New Perspectives in Science Education
Exploring Biodiversity through Mobile Technology
Melissa Caspary, Georgia Gwinnett College (United States)
Abstract
Mobile technology offers new opportunities to engage students in the exploration of biodiversity through hands-on, field-based learning. This project incorporates smartphone applications, digital photography, and citizen science tools into undergraduate botany laboratories to help students investigate species diversity in their local environments. Using applications such as iNaturalist and Seek, students document, identify, and record plants, fungi, insects, and other organisms in campus habitats. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential of these applications to support species identification, increase student engagement, and promote active participation in biodiversity research (Unger et al., 2021; Niemiller et al., 2021). Through structured biodiversity surveys, students collect and analyze ecological data, compare species richness across habitats, and examine the environmental factors that influence biodiversity. Students also contribute observations to citizen science platforms, connecting classroom activities to broader scientific research and conservation efforts (Herodotou et al., 2024). This approach emphasizes active learning, scientific observation, data collection, and ecological reasoning while making biodiversity investigations accessible without specialized field equipment. Integrating mobile technology into field-based biology instruction provides opportunities for flexible and accessible experiential learning (Chapple et al., 2017). By integrating familiar mobile devices into laboratory instruction, this project aims to increase student engagement, strengthen field research skills, and foster a deeper understanding of biodiversity and its ecological significance. The approach provides a flexible, adaptable framework for incorporating technology-enhanced, experiential learning into undergraduate biology education (Rode & Torkar, 2023).
Keywords: Biodiversity education, mobile technology, active learning, field-based learning, citizen science
REFERENCES
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