Ranger Vision, by QuestaGame, has been developed for teachers to encourage students to explore nature and learn about biodiversity at the same time.

About QuestaGame
QuestaGame has thousands of experts who help players identify and learn about the species they find. These experts include leading scientists from some of the world’s most prestigious scientific institutions, such as renowned museums and universities. They also include amateur field naturalists, be they retired biologists, students, or hobbyists who can identify thousands of species.

But here’s the thing:
Some of the top performing experts on QuestaGame - the ones who can quickly and accurately identify the most species - are amateurs.

And here’s the really remarkable thing:
Some of these top performing experts are less than 15 years old. 
The fact is, if given a chance, most young students will excel at identifying wildlife. They are just as capable of contributing to our scientific knowledge about biodiversity as anyone else.

REQUIREMENTS

1. Register your class
During registration, you’ll assign login nicknames for your students. (For privacy reasons, please do not use real names).  

2. You’ll also need mobile devices with the Ranger Vision installed (download for iOS devices or Android devices) to distribute to your students so they can record photos of wildlife.

In fact, if we’re going to figure out how best to coexist with nature, it’s going to require millions of people - maybe hundreds of million of people, maybe more than 50% of all humanity - to closely observe and learn about their natural environments.

Luckily, it also turns out that our brains are predisposed to do exactly this. Nature astonishes, captivates, delights. Sometimes, sure, it terrifies us too. But it always thrills us. It always grabs our attention. Few if any fictional works of fantasy - be they books, movies, online games - can compare in sheer entertainment value to a real encounter with real wildlife.

Finally, perhaps most importantly, spending time in nature not only stirs our curiosity, but it’s good for our health. It increases mental well being. It helps us heal. It strengthens our communities. Indeed, our biology yearns to be outdoors.

For more information about the health benefits of nature, read this independent review of over 200 scientific journal articles - http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/about-us/healthy-parks-healthy-people/the-research

NATURE IS BORING!

If we teach students about nature from inside a classroom, yes, for some students it may seem boring. See that cage over there? That aquarium? That jar? That poster with the lion? That ranger holding a terrified rabbit? That’s nature for you. That’s biology. Now open your textbooks to page 58.

But what happens when we get outdoors and get students competing to find and identify as many species as they can?

Explain to the students that people have created collections of living organisms for thousands of years. Sometimes in zoos. Sometimes in museums. It could be insects pinned and stored in drawers, or small mammals preserved in jars. It could be photographs in books. Recently people have been using digital technology to turn these collections into detailed maps of biodiversity. Show them some maps on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (http://www.gbif.org).

Digital technology allows the photos you take to be tagged with a precise location. Explain to the students that they’ll be using the camera in the Ranger Vision app to create their own collection of living organisms. Explain that they want to collect as many different types of organisms as they can, and that their collection will help researches better understand and protect the environment. This type of activity is sometimes called ‘citizen science.’

Important things to know

• Students use Ranger Vision (for iOS devices or Android devices) to submit ‘sightings,’ which are photographic observations of a species. 
• Students should only submit one species at a time.
• Students should not submit sightings of domesticated animals, humans, or cultivated plants.
• Students can submit up to 5 photos of a ‘specimen’ per sighting.
  What’s a specimen? A specimen is a living example of a single species.
• Students can add ‘field notes’ describing the sighting.
  What are field notes? Field notes are observations about the specimen. For example, what was the specimen doing? What other living things did you see around? What is the weather like? And so forth.
• Students use the “Laboratory” feature in Ranger Vision to categorise theirs and other’s sightings.

IMPORTANT: Newly submitted sightings will appear in the Teacher's Dashboard. They will not appear in the app's "Laboratory" until you approve them. 

Categorise your sightings (Estimate: 25 minutes)

So the students now have a collection of their sightings.

Once you approve the sightings in the Teacher's Dashboard, the students can classify the sightings of their classmates.