The Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University with Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Stroud Water Research Center, and Clemson University have officially launched Macroinvertebrates.org, the online Atlas of Common Freshwater Macroinvertebrates of Eastern North America. The expanded collection includes features nine orders of aquatic insects plus other benthic macroinvertebrates commonly used in water quality biomonitoring and environmental education, with 150 taxa total.
In this webinar, we’ll provide an overview of how this NSF-funded project was developed through a participatory design process with an interdisciplinary team of entomologists, educators, designers, and learning researchers in cooperation with regional volunteer biomonitoring organizations involved in water quality assessment. We’ll demonstrate site features and functionality and cover how this open educational resource can be used to support macroinvertebrate identification training with volunteers and students to improve confidence, accuracy, and engagement.
Macroinvertebrates.org is part of the WikiWatershed® Toolkit designed to help citizens, conservation practitioners, municipal decision-makers, researchers, educators, and students advance knowledge and stewardship of fresh water. Learn more about WikiWatershed.
