Webinar: Natural History at Home – Community Naturalists
Aired May 1, 2021
Gale Robertson:
Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's Natural History at Home program. My name is Gale.
Katie Derloshon:
And I'm Katie. And we are educators from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and we are so happy that you can join us today for today's program. Now, before we begin though, we'd like to give a special thanks to our generous donors, volunteers, and other important partners who enable us to create, share, and share new knowledge with you and the world today and every day free of charge.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah. Thank you so much. We have a great program for you today that will hopefully give you some ideas for how to discover and explore the different kinds of plants and animals you can find outdoors, wherever you are. Whether it's in your backyard, in your neighborhood, at a nearby park, or even in your schoolyard. And from what we've already heard from our friends at home, it sounds like that some of you have had a chance to observe some really cool things out in nature. I love how it was a combination of using your senses, like feeling the wind, seeing different plants and animals. That is great because that's what this program is all about today. We are going to practice making observations, and then we're going to show you how to share your observations of natures with others in your local area or even around the globe. We're also going to talk about why sharing observations is an important part of science.
Katie Derloshon:
Yes. And after today's program, we hope that you will share with us some of those observations that you and your family make. And speaking of what our viewers have shared with us, before we jump into today's program, let's take a look at a few slides or a few observations that were shared with us from our last program. So during April's program, Gale and her daughter Juniper shared with us some of their observations from a park in D.C. Then together we made a field notebook to create and record some of our own observations from their nature experience. So thanks everyone for sending in your family's field notebook observations and even some of those photo observations that you took instead of field notebooks. These are great.
Gale Robertson:
Yes. And I love that shot of the field notebook. That's so awesome. Great. So before we get started into the program, of course we always go through a few logistical things. Today's program is about 45 minutes long. There will be a recording of our program posted on our website in a couple of weeks, maybe next week, that you could refer to if you have to leave early or even if you want to watch it again. To ask us questions or to answer any questions that we ask you, please use the Q & A feature that you could find either at the bottom or the top of your screen.
Also, we are joined by Aaron, an American Sign Language interpreter. Depending on what device you're using or you're viewing your program on, you might need to swipe over to view Aaron. If you have any issues or if you have any questions about how to view him better, please ask us in the Q & A. Also, we have close captioning available. To turn this feature on or off, just click that CC button that's located near the Q & A feature. Also, we have an amazing team working behind the scenes of the Q & A. We have Juan Pablo, Christian and Odalys. You will probably interact with them today when you're in the Q & A. Thank you to them. We can't do this without them.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. Yes. Thank you so much, team. So while our museum is closed, we are broadcasting from our homes. I'm joining you from my home in Alexandria, Virginia and Gale's at her family's home today in Newport News, Virginia. And we love to hear from where all of our viewers are joining us from today, so use that Q & A feature to let us know. And also if you haven't already, you can tell us in the Q & A too what you've observed out in nature lately.
Gale Robertson:
All right. Yeah. So we already said hello to some friends in Washington, D.C.. Ila and Kara are from Tennessee. Sophie, it's so good to see you from Derby, England again. We have some friends from east Tennessee. Oh, Kolkata, India. Very great. Welcome.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. Welcome. Yes. And we've got Jack from Baltimore, and, let's see, Joanne from Malaysia. Wow. Welcome. We truly have an international audience today joining us from all over the world. And hello, Susan in Myrtle Beach and Jacqueline in Connecticut, and Jacqueline saw some blooming cherry blossoms too. This is so cool. All right, welcome everyone. Okay, and hello again to everyone who might have just joined us, my name is Katie.
Gale Robertson:
And I'm Gale. And we're both excited to welcome you all here to today's program which is all about discovering and exploring diversity of plants and animals in nature. So today, your family is going to practice naturalist skills by making observations of living things. We'll talk about why sharing observations with others is an important part of being a community naturalist. And then we're going to introduce to you ways that your family can get involved in sharing observations with others in your local area or even around the globe. And since we're in a pandemic, we strongly encourage you to continue being safe and follow good social distancing practices when you're out in nature. So when you're out in the community, your community might be limited to your family bubble. But towards the end of the program, we're going to show you some safe virtual ways to be part of community naturalist projects.
All right, so let's start talking about what it means to be a naturalist. This next slide may look familiar to those of you who attended last month's program. So a naturalist is someone who studies plants and animals in nature. They look for patterns to better understand nature in the natural world, and then they share this knowledge with others so that they could protect and preserve nature.
Katie Derloshon:
That's right, Gale. So that means that when a naturalist studies plants and animals in nature, they observe, record and identify living things in nature. And when naturalists look for patterns, they might compare their observations with other naturalist observations too. They might even also wonder about some of those patterns that they're seeing and ask new questions based on these patterns. And when a naturalist shares their knowledge of what they have learned or observed, they add their observations to existing data so that other naturalists can look at it too. And together then scientists and naturalists can better learn ways to protect and preserve nature.
