_school-2.jpg
Source: https://www.naturespath.com/en-us/blog/what-are-forest-schools/

Life is taking me on quite the busy journey at the moment. Raising three kids and work keeps me all too busy. I have however had this topic on my mind for quite some time and finally have decided to sit down and write.  Every day I am reading a terrible statistic and report about the state of our world. Today’s one was about the crazy rate of deforestation. Apparently there is one football field worth of forest lost every second.  With all the football watching going on right now, it should be an easy one to visualise. So let’s repeat that one – slowly. One football field of forest lost. Every second.

As with many reports on the environment, it is very easy to feel hopeless and overwhelmed.  While action to reverse is needed urgently, we need to also look at what is possible in our neck of the woods – excuse the pun.  One of the areas I feel strongly about, is the need to re-connect with nature.  There are many benefits to this, from improved mental health and wellbeing to community connections to re-learning lost skills. It goes without saying that this will lead to improved biodiversity outcomes.

One of the ways to re-connect with nature is through Citizen Science. This essentially means that anyone can be a scientist and that we can all work to help document flora and fauna in our local area.  This helps scientists monitor and track information, and gets the community out and about looking closely at what is in their neighbourhoods.

This participatory approach to science is a great way to get people involved in their local community and a wonderful introduction to science for children.

Many many years ago, I worked on a project called the Willoughby Wildlife Watch project which in essence was a citizen science program. It asked residents to report wildlife that they saw. This was then included in a state-wide Atlas, thereby creating a good baseline and allowing monitoring of wildlife, particularly in urban areas.

Over the years, amateur scientists have become involved in science.  In fact amateur astronomers have made many discoveries including finding a scar on Jupiter and even finding Uranus (William Herschel, 1781).  It’s estimated that these volunteer scientists provide in-kind contributions valued at about $2.5 billion a year! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science).

There are different ways that you can get involved.  You can contact your local Council to see if they have any programs available where you can participate, or you can check out some other organisations like:

While winter might be time where we all want to get indoors – it might also be a really interesting time to be out there checking out plants and animals in your area.

Pokemon STOP!

PowerfulOwl1 Comment
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Source: sussexcountypost.com

My household along with a lot of other households with children is going through a Pokemon craze.  It started with the cards last year, then the cartoons. It’s so bad that even my 2 year old is obsessed. It’s all about Pokemon and Pikachu!  Showing my age now – but honestly what is this show about??

Recently though, a Pokemon App is taking the world by storm – Pokemon Go. Some people are saying how great it is to have children play this game because it encourages kids to get out – even if it is in an alternative reality of catching Pikachu. At least they’re not inside.

My son, like many boys his age wants to play this, but I have to say a clear ‘sorry’ to my son. I am not one of those mums that will allow their young child to play this game. I’m afraid my dear son, I am never going to be a ‘cool’ mum. You my son will likely miss out on being ‘cool’ like your friends for years to come, because after Pokemon Go, there will be many more silly fads which will come and add nothing to your development intellectually, emotionally or physically. You’ll likely ‘hate’ me and ridicule me to your friends and roll your eyes at me (he’s already started doing this!), but I’m willing to wear that.

My husband says that I have to ‘ease up’ and that I can’t keep him away from these sorts of games and devices forever. To that, I say maybe not, but he’s 8 years old and I would rather have him read, draw, ride a bike, than walk around staring at a phone trying to catch Pikachu.

pokemon-hero-ios
Source: http://www.imore.com

While this App may help to get kids out, I find it sad to see young kids out, mobiles in hand staring at their screens.  While there are many brains working right now on how to harness Pokemon Go for the greater good of protecting nature, I think having a love of nature yourself is the best way to create these values in your children.  Get out yourself and get into nature. Talk about it and feel connected to it.  Even if you don’t live near bushland or a beach – find a pocket of trees, grass, a communal area, plaza – whatever it is, get out there and have fun with it yourself, despite the limited time you might have.

The connection to nature is disappearing. With more people living in cities and cities becoming denser and nature being taken out of cities – it is harder to get to nature and hard to feel connected to it. With the earth facing the next mass extinction episode, we need to get back to nature.  Nature provides everything to us – water, air, materials. Even the ones that fuel our lights, the materials that go into our devices, the materials that we wear and build with – it originates from the earth.

I am often saying to my husband to get out into the garden and potter around, because if he does, my son eventually leaves his room and follows.  It is their personal preference to be inside with toys, but getting both boys in my life outside is my mission and I hope not to rely on Pikachu to do that!

Bellagio

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Am I being too tough?