BioBLITZ is Saturday!
Working together to get a snapshot of BME's biodiversity!
BME's First BioBlitz is Saturday (9:00 or 10:30)
Saturday’s 1st ever BME Bioblitz is right around the corner! We are getting excited to explore our campus and find out just which species are living in our schoolyard habitat. I am so excited to meet everyone on Saturday morning and to spend time exploring the natural world with you.
Note:
We will have one group that arrives and registers at 9:00 for the first wave and another group that can arrive and check-in at 10:30. If you are planning to come, please keep reading!
How this works....
1. You can pre-register by filling out the form at this link.
2. Please dress for the weather and bring water for your family. Currently we are expecting it to be partly to mostly cloudy with temperatures in the 60s. Depending on the weather, you may want sunscreen as well. We will be outside for the entirety of the Bioblitz.
3. CHECK-IN will start right at the beginning of your wave. (9:00 or 10:30) Come to the south side of the building near our Gardens.
4. Bring one or more devices that can connect to a cellular network. (phones, tablets, iPad, iPod Touch . . .)
5. Please join our Bioblitz Remind Group to get updates on the day of the event and to communicate with me from across campus on the day of the event.
To sign up for BME Bioblitz notifications, please get the Remind App and visit
https://www.remind.com/join/bmebi or text @bmebi to 81010.
6. BEFORE YOU ARRIVE – You will need two apps. Please download iNaturalist and Seek onto your personal devices. These apps will be used to identify and record your sightings throughout the morning.
7. OPTIONAL - If you want to help with bird identification, too, you may want to download Merlin Bird ID and the Midwest bird pack. This isn’t required, but it is a really useful and kid friendly tool for identifying specific bird species in the trees, air, and on the ground. We will have bird experts circulating to help identify and record species.
To save time on Saturday morning, if you can . . .
8. BEFORE YOU ARRIVE – Please make an iNaturalist account. You will need this account to include your observations in our project. One family account will suffice because you can use it on multiple devices. iNaturalist can help identify species and can add them to our project; Seek is only used to identify species (very kid friendly) and can share observations with your iNaturalist account with the click of a button.
9. BEFORE YOU ARRIVE - Join our Boone Meadow Bioblitz project and the Boone Meadow Elementary Nature Guide on iNaturalist. Simply search for them in the Search bar on the website or by clicking the 3 dot menu (. . .) at the bottom of the app screen.
If this sounds like a lot, never fear. I can help walk you through it when you arrive. It will just be easier if you come with the apps already downloaded and the iNaturalist account created.
Looking forward to a really fun morning on Saturday!
Kara Benson
STEM Teacher and Instructional Coach
Family Field Trip Ideas...
Field trips are great ways to provide context for understanding the content students learn in classrooms and textbooks. This fall, why not get out and enjoy the natural world in Indiana! Our town and state parks are a great way to see life cycles, plant and animal structures, and native habitat systems up close.
Some nearby parks to explore are:
Fort Harrison State Park and Nature Center on Indy’s northeast side
Eagle Creek’s Earth Discovery Center and Ornithology Center on Indy’s northwest side
Zionsville’s own Starkey Park or Elm Street Green
Zionsville Nature Center at the Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library
Attend Creekfest with Zionsville Parks -
At Home Activities –
Contact Us
Email: thundley@zcs.k12.in.us
Website: https://bme.zcs.k12.in.us/
Location: 5555 South Main Street, Whitestown, IN, USA
Phone: 317-873-2226
Twitter: @ZCSBoone_Meadow