Gale Robertson:
Right. And I really love hearing about how you all are already starting to practice those naturalist skills by seeing things in nature because last month we were really learning what it meant to be a naturalist. We were practicing those skills and we even practiced by making and using our own handmade field notebooks. And so today we're going to focus on the community part. We're going to talk about what it means to be a community naturalist. So we have a question for you friends at home. When you hear the word community, what does that make you think about? What does the word community mean to you? All right, we have awesome ... We're going to give you guys some think time. I know for me, when I think about community, I immediately think about the schools that we're part of. The schools that my daughter goes to.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, same here. I like to think about, too, my neighborhood. We see a lot of our neighbors out on walks every day or especially the last year, and so our neighborhood is a pretty tight little community. All right. So Michelle has seen that it means people in the same area. Jacqueline also thinks about their friends and neighbors that are in their immediate surroundings. Gretchen and Fletcher say not only those in your local area, but those who share a common goal or even a common purpose. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. And Jack is thinking the people and organizations in their neighborhood and beyond. Cool. Those are some excellent comments and thoughts about the word community, and I love hearing about all those different communities that we're all a part of. Now, when you look across all of these examples that you gave, the thing that can tie these together is that there's like our participant was saying earlier, this shared goal and a community can mean a group of others that are connected in some way. Now, for example, I'm a part of the Alexandria, Virginia, community because that's where I live.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, and I had mentioned that we're part of a school community, but a community could be your soccer team. And that shared goal is to play together, to be physically fit, and to win games, right?
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And David is telling us in the Q & A that community can be too coming together for these family programs, and I agree. So Gale, I think that we're also a community here because we come together as families to share and learn all about science together.
Gale Robertson:
Yes, David, it's like you're reading our minds. We absolutely think about that too. We love coming together with the community that comes to our family programs so that we can learn together and share our love of science so thank you for saying that. So this is great. This is a great conversation to start thinking about what community means. So what makes a person a community naturalist? So when you think about a naturalist, we already talked about all of these skills that they use. Well, a community naturalist uses those skills. They record, they observe, they make identifications. But the community part comes in when they share what they've learned and they observed with other people who have similar questions, goals, and interests. So yes, Gretchen and Fletcher, very good job mentioning about that shared goal because that really is what ties communities together.
And so you'll see in the pictures here, here are some people working together using their natural skills of observation. They're getting close in there. They're recording. They might be talking to each other comparing. For example, the group in the upper left-hand corner. This is a group of teens that work with our museum. And in this specific instance, they're working together to make observations in a local park so that they can add information to an ongoing study about the health of the park, whether the diversity of plants and animals, and that ecosystem has changed over time.
Another example of a community of naturalists could be found right in our museum, the National Museum of Natural History. So you'll see our nice big building. Over 450 scientists make up the community who study the variety of plants and animals around the world. Our shared mission is to understand the natural world and our place in it so that we could be good stewards for the Earth now and in the future. And our scientists don't just work within our museum community. Our scientists are part of a larger scientific community that have also those shared goals of understanding the Earth by documenting nature. And so they work with scientists at museums, at their colleges and organizations in that shared goal for understanding the natural world.
Katie Derloshon:
But Gale, you don't need to be a scientist at the Smithsonian to be a community naturalist though, right Gale? So anyone can observe and record what they see in nature. And there are projects that you can contribute to too.
Gale Robertson:
That's right, Katie. In fact, there's one project that just started this week that our museum is inviting the local community to participate in. It's called Pollination DC. So this project is going to run for a year so there's still time. It just started this past week. And our scientists are interested in answering the question, what pollinators are found in Washington, D.C., community gardens? So that's kind of like their shared goal. And since they want to get as many observations as possible, scientists are asking the public to help out. So here is a map of where the community gardens are that they want observations in.
And one thing I just want to note, you'll see this little section right in the middle with all of these gardens. Those are the gardens along the Mall in Washington, D.C. Those are our Smithsonian Gardens. And so since this project is running for a year, you don't necessarily have to be from Washington, D.C. If you happen to visit the D.C. area, maybe during a trip or something within this year, and you're visiting our museums, you can take observations in our gardens and share them with us and that will be so helpful.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, but Gale, how will people know? You said this is the pollination project, so we're going to be looking for pollinators. So how will we know even what a pollinator is? I know about bees and it sounds like they want maybe more observations than just bees.
Gale Robertson:
Yes, Katie. That is a good question. I also had that question too. So a pollinator is any animal that helps a plant reproduce by spreading pollen from the plant, from one plant to another plant. And so we all know about bees, right? But the scientists are actually trying to find out what other pollinators are out there. Scientists working on this project say that if someone is in a community garden and they don't know whether a particular animal is a pollinator or not, just take the observation anyways. They're just trying to collect as much information, observations, data as possible, and then they're going to go and look at it and then try to look for patterns in them. And then the scientists hope that once they know more about the pollinators that call D.C. home, they can share this information with community gardeners so that they can make the gardens the best with the best plants to support pollinators. So right now they're just trying to find out who the pollinators are, what they are.
So this image that we have up on the slides, these are images that our colleague, Robert, has taken in the local D.C. area so far, and so you'll see it's not just bees. There's a moth in there. There's a butterfly. There's several birds. There's a little fly. So pollinators can be all kinds of different animals, and they're just still trying to find out which ones are in the D.C. area.
