7 Summary of Week 6

Once you’ve identified the name of a species, it is possible to find out much more information about it using online resources. Knowing the correct name of an organism is key to learning about it. And being able to share accurate observations about it with other people helps to contribute to the body of scientific knowledge.

In this week, you were introduced to a range of resources available to help build an understanding of biodiversity and species identification skills. A number of online resources were introduced, including the Encyclopedia of Life [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and local and national sources such as the UK’s Natural History Museum, ) and scientific journal databases. You also looked at some other sources of information, such as Wikipedia, newspaper articles and forums and thought about how reliable these sources of information are. This week’s study demonstrated the power of discovery, searching for and finding a species’ identification, as well as the role it plays in biological monitoring and data collection.

Next week you’ll put into practice what you have been learning and become an iSpot citizen scientist. You’ll explore the iSpot website and learn how to add your own observations if you wish. You’ll see how iSpot is more than just a collection of records – it’s also a community of enthusiasts and provides you with opportunities to further your learning and create projects.

You can now go to Week 7.