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    • BC Faculty Members' Creative Assignments
      • Can Erbil & Kalpana Seshardi's Multi-Media Essay Project
      • Heather Olins' Nature Walk Assignment
      • Emine Fetvaci's Exhibition Catalog Assignment
      • Tom Sapsford's Performance Assignment
      • Douglas Warner's Scientific Manuscript Assignment
      • Alexander Auner's Visualization of Physics Project
      • Ethan Baxter & Natana DeLong-Bas' Video Project
      • Angela Ards's "Outsider Press Outlet" Group Project
      • Ángeles Picone's "Unessay" Midterm
      • Nora Gross's Creative Final Project
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Heather Olins' Nature Walk Assignment

Updated on March 22, 2024

heather-olins-headshot
Heather Olins is an Associate Professor of the Practice in Biology at Boston College.

What is the context for this course?

Ecology and Evolution (BIOL2010) is an introductory course that fulfills a Natural Science Core requirement, and is also a requirement for the Biology major. It generally enrolls around 200 undergraduate students the vast majority (almost 90%) of whom are first or second year students.

Why did you choose to use a creative assignment?

I would get outside and practice recognizing and applying the fundamental principles and concepts of Ecology and Evolution. Because that is not a realistic format for this course, I wanted to find another way to get students outside experiencing biodiversity (which is the major theme of the course). I decided to invite students to take a few nature walks throughout the semester where they could practice making scientific observations, look for specific types of organisms we discuss in the class, make real-world connections with additional class content, and get to know some of the green spaces near campus.

About one third of the course content is an exploration of the “Tree of Life,” which introduces students to a wide variety of organisms. Some students find this unit challenging because they have very little familiarity with some of the groups of organisms. So, at the most basic level, the goal of these nature walks is to help students see the relevance of the course content by finding examples of these organisms near campus (or near their home during online versions of the course). In addition to this learning goal, there are many well-documented physical and mental health benefits to spending time in nature that feel particularly relevant to undergraduate students navigating the transition from high school to college. Finally, through this assignment, I introduce students to a “Citizen Science” platform called iNaturalist which allows students to contribute their observations to a public database of biodiversity observations which enables these independent nature walks to also be a scientific data collection exercise.

How did you introduce and scaffold the assignment for your students?

There are a number of components to this assignment over the course of the semester that I scaffold into three phases.

Phase 1 – Introduce the project

  • In-class explanation of the assignment. I explain the goals of the assignment, the details of how to complete it, and how it will be assessed. I also provide a written description on Canvas along with a pre-recorded 8 minute explanatory video that students can refer to if they want additional or repeated instructions.
  • Make an iNaturalist account and submit a practice observation. There is time in class for tech troubleshooting. This practice observation gets peer-review feedback through Canvas using a rubric so that students can hopefully quickly realize if they are doing something wrong, and so that students can practice giving feedback to each other.

Phase 2 – Nature Walks

  • First Nature Walk assignment: Students have a clear rubric for completing the assignment and the first nature walk is completed with that in mind. In addition to submitting at least 5 photographic observations from their walk, they need to write a short post describing their walk and drawing connections to course material. 
  • The second and third nature walks are similar to the first and have an additional organismal theme (for example plants or fungi). At least some of their observations and reflections must be related to the specific groups of organisms we are discussing in class that week. 

Phase 3 – Summarize and Reflect

  • After completing at least 3 nature walks (some semesters I might assign 4 rather than 3), students have a final Project Review assignment. In this assignment they need to review the observations they’ve made in iNaturalist and assess the diversity of organisms they ended up observing. They also have the opportunity to to reflect on their classmate’s learning and their peer-reviews. Finally, I invite them to provide me with feedback on the project.

What instructions do you provide to students for each component of the project?

The instructions I provide students for each component of the project are below.

Join iNaturalist Project

You will need to make an iNaturalist account and fill out your account profile. This will be public, but you are not required to include any personal or identifying information in your public account.

To complete this assignment…

  1. visit inaturalist.org
  2. Click the “Sign Up” button
  3. Select whichever licensing and permissions options you are comfortable with
  4. As you select your user name and fill in your profile, remember that you are creating a public account. You are NOT required to share/display any personal information.
  5. Enjoy exploring the site!

You may also want to download the free app to use iNaturalist on your phone.