Katie Derloshon:
Sounds cool. So why do you think it's important for us to be able to study pollinators or know what pollinators are in Washington, D.C.? Families at home take a moment to think about why pollinators are important to a community and to our planet and share with us in the Q & A some of your thoughts about pollinators. Yeah, I'm really excited to see what some of those other observations are going to be in all of the gardens.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, I know I am too.
Katie Derloshon:
Because you're right. I think when I think of pollinators, I think of bumblebees or I think of butterflies. But you're right, if a plant or if an animal's interacting with a plant, the potential to spread pollen is there. They might potentially be pollinators themselves. So we'll find out what some of those are. So Michelle...
Gale Robertson:
It kind of makes you think about what kinds of animals are interacting with plants, right?
Katie Derloshon:
I know, right?
Gale Robertson:
If a raccoon walks by a plant, they might be a pollinator, right?
Katie Derloshon:
Maybe. I don't know. Yeah, so Michelle's saying that pollinators are important because they help plants to reproduce. Totally. Yes. Very, very important.
Gale Robertson:
I guess to take it even a step further. So pollinators are important because they help plants reproduce. But why are plants important for us?
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah. Joanna is letting us know that pollinators are a keystone species. Meaning that they are a key to ... When you think about an arch and there's that keystone at the top that holds it all together. So pollinators are very important because they can hold together ... I guess they're a part of the ecosystem, and if we lose a part of the ecosystem, the ecosystem might suffer. And Gale, you're right, there are ways that we use plants and we need these pollinators.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah. So then maybe I should pose another question to our friends at home. So we know that pollinators help plants reproduce. And so what would happen if we didn't have any pollinators? What would happen?
Katie Derloshon:
David is saying that they had a chipmunk climbing in and around their flowers this morning and they were wondering if it was maybe now potentially spreading pollen around. Maybe.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah. Yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
So Gale, I really like to eat fruit and my son is really enjoying trying lots of new fruit right now. So I'm wondering if we didn't have pollinators, fruit comes from plants, what would happen to all of the fruit and the yummy foods I like to eat that come from plants?
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, I know Sophie's saying we eat lots of plants and so we would be hungry. It's so true. Right. Yeah. All right. And then Robert's saying that they live in northern California. Oh yes, and they've had a lot of detrimental wildfires. He's worried about whether the hives would be destroyed by this. How fast do they recover? That is a really good question. I don't necessarily know that answer. I know that they're pretty resilient, and I know that fires in California are especially a regular occurring thing. So I do wonder how the animals have adapted to that, but that's a really great question. All right, great answers. And I love how we're kind of having this virtual discussion about the importance of pollinators. Yeah. So pollinators are very important for our planet because as Sophie pointed out, without pollinators the foods that come from plants would not be around anymore. And if you think about bread, a lot of the things that we eat and it's not just fruits and vegetables, but a lot of things that we eat come from plants.
So yeah, it's an important project because it's studying pollinators in an urban area. And so as we think about our cities growing around the U.S. and maybe population, more housing covering areas, it's important to think about how that's affecting pollinators and whether we can be a better stop for pollinators. So we will share a link at the end of our program so that you can learn a more about this D.C.-focused project.
All right. Let's switch gears and let's practice some of those natural skills that we would use to help us observe pollinators. So let's do an activity. All right, friends at home, if you are by a window, what do you observe outside? Remember to use your senses. What do you see? What can you hear? If you're not by a window, go ahead and just make some observations in the area around you. So, Katie, I luckily am right by a window, and my parents' backyard is very green. There are so many different trees, and I know that there are different trees because their leaves look different. We have some ones with really tiny leaves. We have some ones with big broad leaves. I could recognize a dogwood tree out there because I could see the flowers.
Katie Derloshon:
Sounds lovely. Yeah. It's really windy here, and I can hear it through the window and I can see it in the trees. So I can see the movement of the wind blowing the trees around. So I know one of our families, too, is also saying that they were experiencing that wind this morning. So Jack is saying that they can see their azalea tree, or their azalea is in bloom. Ooh, sounds beautiful. Michelle hears birds and is able to see some trees too. And ooh, Jack says it's very pink. Sounds beautiful. I hope maybe Jack can make some observations and share some with us later of their azalea. That sounds like that would be very beautiful to see.
Gale Robertson:
And I'm very curious because one of our friends put kinkajou in the Q & A and I know we have an international, so I'm wondering does that mean that you see a kinkajou out your window? If so, that is really cool. I actually had to...
Katie Derloshon:
Whoop. Oops. So Gale, are you there?
Gale Robertson:
Yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
Oh, there you are. It got very quiet and it got muffled for a second.
Gale Robertson:
Oh no. Did you hear me talking about the kinkajou?
Katie Derloshon:
Nope. We just heard you asking them about the kinkajou.
Gale Robertson:
Oh yeah. So I had to google what kinkajou was, and it's a tropical rainforest mammal. And so I didn't know if a friend at home was able to observe that out their window, and, if so, that is pretty awesome. Oh, just the picture. Okay.
Katie Derloshon:
Very cool.
Gale Robertson:
Okay. I got excited.
Katie Derloshon:
It sounds good. But that would be really fun to observe one, right?
