Environmental Learning Center needs iPads to share students' Indian River Lagoon data
Groups that help save the Indian River Lagoon have compiled wish lists. See how you can help them help the lagoon. TYLER TREADWAY/TCPALM Wochit
A lot of the activities students do at the Environmental Learning Center are pretty low-tech.
Like wading out in the Indian River Lagoon with a dip net or seine to find out what kind of critters live in the water.
That's easy enough: The 64-acre center sits on an island in the lagoon near Wabasso.
Like any good scientists, the students want to share the information they've gathered. And that's when things get a lot more high-tech.
"We do a lot of citizen science here," said Maryam Ghadiri, the center's education and research director. "We collect data that scientists all over the world can use. Most students have access to technology, but some don't. And that can kind of put them behind."
So for their "12 Days of Christmas" wish, folks at the Environmental Learning Center are asking for iPads that would allow students to document their data and share it.
"In the best case scenario, we'd like to get 10 iPads," Ghadiri said. "Anywhere from eight to 10 would be good. We tend to have 15 to 20 students out at one time, and two could work together to input data onto each iPad."
The iPads could also be used by adult volunteers — some of them very computer savvy, some not so much — who gather data from the lagoon around the center.
"We'd be able to use the iPads in many ways," Ghadiri said.
The iPads would allow both the students and adults to take part in iNaturalist, Ghadiri said, referring to an online social network of naturalists, citizen scientists and biologists who share environmental observations around the world.
The iPads the center needs cost $850 each.
"They come equipped with some apps we need and small microphones to record sounds out in the field," Ghadiri said. "Of course, they're waterproof because so much of what we do is out in or on the water."
12 Days of Christmas
Who: Environmental Learning Center
Wish: 10 iPads for storing and sharing Indian River Lagoon data
Cost: $850 each
How to donate: Contact John Corapi at 772-589-5050 ext. 103 or email@example.com
About the series
Treasure Coast groups that research, protect and restore the Indian River Lagoon need more than holiday cheer to continue their missions of saving the waterway. Find out what they need — and how you can help them — as Treasure Coast Newspapers/TCPalm.com highlights a lagoon-friendly organization each day from Dec. 25 to Jan. 5, aka the 12 Days of Christmas. To see what organizations have asked for in previous stories, go to TCPalm.com/lagoon.