Database welcomes student data

We loaded 20 iBooks with Adobe AIR and the prototype data entry form, and carted them to Falmouth Middle School for an afternoon of testing. Lew Plummer & Anne Macdonald graciously offered up two classes of students to enter data from a September field trip to the Falmouth Town Landing. It's pretty neat to see student records in the database.

Detailed observations were sent off to Image Works. Here are a few of the bigger ideas that came of this initial test:

• Photographs are important to students. A surprise to us, they remember specific photographs they took weeks ago. It's what they wanted to look at most on the VS website. The photograph upload engaged students who had otherwise checked out completely from entering data.
  
• Students don't understand latitude and longitude. They will just as easily put themselves at -10 longitude as -70. Big problem when location is so critical.
  
• Data quality is severely lacking, underscoring the need for wicked good species identification materials, and activities that prompt students to look closely for slight differences among species.