Gale Robertson:
Yeah. All right. Well thank you guys so much for sharing those observations. Let's continue our naturalist skills and think about what we can do with the observations that we just made. So what's next?
Katie Derloshon:
All right, so families at home. Let's ask our families at home. So families at home, think about if you had just made some observations. What might you do next with your observations? We're going to launch a poll, and here you can choose as many of the options that you might do with your observations once you've made them. So maybe you'll record them or add more information. Maybe you'll decide to share those observations with families or friends. Maybe you'll share them with other naturalists or other scientists. Maybe you'll look for patterns. Maybe you'll ask questions, and if it's other, you can share with us in the Q & A what you might do. So Emily is noting that they look for ways that things change over time. So maybe they'll use their observations to find some patterns of how things are changing throughout time just like we do at the museum too.
Gale Robertson:
I love that. That's awesome.
Katie Derloshon:
Wonderful. All right, so we're going to close this poll here in five, four, three, two, and one. All right.
Gale Robertson:
Oh, nice. These are great. I love that looking for patterns emerged as our top one because, yeah, I too was really interested once I went out making observations in my park, I'm like, "Well, how's it going to look in a couple of weeks?" And it already looked very different. So yeah, I was interested in that too. I love seeing that people are going to share with friends too. Yeah, think of questions. Nice. I love it. Everything has been covered in here, and thank you for adding some in the Q & A. Jack is saying that they're going to look for patterns of the different azalea blooms in the neighborhood. Theirs blooms later than the neighbors, oh, because it doesn't get much sun. Oh, that's interesting.
Katie Derloshon:
Oh wow.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah. Very nice. All right. These are some great ideas. And all of these examples are the things that naturalists can do after their observations too because one of the most important things that scientists can do is share their observations with the scientific community. When the naturalists share their observations with others in the science community, they can learn from and discover new things about nature too. They're trying to look for patterns that they could ask questions of and maybe answer some questions too.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So Gale, I actually have an example of how I was able to use some of my observations in nature from really recently to help actually my community of neighbors.
Gale Robertson:
Awesome. Let's hear about it.
Katie Derloshon:
[inaudible 00:26:13]. All right.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So Gale, last month you shared with us your story about how you and Juniper like to go and explore your neighborhood park, and we often also like to go to a park nearby us called Huntley Meadows. You can see it circled there, and I put a star where our museum is to orient us. And I normally just like to go, honestly, to enjoy the park, to get outside, get out of the house in a safe and shaded and peaceful place. And though my favorite thing to do is to go onto the boardwalk area to see if I can find any tadpoles or frogs and even some giant turtles. So on the top left there is a giant turtle that we saw just a couple days ago and frogs, and so there's me and my father exploring the park with my son. Yeah, it's pretty.
Gale Robertson:
Oh my gosh, you're so lucky to have that in your backyard basically.
Katie Derloshon:
I know. It's so close and we're so fortunate. But, however, since we go almost every day, we've been starting to notice some changes in how the park looks throughout the year. And there are different plants, sounds, and even animals too, from just a month ago. And like I said, my father also lives with us and he's starting to notice these differences too. So this week my dad thought it would be fun to start showing Elias, my son, some fun plants that he can safely pick or touch in nature because Elias really likes to poke at everything right now.
So we were going to go on a dandelion exploration to show him a little plant that he could start touching and exploring. So we decided to go searching for dandelions in Huntley Meadows, and we found one right away right at the welcome sign. It's in the circle there, and we outlined it as zoomed-in outline on the right side. And we found one right away, and I went down to show Elias and my dad immediately said, "Stop, Katie, don't touch it because the plant next to it is a plant you do not want to touch."
Gale Robertson:
Oh my gosh. What was it?
Katie Derloshon:
I'm not sure if you're familiar with it or if you've ever experienced it, Gale, but it was poison ivy, and that is not a plant that you want to come in contact with. If you're not ...
Gale Robertson:
Oh my gosh, there it is. Is it right next to where you're going to touch?
Katie Derloshon:
Here's the dandelion, here's the poison ivy. Yeah. So if you're not familiar with poison ivy, it's a plant that if you touch it or if it gets on your clothes, you can develop a really itchy rash. And my sister and I once both got this rash from the plant when we were growing up in Indiana. We were at my grandparents' house and we definitely were playing out in the woods and got in it, and it's definitely not fun. And Gale, I'm really glad my dad was there to warn me because that is not something I went to experience again. So here is a closeup of the plant. So here, actually, I went back yesterday and this plant had ... It was this little part right here, grew, now is right here, and here also is another picture of it from Huntley Meadows.
So we're wondering from our families at home, share with us in the Q & A what you notice about this plant or if you know anything about this plant. And Gale, I'm also curious from you, have you ever seen this plant or gotten a rash from it?
Gale Robertson:
Luckily, I have not had to experience it. My daughter is pretty good about finding them, but for me it's a little harder because I look at plants, I'm like, "Wait, that has three leaves," so I have a harder time observing. My 10-year-old can find them though.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah. Well Emily in the Q & A is saying one of those common phrases with poison ivy, the leaves of three, let it be, and yeah, my dad shared that with me too. Leaves of three, let it be. Don't even risk it, don't touch it. And Michelle's noticing that it's on a big vine. Yes. And Gretchen and Fletcher are saying it's growing in the ground as a single, and it can also grow on the vine. So poison ivy can grow in kind of shrubs, and it can also grow on vines, on the earth, or on the ground or up trees or up sides of buildings or up sides of your house. It can grow up stuff too. And David is saying that when it gets bigger, the vine is hairy. Yeah. So that's another key thing, or key characteristic of this plant is that it can get hairy. The vine ...
