Project Title: Siena’s Species of the Week

Project Title: Siena’s Species of the Week

Authors: Emily Boucher, Jaymie Fernandes, Sarah Forsyth, Jennifer Guzman, Aaron Melick, and Alexander Wiegand

Project Summary:

Students and staff must guess what the species of the week is, based on clues given throughout the week, before the species name is revealed at the end of the week. The results will be digitally displayed throughout campus. The winner will be revealed at the end of the week with the species and get a shout out on social media platforms.

Target Audience:

Siena students and Faculty/Staff

Key Partners:

IT Department

Departments specific to each building

Social Media Group

Siena Students

Relevant Campus Contacts:

Digital Displays- School of Science office, Library (Director of the Library-Loretta), SSU, Saga

Environmental Club

Formats:

Formats will include

            -Digital Displays

            -Student Digest Posts

            -Social Media Posts

Project Description:

Introduction-

            Over time people become disconnected from nature and wilderness in what Robert Pyle, an ecologist, called the extinction of experience. When people become disconnected from nature they tend not to care about environmental issues like biodiversity loss. For more people to regain a connection to the natural world, they need to develop and interest in it. One way to do this is to show them what wilderness is around them that they might not even be aware of. By having a “species of the week” the students of Siena will hopefully develop an appreciation for the diversity of life around campus that will further their concern for our environment. Incoming Freshmen who may have grown up as part of the rapidly growing urban population are of particular importance since we want these new students to become part of the solution to biodiversity loss. 

Description-

            Each week, a species will be chosen for Siena’s Species of the Week. This species will be revealed little by little with a clue each day. Monday, a post will be made on the Student Digest with the first clue, where other clues can be found, and a link to a form where people can guess the species. Google forms would be ideal because then you can keep track of how many people are getting involved in the guessing of the Species of the Week. The rest of the week, clues can be found on the Social Media Team’s Instagram account and Digital Displays around campus. On Friday, the species will be revealed and the first person to guess the species correctly will get a shout-out.

Set up for the week-

-Monday: Post in the Student Digest the first clue of the Species of the Week with Google Form, link to Social Media Team’s Instagram, and locations of where else to find clues around campus

-Tuesday: Another clue of species (audio clips)

-Wednesday: Zoomed in/blurry image of species along with another clue

-Thursday: Map from iNaturalist of locations species has been found on campus

-Friday: Reveal of Species of the week and shout-out for who guessed the species correctly first

*Instagram stories will be posted of each clue everyday*

To keep the species sustained for the future we will post on Siena digest asking the students and staff/ faculty to get involved by downloading and inputting data into iNaturalist. Another way to sustain the species of the week would be to recycle the species of the week once the species from iNaturalist are all used. The Environmental Club could be asked to create a small committee in order to continue this project in future years.

Project Outputs:

This semester we will be organizing photos and facts about one species per week for the school year in order to spread awareness about biodiversity on Siena Campus. We will be producing weekly digital displays with clues for people on campus and a final display revealing the species of the week and the winner.

Project Implementation and Timeline:

Emily Boucher: Figure out how to display Species of Week in Library, helping with daily hints, format clues for Instagram stories to be posted by Social Media Team

Jaymie Fernandes: Winner template for displays (word document), google forms, and helping with daily hints.

Sarah Forsyth: Friday final reveal format, figure out what species would be good to use, Photos

Jennifer Guzman: Helping with Daily hints, creating and displaying posters to spread awareness

Alexander Wiegand: Post weekly updates on Daily Digest: Monday: first clue, where to find rest of the clues, google form questionnaire. Friday: Answer along with winners

Aaron Melick: Locating digital displays, figuring out how we will upload them.

February 16, 2020: Submit full proposal

            -done by all group members

March 1, 2020: Locate all digital displays on campus, learn procedures to upload to each

            -done by Emily Boucher and Aaron Melick

March 1, 2020: Final list of species for Fall 2020 semester

            -done by Sarah Forsyth and Emily Boucher

March 21, 2020: Final list of hints for all Fall 2020 Species of the Week

            -done by Alex Wiegand and Jaymie Fernandes

April 16, 2020: Final draft poster

            -done by Jennifer

April 20, 2020: Peer review draft report

            -done by Alex WIegand and Writing Center

April 20-27, 2020: Revise draft report

            -done by all group members

April 23, 2020: Submit final poster

            -done by all group members

April 27, 2020: Submit final report

            -done by all group members

May 1, 2020: Present poster at Academic Celebration

            -done by all group members

Sources of Information for Project:

●     iNaturalist

●     Siena camera traps for photos

●     Enva Symposium images

●     NYS DEC website

References Cited:

-       iNaturalist

-       Google images