To earn credit for this assignment, submit your iNaturalist user name below. Be sure to submit your user name (not your email address). This will allow us to add you to the class project.

iNaturalist Project Observation

To become familiar with iNaturalist, you will complete your first observation and get feedback to make sure the process is clear. I will also be available for technical support throughout the week via email. If you have not watched the short Intro to iNaturalist video that I recorded, please stop and do that before you complete this assignment. That video should be right before this assignment in this week’s module.

Please make an “observation” in iNaturalist of an organism. You can do this through the app, or from the website using a digital image you have already taken. Ideally this will be a wild organism (i.e. not a pet or something planted by people). So look for plants coming up between crack in the sidewalks, or insects, or birds. However, for this assignment that is not a requirement that you observe a wild organism as long as it is labeled properly (see below). 

Please note that these observations represent a contribution to a dataset that is used by scientists for research purposes (once identifications are “research grade”), and there are ethical and legal responsibilities that go along with that.

Legally, you may only post your own images, and not anything found online that may have a copyright attached to it.

Ethically, it is important that any cultivated or domestic organisms (for examples landscaped plants, or animals in a zoo) not have the “organism is wild” categorization, which is the default in iNaturalist. You may post non-wild organisms to iNaturalist, but if you do so PLEASE make sure that is indicated in your observation. You can change these settings afterwards if you unintentionally post something marked as wild that is not actually wild. For example, most of the plants on B.C. campus were put there by landscapers, and would not be considered wild. However, a weed that grows in a crack along a sidewalk would be considered wild. If you observe something that is not wild (for example a houseplant or a plant that is part of the B.C. landscaping, you need to check the “Captive/Cultivated” box when you submit the observation. Observations of captive/cultivated (non-wild) organisms that are labeled as wild will not earn full credit for this assignment. For the actual nature walk assignments (the first one due next Friday) all of your observations will need to NOT be captive or cultivated (i.e. they should all be of wild organisms). For ideas about where to go to do the nature walks, please visit the Nearby Natural Spaces page.

To earn credit for this assignment, you will need to submit the website url for this initial observation below. Each observation in iNaturalist has a unique website (and therefore a unique url). If you make your observation directly in the app, you will probably need to log into the website to find the url to submit for your observation.

iNaturalist practice observation rubric. Student lose points if there is a missing map location, an inaccurate wild/non-wild
annotation, or identified
only as "unknown", or the
image is not clear enough to be identified by an expert. Students receive no credit if the image or annotation is missing.
First iNaturalist Nature Walk

For this first nature walk there is no particular theme. Find a pretty place nearby (for suggestions see this list of nearby locations) that is at least somewhat wild and/or natural (as in not gardened/landscaped), and walk around for at least 30 minutes, making iNaturalist observations along the way. You are also welcome to just walk and take pictures and upload your observations later. Note that if you do not take pictures with a smartphone or other camera that attaches location information to pictures, you will have to input the locations manually through the iNaturalist website.

Once you’ve uploaded your observations into iNaturalist, go to the website (not the app) and access your “Journal”. Write a short (~ 1 paragraph) summary of where you were, what the weather was like, what you saw, and whatever else you feel like including.

Your grade for this assignment will be based on peer review using the rubric below. You will need to submit the link for your journal entry here to earn credit. Please note, that if you complete the walk, and submit the link to your iNaturalist profile to a particular observation, you will not earn full credit for this assignment. To earn full credit you must submit the link to the journal entry itself. Additionally, you must link at least 5 observations to your journal entry in order to earn full credit.

You can see some sample journal posts here but be sure to click one of the entries to see the full post with observations.

I also put together a video from a hike I took in August to give you some ideas of the kinds of things you might want to be on the look out for as you explore the biodiversity near you.

Second Nature Walk: Theme = FUNGI!

For this nature walk, focus on fungi. How many different fungi can you find? You are welcome to record observations of non-fungi (you can always make extra observation), but please make sure that your journal post and observations both include fungi.

Similar to last time…

Find a pretty place nearby that is at least somewhat wild and/or natural (as in not gardened/landscaped), and walk around for at least 30 minutes, making iNaturalist observations along the way. You are also welcome to just walk and take pictures and upload your observations later. Once you’ve uploaded your observations into iNaturalist, go to the website (not the app) and access your “Journal”. Write a short (~ 1 paragraph) summary of where you were, what the weather was like, what you saw, and whatever else you feel like including.