Gale Robertson:
Oh my gosh, there's another saying. So we had that leaves of three, let it be and then don't be a dope, it's not a furry rope.
Katie Derloshon:
Love it.
Gale Robertson:
I'll have to tell that to my daughter because she knows the leaves of three, let it be, and she likes to sing it along to a Beatles song.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah.
Gale Robertson:
But yeah, don't be a dope, it's a ... I'll have to ask her what song that can go along with.
Katie Derloshon:
That sounds good. Yeah. So some of these things were things that my dad shared with me too. And at first I asked my dad how he knew that this was poison ivy. And he said, "Well Katie, haven't you heard leaves of three, let it be?" Like what Emily was saying in the Q & A too. So this means that if you find a plant with three leaves, it is best to not touch it because maybe it's poisonous, and he's also said it's one of those plant rules that it's really just good to know. So my dad really likes plants and being out in nature, so I should have probably just trusted him. But I also wanted to check with an app that Gale had shared with us last week, or last month, called Seek. This app is really cool and is really neat because it can help you identify almost anything out in nature immediately.
And if you might find plants or animals, it can help you to identify those too. And it definitely told me that, yup, this was poison ivy, as you can see here on the right. Now, throughout the rest of our walk together that day, just this past week, my dad shared with me the characteristics or traits of what poison ivy looks like and to help me identify it, and some of those you actually all already noticed when we were looking at it together a few minutes ago. So here are some of those key traits that I shared with my community of neighbors and I wanted to share with you all today too. So poison ivy, like some of you said, will always appear in this pattern of three leaves, and those leaves are pointy too. So some leaves are rounded, but poison ivy leaves are going to be pointy.
Now also, the middle leaf is going to have a longer stem. So I was looking really close, and you can see the two leaves on the side. They're just coming right out of maybe the vine, but the middle leaf is on a long stem so keep that in mind. Another key trait is that the outside hands can look like mittens. Not always, but sometimes they'll look like mittens. So mittens like you wear when it's cold outside. If your pinkies are touching and you have the thumb on the outside, so if you see a mitten leaf of three, that might be poison ivy. So this is another sign that my dad taught me. One more he taught me...
Gale Robertson:
Katie, [inaudible 00:33:25].
Katie Derloshon:
What'd you say?
Gale Robertson:
Can I make a comment about this too, though?
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah.
Gale Robertson:
Because one thing I notice is that the mitten thumbs aren't as prominent. You can't see the mitten thumbs in some of them, Some of the mitten thumbs are a little teeny ones too, right?
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, and sometimes they don't have them. So this is just they could potentially have it. They'll always have three leaves. They'll always be pointy, and that middle stem will always be longer. And another characteristic is that they could be shaped like mittens. Now, Gale, they also could look waxy or slippery. So you'll see that one there in the middle is waxy, but the others on the outside, they don't look very waxy. So it's another thing that they could, and like David was telling us in the Q & A, they could be on or near a hairy vine. So those are some of those key traits that my dad shared with me. And for the rest of our walk, I just kept all of these things in mind, and together we were able to find poison ivy and it is currently all around our park at Huntley Meadows.
Gale Robertson:
Oh, wow. So it's good that your dad was there to help you and Elias identify which plants were safe to touch.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, I agree. And a lot of our neighbors that used this park too, in fact, when we went the other day, we saw one of our neighbors there. And so my dad and I felt it was really important to share our observations and findings of poison ivy with our local neighborhood community and our online neighborhood group. And because we recorded our observations by taking lots of pictures, we were also able to share pictures of what it looks like in case they need help identifying it too. And I've had lots of our neighbors contact me saying, "Thank you for reminding me to look out for this, and thanks for the pictures too." So as a community, we were able to use these observations to help keep each other safe.
Gale Robertson:
That's awesome. I mean, it sounds like you were just on your daily walk around your park, but you naturally began to use your naturalist skills, noticing things and letting your curiosity drive your observations. And then it ended up being a great community resource for your neighbors because I'm sure a lot of people are taking walks and so it's good to let them know that poison ivy's out there. And I noticed, too, that it's really close to the path. You don't have to go so deep in to encounter it, so wow.
Katie Derloshon:
Yup. Poison ivy is native to this. It's a native plant here so it's it growing. It's not invasive or anything. This is it's natural habitat for the plant to be growing in. So Huntley Meadows allows nature to do its thing. They will keep the path safe and clear for people to walk it, but if you go out of the path, then you're now in nature's territory. So they allow it to grow there because it helps keep their park in balance. And it is true, we did not go out with the intent to find and then share all about poison ivy with our neighborhood. We were on a dandelion hunt, remember? But that's how it turned out. And now after finding it once, our curiosity then kind of took over and we wanted to see how much we could find using those characteristics that my dad shared with me.
