Citizen Scientist Field Notes

Date, time, location, weather, species, count, method, observer. That is the minimum a record needs to be useful to anyone else, and grade five can meet it.

The point is that a well kept record has value beyond the person who made it, which is a different reason to be careful than getting a good mark.

The page has the record template, a worked example, and a quality checklist. Whether or not you submit anywhere, keeping records to a standard that could be submitted changes how they are kept. We keep a school log book that now runs to several years and children add to it knowing it will be read after they leave.