Your grade for this assignment will be based on peer review using the rubric below. You will need to submit the link for your journal entry here to earn credit. Since there is no particular theme this week, everyone should get full points for that category.

You can see some sample journal posts here but be sure to click one of the entries to see the full post with observations.

Third Nature Walk: Theme = PLANTS!

For this nature walk, focus on plants. How many different kinds of plants can you find? Can you find examples of all 4 of the main groups of plants?

  • Bryophyta (nonvascular plants, e.g. mosses)
  • Polypodiopsida (seedless vascular plants, e.g. ferns)
  • Gymnosperms (non-flowering seed plants, e.g. evergreen trees)
  • Angiosperms (flowering plants, e.g. anything that flowers and fruits!)

You are welcome to record observations of non-plants (you can always make extra observation), but make your journal post and observations both include plants.

The timeframe for this assignment includes fall break, so I hope some of you will take nature walks wherever you happen to be over break.

As usual…

Find a pretty place nearby that is at least somewhat wild and/or natural (as in not gardened/landscaped), and walk around for at least 30 minutes, making iNaturalist observations along the way. You are also welcome to just walk and take pictures and upload your observations later. Once you’ve uploaded your observations into iNaturalist, go to the website (not the app) and access your “Journal”. Write a short (~ 1 paragraph) summary of where you were, what the weather was like, what you saw, and whatever else you feel like including.

Your grade for this assignment will be based on peer review using the rubric below. You will need to submit the link for your journal entry here to earn credit. Since there is no particular theme this week, everyone should get full points for that category.

You can see some sample journal posts here but be sure to click one of the entries to see the full post with observations.

iNaturalist Peer Review

If you completed your 3 peer reviews of the iNaturalist Practice Observation, you should earn full credit for this assignment. 

If you do not have peer reviews assigned because you submitted your assignment late, you will likely see your peer reviews at some point after you submit, but please email Prof. Olins if you submit and still missing peer review assignments.

iNaturalist Project Review

This activity tasks you with reflecting on your learning with iNaturalist activity. To answer some of the questions you will need to have your iNaturalist account open to copy and paste in links to the response questions. Please be honest and open in your responses.

You can review the iNaturalist Project Review Survey if you’d like to see the particular questions I ask students.

How did you assess student work?

In a large class, my biggest concern starting out was how I would assess multiple assignments from ~200 students. I generally have one graduate TA who can help with grading, but some semesters I do not, so logistical feasibility was a major concern. I initially worked with John FitzGibbon (then at CTE, now in the Center for Digital Innovation in Learning) to come up with a structure for the project that utilized student peer-review. Including peer-review allows students to see a variety of observations made by their classmates which hopefully reinforces the learning objective of becoming aware of the biodiversity near campus. Additionally, the peer reviews make the grading process easier. The grader can use the drop down menu to see the 3 grades assigned via peer-review and quickly identify students who have earned full credit from all three peer reviewers. Those submissions can be graded very quickly, leaving far fewer submissions that require more detailed feedback and more careful assessment. Using a rubric (which I have improved over time to increase clarity) in conjunction with peer-review has been key to implementing this assignment in a way that students receive timely feedback, and grading is manageable. For every assignment, students receive peer-feedback and a separate grade from instructors, both of which are based on the same rubric.

iNaturalist Rubric. Students are graded on the number of observations, the length of the nature walk (must be 10 minutes), the extent to which the entry addresses the theme of the week, and the amount of detail/description included.

How did the students do?

Since I implemented this assignment in 2020, my students have contributed over 20,000 observations to iNaturalist. These observations are publicly available and easily accessible on this project page. Many students initially balk at this assignment. Having to take walks feels strange and perhaps uncomfortable. Having to navigate a new tech platform can be frustrating. However, there is a clear pattern where many students who initially resist the assignment express feelings of appreciation for the project at the end. As one student said in the Project Review “I didn’t necessarily look forward to walking, but honestly, they were super nice once I got started. It was a time to be mindful and relaxed, and seeing the species in real life was helpful in my understanding.”