Gale Robertson:
Awesome. So you were able to share your observations with your community on the neighborhood online group. Have you thought about sharing your observations with a community of naturalists?
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, actually I already have shared them online with the scientific community and other naturalists too. And can I share about that with you?
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, let us know. Tell us about this.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So while we were out on our walk, I took lots of pictures to help me record my observations. And then when I got home, I uploaded them onto an online portal called iNaturalist. iNaturalist is another app that you can download on your phone, kind of like Seek, and if you download it on your phone though, you can upload those observations immediately so that others can start to see those observations. Now this app, though, is different from Seek that I shared with you earlier because with iNaturalist you can share your observations with others around the world that have this app too. Both Seek and iNaturalist will help you to identify whatever it is you're observing, but you can only share what you found with iNaturalist. And, like I said, iNaturalist is used by people all over the world who share their observations so that others can learn what types of living things are found all over the world.
Now, one of those cool things that iNaturalist can show you is a map of where observations can be found. And, in fact, here is a map of where poison ivy observations have been made, and that star is where I am here in Alexandria, Virginia. So you can kind of see where all of the observations have been made, and each orange or red square shows where poison ivy has been found and the yellow star, again, that's where I am.
Gale Robertson:
Oh, okay. So I have a question from what I'm seeing on this map. Are the squares different observations?
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah. The squares are different observations of the poison ivy, and I believe the darker they are, that means the more that have been found in that one spot.
Gale Robertson:
All right. And I don't know if you were going to talk about this, but the darker colors versus the lighter colors.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, I think the darker they are, that means that there's more in that one spot so maybe more have been found in that spot.
Gale Robertson:
All right. So, Katie, thank you so much for showing us how you share your observations with iNaturalist so others can learn. This is so cool. I love seeing your data with a bunch of other naturalist data. That's really, really cool because what I'm noticing is that by sharing observations, scientists can learn from each other and each observation is one piece to a larger puzzle. And the more observations naturalists have, the more puzzles they can solve.
Katie Derloshon:
I agree. And naturalists can also use this information to work together to be able to find solutions to help our planet and living things on it. And they can also think of their own questions too. All right.
Gale Robertson:
Awesome.
Katie Derloshon:
Gale, I have a question for you. Do you want to practice your observation skills and see if you all and our families at home can identify some poison ivy?
Gale Robertson:
Yes. And I'm excited to do this with our viewers because it seems like they know a lot already and I'm feeling a little bit like they're going to do really great and I'm going to... Let's practice our identifying skills. Definitely. I think it's going to be fun.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So first, let's review what we learned and what my dad shared with us and what you shared with us in the Q & A about poison ivy. So, again, poison ivy will have three pointy leaves. The middle leaf will be on a little bit longer stem than the others. It can maybe look like mittens. It could possibly be waxy or look slippery. And keep on thinking about the hairy vine. Look for it around and see if there is a hairy vine nearby. So are you ready, Gale?
Gale Robertson:
Yes. Let's do it.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So here is the first picture. So we're going to start off by making observations first of the plant you can think about, see if you can find those characteristics. Then we're going to launch a poll asking which of the characteristics you notice. Do you see the three leaves? Are they pointy? Do you see the middle leaf? Is it longer the stem? Do you see mittens? Do you see any waxy or slippery looking things are on the leaf or do you see a hairy vine? So we're going to launch that poll and tell us what characteristics you notice.
Gale Robertson:
All right. Yeah. So take some time to make your observations. Ooh, we got some people putting in their poll answers. Yup.
Katie Derloshon:
Looks like a lot of our naturalists are definitely seeing the three pointy leaves.
Gale Robertson:
Great. Yup. Awesome. Looking good. I think we might have got ... Oh nope, there's some people still making their observations. All right. Yeah, I think it looks like everyone has seen the pointy leaves. Mostly everyone saw the longer stem for the middle leaf and the mitten shape leaves. Yeah, the wax leaves were a little bit harder to see, but some of our friends had some eagle eyes and one person saw a hairy vine.
Katie Derloshon:
Oh, all right.
Gale Robertson:
[inaudible 00:42:22] was happening.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So, Gale, since our participants shared their observations of what they see here, what do you think? Do you think that this is poison ivy?
Gale Robertson:
I think based on our observations, yes, this is poison ivy.
Katie Derloshon:
Yes, this is definitely poison ivy. Y'all are right. You can see those three leaves. You can see that longer stem for that middle leaf, and they're pointy. You might even be able to see the mittens. Cool. All right. Ready for your next one?
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, let's do it in the next one.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, here is the next one. All right. Same characteristics. We're looking for the three leaves. Pointy, Do you see a mitten? Does it look waxy? Is there a hairy vine? What do you think for this one? And then you can tell us in the Q & A too, if you think it's poison ivy or not.
Gale Robertson:
Okay. So the poll has been launched. Let's make our observations thinking about what we see here. It does look like that longer stem is in the middle, and we have some friends that are seeing that as well. Yeah, definitely seeing three leaves.
Katie Derloshon:
Right. Well, let's go ahead and close this poll here, Gale. Awesome. So it looks like you're right. A lot of people were seeing the three pointy leaves and the longer stem. What do you think, Gale?
