November 2020

Dear Teacher,

We are writing to let you know about an exciting event coming up that may be of interest
to you and your students.

The Trinidad and Tobago Bioblitz​ is an annual event held by the ​Trinidad and Tobago Field
Naturalists’ Club​, with assistance from the Department of Life Sciences, The University of the
West Indies. This will be our 9​th​ Bioblitz!

Usually we visit a particular part of the country and survey the biodiversity of the area intensively
for 24 hours to see how many species we can find. Our teams tend to include a mixture of
100-200 professional scientists, amateur naturalists, students and members of the public. At the
end of the event we announce the grand total of species found, alongside any especially
exciting discoveries.

This year, due to Covid-19, we are organising a socially-distant Bioblitz that ​ANYONE​ can join
in with without leaving their homes. As such, we anticipate involving more people than ever
before and would love to involve as many schools as possible.

This “Backyard Bioblitz” will take place between ​noon on the 21​st​ and noon on 22​nd​ November
2020​. People across our two islands will be surveying their backyards for wildlife, taking photos
of what they see using their cellphones and uploading them to ​iNaturalist​, which is a very cool
app that allows experts around the world to help identify your species for you, while adding to
our knowledge of T&T’s biodiversity.

It is an ideal activity for students to learn first-hand about the biodiversity that they will find in
their own backyard. Every gecko, kiskadee, ant and weed counts in Bioblitz; we all have tens to
hundreds of species in our backyards, however small they might be.

It would be fantastic if you could encourage your students to take part in this event –
whether as part of class or as an extra activity.

We have included some ideas and information below, but please do not hesitate to contact us at
ttbioblitz@gmail.com​ if you have any questions at all – we will be happy to try and help.

If you do decide to involve your class, please do let us know and stay in touch!

Looking forward to your participation!

Amy, Stephanie, Laura, Renoir, Mark, Linton, Karishma & Ryan

The 2020 T&T Bioblitz Committee
 USEFUL INFO

SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow us on ​facebook​ and ​instagram

USING ‘INATURALIST’
Instructions for Bioblitz Participants:

a. Download the (free) iNaturalist app or sign up via the ​website

b. Click the green ‘+’ button to add your observation
c. Snap a photo of any plants and animal/insect spotted
d. Add to project – ‘Trinidad and Tobago Backyard Bioblitz’
e. Press the green tick at the bottom of the page
f. That’s it!

We have recorded the following short step-by-step videos that you may find helpful:

1) Getting started with iNaturalist

-​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVNHUtm8kUQ&t=12s
2) Using the iNaturalist phone app- ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpb_gbnmZqk
3) Uploading a single photo- ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzo2EG312Is
4) Uploading multi-photos- ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ashvu8pmsck&t=6s

Health & Safety

Although generally safe, even our backyards can contain hazards. Younger children should be
supervised by an adult, and teachers/parents should remind children ​not to touch any animals
or plants ​that they are not familiar with. For example, ants, bees, wasps, spiders, scorpions and
caterpillars may sting, bite or irritate the skin if handled, so these in particular should not be
touched. To take part in Bioblitz, you only need to take photographs!

INCORPORATING BIOBLITZ INTO THE CLASSROOM

There are many ways that Bioblitz can be incorporated into the classroom for all ages.

Older children can sign up via their phones or their parents’ phones as described above and
actually contribute to the official Backyard Bioblitz observations! It is also possible to upload
image files from a non-phone camera via the iNaturalist website.

Younger children can still participate even without officially uploading photos (parents/teacher
can upload if they wish).
 ACTIVITY IDEAS

BIOLOGY
a. How many species did YOU count in your backyard this weekend? Share your species list.
(​Could ask students before the weekend to predict how many species they might see, then on
Monday compare this number with how many they actually saw)​
b. Which was your favourite and why? Do some research on your chosen species and
present to the class.

ART
a. Draw/paint/collage one of the species you saw in your backyard
b. Take a really close-up photo of a plant or animal in your backyard.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
a. Discussion points: How could you increase the number of species in your backyard? Is
backyard biodiversity important? Why?

ENGLISH
a. Keep a Bioblitz diary over the weekend
b. Write a short story set in your backyard; the species that live there can be the characters

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
a. Using iNaturalist – navigating the website and/or app. Discuss how the app is able to
‘guess’ your species from the photo alone.
b. Researching a species online.

Look for us on ​facebook​, ​instagram​ and on our ​webpage ​to see photos from our past events
and get updates of this year’s event.