The Unseen View and Citizen Science

24 Jun The Unseen View and Citizen Science

Have you ever seen a bee up close? What if I told you that I was able to take a detailed picture of one. Thanks to my handy iPhone I am able to show all of you the characteristics you can’t see with a naked eye. Shown below is an up close up view of a bee and its wing. In order to identify a bee, characteristics must be examined under the microscope and an identification guide is used to match descriptions explained in the book. It becomes a tedious process as the descriptions become more specific and the list of possible species narrows down.
Besides my role in identifying bees this summer, I have been tasked to do a presentation on citizen science programs that visitors can get involved with for a entomology workshop on Saturday. Anyone can be citizen scientist and people like you are needed to collect data to further help researchers understand what is happening to animal populations. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved with projects and I encourage you spread the word about it. The workshop that we are in doing is to teach educators about entomology, but also encourage them to incorporate the resources we give them into their school curriculum for their students. We hope that students grow to appreciate insects for what they do for our environment.

Close up of a bee wing

Close up of a sweat bee