In addition to helping students learn the Tree of Life content and influencing their overall academic performance, I am thoroughly convinced that the process of getting outside multiple times during the semester and noticing the surrounding biodiversity has an overall positive impact on students’ mental health. I have included below some summary statistics from the Fall 2022 Project Review assignment that support these

  • 85% of students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I enjoyed participating in the fieldwork exercises (i.e., nature walks).”
  • 74% of students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I found the iNaturalist assignment useful for my learning in the course.”
  • 72% of students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I would like to see more assignments like the iNaturalist assignment in my coursework at BC/Biology etc.”

Here are a few examples of student submissions:

First student example: 
"Module 5 Walk
For this walk I visited Lost Pond in Brookline (also referred to as the Kenard Conservation Area). I saw so much on this smaller trail and was very
surprised by what I saw! My favorite part was the animals that I saw on this trail. I saw a slug for the first time in my life, which was really cool to
see. During this walk I saw a lot of different plants that were in various stages of reproduction -- which I thought was very interesting given that
many were undergoing similar processes. I got to also see some pretty gross looking fungi (when does it not look gross haha), and I noticed
something as well: there is a bubbly white foamy looking fungi that is small and grows around the stems of some green plants that I have seen at
both locations now, Cutler park and this one. I have seen similarities as well with the mosses in terms of types and variation -- especially the
pincushion moss. This trail in particular was really fun because it had a bridge going over the pond, as well as various kinds of terrain - both dirt
and rock trails. Overall out of all the trails I've been to in the last few years this one definitely had the most diversity when it came to plants. A lot
were ones I couldn't identify, but I noticed a lot of diversity in small areas (i.e., in one small section such as a 1x1 ft square there would be 3-5
different types of plants). I learned a lot with this trail about how plants will grow on pretty much anything. I saw several trees that had fallen over
that had various mosses, fungi, lichens, flowers, and insects covering them entirely. I saw a lot more different kinds of mosses here than I did at
cutler park -- and I think that this kind of environment was better suited for their diversity because unlike cutler park there was a lot of surface area
for the mosses to grow on, reproduce, and spread. Cutler park as one large trail encircling part of the Charles did not have as much land as this trail
did and I think that contributed to why I saw so much more plant diversity with this trail. For this assignment I had originally planned to do cutler
park again, but I'm glad I went out to try this new trail the following day!"
Second student example: 
2nd Nature Walk: Fungi
I was only able to find two different fungi. However, the one fungus that I did find was extremely fascinating. I identified it under the Genus
Pseudoinonotus, however, I'm not entirely sure since I've never seen anything like it. This fungus was growing on top of an old tree stump and was
massive, you can see a leaf at the bottom of the picture for comparison. It looked as though a person was curled up in a ball that's how large it was.
It also had a lot of intricate webbing and deep spores. The other fungus I was able to find was just a classic-looking mushroom, but it appears to
have been trampled by an animal or something. The weather has been really rainy the past few days so I expected to see more fungus than I
actually did. Most fungi do well in warmer temperatures however so maybe this is why not that many were seen this time of year. I also saw some
other common animals like pigeons and squirrels. There was also a slug that I saw on the pavement when starting my walk, again I think there was
a lot more activity because of the rain.

What lessons did you learn?

The more I allow myself to include creative/non-traditional assignments in my courses, the more I become convinced that doing so increases student engagement and facilitates learning. 

I used to be skeptical of rubrics. I think this is because when I first come up with a new assignment, I’m not sure what to expect from students. After doing an assignment a few times though, I believe that a clear, specific, detailed rubric is incredibly helpful in terms of communicating expectations to students, and facilitating efficient and fair assessment.

The risk in having students contribute to a public scientific database is that students’ contributions might be low-quality and end up detracting from, rather than adding to the value of that dataset. Over time, I’ve become more and more aware of things students might do incorrectly, and I’ve been able to adjust how I introduce the assignment accordingly. 

There are some questions I still have about the project. The student feedback makes me question the extent to which the project actually facilitates relationship building, but convinces me that the project is a good use of student time. I also wish I knew how to assess whether or not the assignment actually helps with comprehension or retention of tree of life content. I receive mixed feedback from students, but I also know that student perceptions aren’t a reliable way to assess that question. Despite those questions, I’m still excited by the kind of student engagement this assignment facilitates.

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