I just completed my first survey for Project Squirrel. In my observation, I saw one black squirrel and five fox squirrels. Squirrels regularly feed on the bird feeders in my backyard and seldom feed on the trees. In my backyard there are seed-bearing trees such as maple, and down the road there is a cottonwood tree. We also have five pine trees on the side of our house.
Questions:
9. What do you find easy/challenging about citizen science volunteering?
Project Squirrel isn't hard to participate in, because basically all you have to do is look out your window and walk down the street to make observations. There isn't anything that stands out as challenging-the hardest part is probably making the time to actually do it. Other than that, Project Squirrel is a fun citizen science volunteering project and it's made so anyone can participate. In general, citizen science volunteering is challenging because you have to be accurate about your results-real scientists are using the data you collect in their experiments or studies so you want to report the most accurate observations possible. Most citizen science projects encourage a lot of people to participate so they have "easy" elements to draw people in. Overall my project is not challenging, but fun.
11. Would you recommend your project to someone else who wanted to try citizen science volunteering? Why?
Yes, I would recommend Project Squirrel to someone who wants to get their feet wet in citizen science volunteering because it is relatively easy and can be done from anywhere. Project Squirrel doesn't take much time out of your day, but it is still a citizen science program that helps produce real scientific results. It is a good program if it is your first citizen science volunteering program (like me) because it expands on something you do everyday: watch squirrels.
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