Central park BioBlitz |
A citizen science project
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Discover Life | Ants | Who We Are | How to study & monitor life on Earth | Ant Hunt! |
Ant Hunt! is a citizen science project first conceptualized in the fall of 2004. Its goals are to teach discovery in schools, to study, monitor, and map species, and to share high-quality data for understanding and managing nature. In February, 2005, we presented Ant Hunt! at a meeting on "How to study & monitor life on Earth," and it was well received. The organizers of Ant Hunt! now include individuals at the California Academy of Sciences, Conservation International, Discover Life, Harvard University, Missouri Botanical Garden, National Biological Information Infrastructure, and Smithsonian Institution.
In addition to our educational and scientific goals, we are particularly interested in studying invasive ants to help manage their impact and spread.
We plan to launch a full-scale Ant Hunt! at multiple sites across the United States and Canada on Ant Day, 10 June, 2006, in celebration of Ed "The Naturalist" Wilson's birthday. In the meantime, we are developing and testing methods in schools and with community groups at targeted sites around the U.S.
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Ant Hunt! participants will learn to collect, sort, identify, study, and map ants. Through this Web page and some workshops, we will provide the training teachers and group leaders need to conduct a successful Ant Hunt! in their local community. Currently, we are testing methods for high school students. Within a year we hope to have exercises that will be valuable to teaching 4th grade students and up. Discover Life currently has identification guides and high-quality images to over 700 North American ant species that everyone can access through http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Insecta/Hymenoptera/Formicidae. Discover Life also has a Global Mapper and online reporting tools that use maps and high-resolution aerial photographs served by Topozone.com. Participants can use these to locate the exact positions where they find ants. For example, try these to locate an exact point around the Washington Monument, steps of the National Museum of Natural History, or Central Park, New York. Simply click on the maps and photographs to zoom in. Use the Global Mapper's "Find Place" option to locate points elsewhere.
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University of Georgia undergraduate sets a pitfall trap |
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Cedar Shoals High School students use microscope and computer guide to identify ants |
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Cedar Shoals High School student reports her group's findings so that they can be compared with others |
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E-mail somebody@discoverlife.org with a valid e-mail address and an IP address of a computer from which you will be working on the project. To find your IP address, click here.
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Name | Institution | Phone | Expertise | Referred by | Confirmed | |
Peter Alden | Nuttall Ornithological Club | peteralden@aol.com | 978-369-5768 | |||
Leeanne Alonso | Conservation International | l.alonso@conservation.org | 202-912-1282 | |||
Gary Alpert | Harvard University | gary_alpert@harvard.edu | 617-495-1983 | |||
Sandy Andelman | National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis | andelman@nceas.ucsb.edu | 805-892-2505 | |||
Woody Bailey | USDA-APHIS | woodward.d.bailey@aphis.usda.gov | 919-855-7502 | |||
Gordon Brown | US Dept. of Interior; Nat'l Invasive Species Council | A_Gordon_Brown@ios.doi.gov | 202-354-1879 | |||
Becky Boger | GLOBE | rboger@globe.gov | 303-497-2647 | |||
Stefan Cover | Harvard University | scover@oeb.harvard.edu | 617-496-5614 | |||
Peter Dow | First Hand Learning | pdow27@aol.com | 716-896-5200 | |||
Sam Droege | Patuxent Wildlife Research Center | sam_droege@usgs.gov | 301-497-5840 | |||
Brian Farrell | Harvard University | farrellb@oeb.harvard.edu | 617-496-1057 | |||
Brian Fisher | California Academy of Sciences | bfisher@calacademy.org | 415-321-8314 | |||
Patty Gowaty | University of Georgia | gowaty@uga.edu | 706-542-3365 | |||
Bill Gregg | USGS Invasive Species Program | william_gregg@usgs.gov | 703-648-4067 | |||
Mike Irwin | University of Illinois | meirwin@uiuc.edu | 217-333-1963 | |||
Dan Kjar | Georgetown University | dsk@georgetown.edu | 202-687-2424 | |||
Maureen McConnell | Boston Museum of Science | mmcconell@mos.org | 617-589-0295 | |||
Ed McNierney | TopoZone.com | ed@topozone.com | 978-251-4242 | |||
Loralyn Mears | Sun Microsystems | loralyn.mears@sun.com | 919-572-6718 | |||
Laura Meyerson | Heinz Center | meyerson@heinzctr.org | 202-737-6307 | |||
Tom Moritz | American Museum of Natural History | tmoritz@amnh.org | 212-769-5417 | |||
Sally O'Connor | National Science Foundation | soconnor@nsf.gov | 703-292-8470 | |||
Neil Patterson | Neil Patterson Productions | napatterson@mindspring.com | 919-933-1195 | |||
John Pickering | University of Georgia | pick@discoverlife.org | 706-542-1115 | |||
Gary Rosenberg | Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia | rosenberg@acnatsci.org | 215-299-1033 | |||
Peter Saundry | National Council for Science and the Environment | peter@NCSEonline.org | 202-530-5810 | |||
Ted Schultz | Smithsonian Institution | schultz@onyx.si.edu | 202-357-1311 | |||
Mike Soukup | US National Park Service | Mike_Soukup@nps.gov | 202-208-3884 | |||
Robb Turner | SAIN-NBII & SAMAB | rsturner@utk.edu | 865-974-4585 | |||
Luther Williams | Missouri Botanical Garden | luther.williams@mobot.org | 314-577-5139 |
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Email somebody@discoverlife.org at Discover Life, or call USA-706-542-6676, for more information about Ant Hunt!
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We thank Tatiana Barron, David De Leon, Philip Lennox, and Emily Susko for their contributions to the content of this page.
Discover Life | Ants | Who We Are | How to study & monitor life on Earth | Ant Hunt! |