iNaturalist as an engaging tool for identifying organisms in outdoor activities

ABSTRACT

We evaluated an emerging smartphone application, iNaturalist, to increase taxonomic identification and engage first-year undergraduate biology majors in outdoor laboratories of aquatic ecosystems (stream and lake ecology) and terrestrial ecosystems (tree and leaf litter ecology). Labs involved identifying organisms using both standard field guides and keys, and comparing taxonomic identifications using the iNaturalist smartphone application derived from student images of organisms. Students were given post-laboratory surveys which assessed their preference for this increasingly popular smartphone application, whether they were more likely to use the application in the future and rate its ability and ease of use to properly identify organisms compared to traditional keys/field guides. This iNaturalist application worked most consistently for students with terrestrial organisms, when images were of sufficient quality. However, when only medium-high to high-quality photos were used, iNaturalist identifications ranged from 92.3% to 97.3% proper biological taxonomic classifications to standard organismal levels for an introductory biology course. Overall, iNaturalist provided greater taxonomic resolution with proper scientific and common names and additional natural history information for many organisms, piquing student interest. Incorporating this smartphone technology may increase identification of local biodiversity and student engagement in the biological sciences.

KEYWORDS:

• iNaturalist
• smartphone application
• species identification
• science learning
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

We thank Wingate University Biology Department for supplying materials used in field identification and members of the Wingate Research and Review board for approval of project. We also thank several undergraduate laboratory assistants with their help in development of this laboratory, including Diana Chap, Javier Escobar, Emily Barbee, Christy Thompson, Spencer Campbell and Allison Santana.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

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