I grew up on a thousand-acre farm, surrounded by conservation land. Whenever I wasn’t busy with school, friends, helping around the house or farm, reading, or with homework, sports, and activities, I spent hours wandering across open fields, watching sunsets over the lake, or rambling through the woods, encountering Missouri’s wildlife. Since then, I’ve lived in cities and their suburbs all over the United States and Australia, including Atlanta, New York City, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Perth.
Although I’m grateful for the cultural, educational, professional, and social opportunities these metropolitan areas provided, city life has always felt to me as if I were living on the moon. While working in the New York Public Library’s iconic 42nd Street library, I’d eat lunch outside in Bryant Park with hundreds of other busy New Yorkers, and found myself becoming very aware of the park’s few trees, keeping track of them as if they were beloved family members, seeking shelter among the noise and drifting cigarette smoke. Nature was—and still is—my oxygen, my food and drink, my religion, my science, and my home. I know that many people who’ve experienced rural life feel the same way, and many never quite get used to living with the sounds of traffic, sirens, and other city noise.
As more people flock to metropolitan areas for the jobs, schools, health care, and other critical resources cities offer, it’s important to proactively seek out opportunities for our children to engage with nature, not just for their own education, but for everyone’s benefit. Citizen science is our natural way of being in the world. It’s how we would live if we all had the privilege to live surrounded by nature all the time, which most of us don’t. And with no definitive end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, citizen science is becoming one of the most practical ways that families can engage in online volunteering together. It provides opportunities not only to connect with others safely, but also to explore nature in ways and places that are close to home during a time when travel options are limited. Like suddenly feeling the urge to grow your own food or learn to bake your own sourdough bread, engaging in citizen science with your family from home right now may become a part of the broader pandemic experience simply because it makes so much sense.
I’m starting Kid Citizen Science to tell the story of community science through the lens of my own family’s experience, and to connect more families and teachers with easy ways to engage in citizen science with children. I’ll share books, project reviews, photos, and ideas for family or school volunteer experiences that you can do safely and remotely, with real educational value for kids and a real impact for science. Let’s get started…
