Interest in citizen-science projects in the college lab has risen dramatically recently. iNaturalist, https://www.inaturalist.org, a free app that facilitates the collection of observations of macroscopic organisms world-wide, can be thought of as a pathway to a CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) for organismal biology, natural history, and even biodiversity. This app allows users to enter photographs, propose identifications, solicit expert identifications, and to log metadata such as location, time, and date. When species are identified the aggregate data facilitates testing hypotheses about presence/absence in specific locations, frequency, and phenology. Participants received a short introduction to the use of iNaturalist and to its project construction features and then went to a local natural preserve, Gatineau Park, http://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places-to-visit/gatineau-park/conservation-at-gatineau-park to collect observations.
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