Gale Robertson:
Well, yeah, I would say it's ... Since there's only two of those characteristics and not the other ones, I'm going to say it's not.
Katie Derloshon:
Yup. And Joanne and Jack are both saying in the Q & A definitely that they don't think that this is poison ivy either and you're right. This is not. But it sometimes is confused as poison ivy, it's called the American hog peanut plant. I had never heard of it before, but it is commonly confused or commonly misidentified as poison ivy because of those three leaves and that longer stem. But you're right, we don't see the thumb or the mitten. We don't see the waxy coating, and it's not attached to a hairy vine. All right, Gale.
Gale Robertson:
All right.
Katie Derloshon:
Want to try one more?
Gale Robertson:
Let's do one more.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, here we go. Is this poison ivy?
Gale Robertson:
All right, let's look at those characteristics. There are three pointy leaves. Is there a longer middle stem for the middle leaf? Do you see any mitten-shaped leaves? Are the leaves waxy? And do you see a hairy vine? Yeah. So, all right. So a lot of our friends are seeing that hairy vine. I think we're going to need some eagle eyes to see the other characteristics.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, I can see some leaves coming off of the vine, but you're right that hairy vine definitely might give us pause if we were to come at this in nature. All right, let's see those results, Gale, and let us know what you think. What do you think, Gale? You think this is poison ivy?
Gale Robertson:
All right. Yeah. And friends at home, help me out in the Q & A. Do you think this is poison ivy or not? I think that hairy vine is very prominent, and I think if you look really close there are some friends that also saw that there are some plants with three pointy leaves and a longer stem and waxy leaves. I think it is poison ivy.
Katie Derloshon:
Yes, this is definitely poison ivy. Now you might not ... You're right, those leaves are kind of high up. So it might be tricky to identify if this is for sure poison ivy, but that hairy vine definitely is one of those key traits of poison ivy that if you see it, you should possibly not touch it. It's best to stay away. And even if you're not quite sure if it's poison ivy or not, you should act like it is and just stay cautious just in case. All right. Yeah, and we ...
Gale Robertson:
I actually wanted to pause because we had a couple of comments. Sophie in Derby said that she doesn't have poison ivy in England, and so she's interested to learn from her online community about this plant that is not in the region that she lives in. And also, WC was saying in the West Coast, there isn't as much poison ivy, but more poison oak, so that's interesting. And that map kind of showed it too. You saw all that red on the East Coast and then the middle of the U.S., but not so much on the West.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah. All right. So thank you for sharing that in the Q & A and great job everyone making your observations and practicing those naturalist skills while we practiced identifying this plant. We hope you're all excited now to maybe get outside and start making your own observations too. Now that you also know a little bit about poison ivy, you can avoid that too.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah. So now it's your turn to be community naturalist. So we've already shared with you the Seek app that can be downloaded onto your mobile phone and that can help your family with the nature observations. Katie, if you click once, yeah, there you go. Also, just to remind you, you don't need technology to be a community naturalist. If you want to share with your community, your family, you can make a family field notebook. And so here's a picture of Inez observing some plants in our neighborhood. So yeah, you don't need that technology. You could also just use your nature field book. We also introduced you to a Washington, D.C.-area pollination project, and we're going to share all of these resources with you after the program in the post program email, and even maybe links in the Q & A.
But I wanted to specifically talk about a project that anyone in the world can participate in. And it's actually happening this weekend. It's happening from April 30th, so it's already started until May 3rd. And it's an event called the City Nature Challenge. And so this is a community event that is run by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. And so for this event, people all over the world are invited to take as many observations of wildlife as they can because they want people to document wildlife in their cities. And so this is any plants, any animals. Don't take pictures of your dogs or plants that you planted in your yard, but they want you to make observations of wildlife. And so to participate, it is a coordinated event. And so they want you to just go and find wildlife. Find anything, take a picture of it, and note the location that you found it.
And you could either download the iNaturalist app onto your phone and it'll automatically get recorded into it or you can upload any photos onto the iNaturalist platform on your desktop, on the Internet. And so this is a coordinated event, and it's to bring together a community of naturalists and scientists to explore and share biodiversity in the community and in the planet. So it's a really, really great chance for you to practice being a community naturalist. Use those observation skills and recording skills that we've been practicing and adding your observations to this event that goes until May 3rd. And so we will share the information of how to participate so you can find out whether your city or area is participating.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. Well, Gale, thank you for sharing how families at home can be community naturalists or share what they discover as naturalists with their community. And friends, our time is almost up for today's program. Gale and I are so excited to go out with our families, too, now to participate in the City Nature Challenge. I know, Gale, that I have some friends and family that live in different states than I am that will be joining me virtually on iNaturalist too. So I'm excited to see not only what I can share or find and share with them, but also maybe whose city finds the most this year. And we all hope that you are excited to get out there and join in on the fun too, whether it's in recording observations using one of those apps that we shared today, or maybe even in your own personal field notebook.
