Gardening is a mixture of art, a lot of luck and surprisingly, a lot of science. The more you become involved in beautifying your urban surroundings or growing your own food you may discover that you have an inner science geek looking for an outlet.
Gardeners in Chicago that discover the inner science geek later in life have the opportunity to make up for all those days we wasted daydreaming in class. Here are some programs around Chicagoland that you can join to help scientist by collecting & reporting data.
Use your camera for more than just taking pictures to post on Facebook. Become a BeeSpotter and help collect data on the demographics of honey bees and bumble bees found in Illinois.
Put down the BB gun and pick up a pencil and help collect data on fox & grey squirrels in our area. You don't have to have a garden to participate in Project Squirrel it can be done in parks or at your office.
Ladybugs aren't just for little girls. Help scientist track the nine spotted ladybug and other ladybug species. Join the Lost Ladybug Project.
Maybe you like your bugs to be a bit more flashy: summertime is the perfect opportunity to help scientists track Fireflies.
Are you a worrier? Maybe being outside monitoring Plants of Concern will help take the edge off without a prescription. Other great projects by the Chicago Botanic Garden that you can take part in are: Save The Plants, Seed Banking, Project Budburst.
If you know of any other local citizen science projects leave a comment below and I'll add it to this list.
Filed under: Chicago Gardener Resources, Citizen Scientist
Tags: Good bugs & bad bugs
