Do you have a young scientist in the making? This season we have two citizen science books that just may inspire your family to find their own project. You can spot bats, frogs, butterflies, crabs or even stars to help scientists with important research.
First, we meet Jojo and her family as they await the yearly bat counts on the family farm.
Bat Count: A Citizen Science Story
by Anna Forrester, illustrated by Susan Detwiler
Bat Count is inspired by author Anna Forrester’s family farm, and the citizen science project that her family participates in every summer. Anna would like to show young readers that participation in citizen science is a great way to do real science, and that is very meaningful to the scientists finding solutions to ecological problems.
Visit Anna Forrester’s website for more batty fun!
Next, we meet Leena, her mom, and dog Bobie as they travel to a small beach for a night of collecting data on horseshoe crabs.
Moonlight Crab Count
by Neeti Bathala, Jennifer Keats Curtis & Veronica V. Jones
Horseshoe crabs are one of the oldest and strangest looking species around! Each spring they swim to shore and spawn along the Eastern US, but the Delaware Bay is the best spot to see a whole crowd of crabs, sea birds and people too. The living fossil has blue blood that is very important to medical reserch, and thier eggs are an important food source for a few different migrating birds. This is why citizen scientists are busy counting crabs as they are spawning.
Learn more about horseshoe crabs and the citizen science project.
Get involved in your local area: Check out these sites for ongoing projects around the world!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/
https://scistarter.com/citizenscience.html
https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Conservation/Citizen-Science.aspx
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