contest winners
What was this project?
Through June of 2021, we challenged anyone with a cell phone connection to document biodiversity all over the world. We accomplished this through a community project on iNaturalist.com, a website and application where users can document biodiversity for science.
By using a free and open platform we were able to document over 8500 observations, of over 2600 species from all over the globe.
Gamified
To encourage participants to document a diversity of organisms, we intentionally gamified the entire competition through 3 primary ways
- Introducing a point schema and the ability for a winner
- Encourage and foster competition through social media and within our community
- Opportunities for bonus points through actions or specific observations during the event
Bonus points
At certain periods in the competition, we encouraged participants to make specific observations or engage in specific tasks for bonus points.
- Plant week – Coordinating with a Learn Adventurously community post series, we gave participants the opportunity to receive 3 bonus points for every plant observed during a single week
- Insect week – Complimenting International insect week, participants were able to gain 3 extra points for every insect species found during this week
- Biodiversity push – Once we passed 1500 species 2 weeks into the competition, we challenged participants to look for diversity they hadnt looked for previously. All new species between 1500 and 2500 were counted double (10 points).
- Social shares – At the start of the competition, we encouraged participants to share their involvement in the competition. The first 10 people to do so gained a bonus 25 points.
- Naturalist awards – At the end of the competition, 50 bonus points were awarded to individuals who found the most of a particular taxonomic group. The winners of these awards are displayed in the gallery above
Basic rules
Observation Requirements:
- Observations can be of any taxa accepted by iNaturalist
- Observations must be either Research Grade or Needs ID by the time the contest ends
- Observations must be during the month of June 2021 as defined by iNaturalist
- Observations for each individual must be contained within the City specified on the google form. .
- Non-city areas (i.e. parks, protected areas, etc) are allowed but must be smaller than 2,000 square km (750 sq miles). This is roughly the size of Jacksonville, Florida. Boundaries will be specified by iNaturalist.
- Multiple areas are not allowed
- Teams are not allowed, but looking for species with friends is highly encouraged!
Points will be allocated as such:
- 5 points for each new species observation.
- 1 point for each duplicate observation, up to 10 observations. (As such, each participant can only gain 15 points per species)