McNear Bioblitz

Last Monday morning, students in Kirsten Franklin and Eric Norstad's third grade classes at McNear Elementary arrived at school excited for a day of outdoor exploration and discovery. As part of a planned restoration and habitat creation project on the McNear campus, they spent the day conducting a Bioblitz, recording species that they encountered along Thompson Creek and behind their classroom. 

Group leaders from Friends of the Petaluma River and Point Blue guided students through the process, helping them to find, record, and identify species.

A student holds a cray fish up for classmates to see.

This is citizen science at its best! Data collected by the students will be uploaded to iNaturalist and shared with Point Blue's STRAW program to inform restoration efforts on campus. 

UPDATE (12/12/17): Results are now up and available to view on iNaturalist! If you have the expertise, you can even help with this project by adding species identifications from the app or website. Click here to be taken to the iNaturalist project page.