The Sea Grant Great Lakes BioBlitz is an event in collaboration with members of the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network and the Sea Grant Center for Great Lakes Literacy. This event is an opportunity for people in the Great Lakes region - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, Canada - to collectively observe and compare and share the biodiversity they find in their communities.
Image credit: M. Thoms
Registration details for April 22-May 20, 2023 event
2023 Registration details
- Visit www.inaturalist.org on your computer, or download the iNaturalist app from your app store onto your mobile device.
- Create a free account.
- Search "2023 Sea Grant Great Lakes BioBlitz."
- Select "join" to become a member of the 2023 Sea Grant Great Lakes BioBlitz project.
- Start making observations!
- To be a BioBlitz wizard, verify other participant's Great Lakes BioBlitz project postings.
Project description
A BioBlitz is an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many wild, living things as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. This BioBlitz focuses on the Great Lakes region. It begins on Earth Day, April 22, 2023 and lasts four weeks.
The Sea Grant Great Lakes BioBlitz will use iNaturalist to submit, record, and share observations.
Why Minnesota Sea Grant?
The Sea Grant Great Lakes BioBlitz was developed in response to a request from teachers to get their learners outside during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project supports Minnesota Sea Grant's focus area of Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development. Awareness of the biodiversity in the Great Lakes watershed is a key part of developing environmental literacy and is one of the Great Lakes literacy principles.
What have we done lately?
Participants & audience
The Sea Grant Great Lakes BioBlitz is geared toward teachers, educators, students, families, and those interested in expanding upon their environmental literacy.
Funding
The Sea Grant Great Lakes BioBlitz is funded by the Great Lakes Restorative Initiative.
Testimonials
"I wanted to say how much I enjoyed the iNaturalist workshops that were run the past few weeks [April 2021]. I was only planning to attend the first ... but enjoyed it and learned so much in it that I attended the second week (now I'm fired up about nature journaling.). As a result of the workshops, we [UMD Life Sciences] ran a lab in General Biology II this week where students came to class with pics of at least 3 organisms they took in a natural area near them, learned to install and use iNaturalist ... and used the filters to make inquiries about the range and phenology of their organisms based on your example with marsh marigolds. Thanks to you and the rest of the Sea Grant folks for getting us started on this."
Paul Bates, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Swenson College of Science and Engineering
UMD Biology
University of Minnesota Duluth