We are excited though, to hear how you and your family will explore nature together in your area. So let us know in the Q & A or in the poll how you and your family might practice your community naturalist skills together. Will you be participating in the City Nature Challenge? Maybe you're local and you can come and share some observations of our gardens for Pollination DC project. Maybe you want to earn some badges for the Seek project or the Seek app. Maybe there's a local project you can find on iNaturalist. Maybe you want to make a field nature notebook, or maybe you want to do something like I did. Go make observations and then share with your neighborhood about what you observe.
Gale Robertson:
Right. so Jack already said that they're going to go out today and take pictures. Great. So I am not in Washington, D.C., right now. Like you said, Katie, I'm in Newport News, Virginia, but I found out that the City Nature Challenge is happening here, and so I will go out and take pictures for City Nature Challenge. So that's what we're going to do this afternoon. How about you?
Katie Derloshon:
Oh, wow. Your observations will not be able to be add to the D.C.'s, right? So it's kind of like where I am and where you are.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, I'm in competition.
Katie Derloshon:
We can see who does the most, right?
Gale Robertson:
Yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, excellent. That sounds like so much fun, Gale.
Gale Robertson:
Okay. And then, yes, Jack, I hope people get to come to D.C. sometime this year when everything gets a little bit settled down. And if you do, please take some pictures in our gardens that are around the museums. They're beautiful, beautiful gardens. All right, and I love seeing, oh, people are going to make a family nature notebook. Yes, we have a family nature notebook. Some of it is digital. Some of it is pressed plants. Some of it is drawings, so this is awesome. Thank you all for sharing how you're going to practice your community naturalist skills.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, and Gale, I shared a slide a little too quickly. One thing I'm excited to go take observations of in a couple weeks are cicadas, so it'll be too late to take observations of cicadas for City Nature Challenge, but I hope I can add them to our family field notebook too.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, it's going to be really exciting, Brood Ten. All right, well, I know that you had a chance to share what you're going to be doing with your community naturalist skills, but we'd love to see what you do. So please send anything, send your nature observations. Let us know about your experiences, and send it to us at NMNH-Familyprograms@si.edu. This is one of our favorite parts of our programs is seeing how you guys go out and enjoy and explore and do activities that we recommend. Also grownups, there's going to be a short survey for you to fill out after the program. When you leave the webinar, a window will pop up with a link to the survey. And we thank you in advance for your feedback as we grow and build our online programming.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, and Jack is saying in the Q & A they wanted to thank us for those poison ivy ID tips, and we are just here to show you how we're practicing our community naturalist skills. We went and observed things in our community, and we are now sharing them with our virtual community here at Natural History at Home. And we hope to see you again at future programs. So next month's program is going to be related to World Ocean Day, and I am super excited that our ocean educators, Meaghan and Lara, are going to be back to join me here on the screen. We had so much fun learning about narwhals with them back in December, and they'll be back next month to talk about some of the amazing sharks that can be found in the marine habitat of the Galapagos Islands. But if you did miss Meaghan and Lara last time in December, they are going to join me for a special Natural History at Home crafty hour on Wednesday, May 19th at 6:00 PM through Remake Learning Days, where we will explore together the amazing adaptations of the narwhal all over again.
Gale Robertson:
Oh my gosh, that sounds like so much fun. And I really wish I could be a part of those future programs. But I wanted to share with my family programs community online that this is my last family program with the National Museum of Natural History. I will be moving over to the Air and Space Museum at the end of May, so I'll still be part of the Smithsonian family, but I will no longer be working at Natural History. I have so enjoyed creating these programs for you and hopefully inspiring you to follow your curiosity especially around science and nature. So I'm glad that I'm still going to be part of the Smithsonian family. So I hope to see you at our sister museum, Air and Space. I know that family programs are in excellent hands with my other brain, Katie, and with Christian as our amazing director and our team in the backend.
So the family programs will still be happening at Natural History, and we have a great team running them. I also wanted to tell our community of people who have been attending our programs, thank you so much, Sophie in Derby. I am a big fan of you. I think it's so great that I love seeing you at every program. David and Fiona and the Thomas family also love you guys. You guys are such a great support to us. But yeah, it's not goodbye. It is see you later. And Katie and I already have some big plans for how we're going to collaborate.
Katie Derloshon:
I know, right? I was about to say, keep an eye out because Gale and I already have an idea cooking for a joint program, and I promise it's going to be awesome. And yeah, Gale, I'm totally going to miss you. And now, woo, going to get all emotional.
Gale Robertson:
I know. I know. I also want to say that for those of you who have been on our virtual programs, we cannot wait to see you in person. Like Jack when you said that you're going to try to come to D.C., reach out to us, let us know if you are ever in the area because we do feel so ... We do this for you all, and so we definitely want to meet you if you ever are in the D.C. area. You guys have been so amazing and so supportive so yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
So Gale, we will see you together because we have an idea for Natural History at Home coming up in the near future. But for me, I hope to see you all next month as we continue to explore nature by now talking about some sharks at the Galapagos Islands. Thank you all for joining us today, and special shout out to Aaron too. Thank you for joining us today for our program as well. And we'll see, we might see you back again next month too.
Gale Robertson:
Yeah, thank you all. Have fun exploring nature. Be safe, poison ivy. Poison nettles. All right.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. Thanks everyone.
Gale Robertson:
Bye everyone.
