In April 2025, the SDSU Library and the Green Team will be focusing on Citizen Science initiatives to highlight the importance of citizen or participatory science, explain what it is, and illustrate some projects linked to our community and the environment, especially for Earth Day. The following workshops will be held outside on the North Porch of Love Library near the Farmer's Market on Thursdays:
All projects are using iNaturalist. iNaturalist is a place where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world. It is also a crowdsourced species identification system and an organism occurrence recording tool. You can use it to record your own observations, get help with identifications, collaborate with others to collect this kind of information for a common purpose, or access the observational data collected by iNaturalist users. From hikers to hunters, birders to beach-combers, the world is filled with naturalists, and many of us record what we find. What if all those observations could be shared online? You might discover someone who finds beautiful wildflowers at your favorite birding spot, or learn about the birds you see on the way to work. If enough people recorded their observations, it would be like a living record of life on Earth that scientists and land managers could use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and that anyone could use to learn more about nature.
Download the iNaturalist App on iOS or Android.
During these workshops, the SDSU Green Team representatives will show you how to download the app, find the project, and capture the data so you too can contribute to and participate in scientific research!
Parking instructions If you are coming to the SDSU campus for these events. Navigate to Parking Structure 1, park on level 6, use the "PaybyPhone" app: https://parking.sdsu.edu/
Every observation can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common backyard weed. We share your findings with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to help scientists find and use your data. All you have to do is observe.
This year, we are focusing on collecting observations for the SDSU Biodiversity Museum on April 10 and April 17, and on our City Nature Challenge: San Diego County, which is co-organized by the SDSU Biodiversity Museum, on April 24, which takes plance between April 26 and 29 in honor of Earth Day and Month, with more details here.
On Thursday, April 25, the SDSU Green Team representatives will show you how to do all of this!
Download the iNaturalist App on iOS or Android.
