Step 1:Nature's Diary - Creating a Journal

Keeping a journal is an important part of field work.  Scientists who work in the field use them to  provide a permanent record of what's going on in the natural world, sort of like a diary of nature.  In your journal, you can record changes you might see on your field study site, like new flowers blooming on a particular plant or the discovery of a small burrow under a tree.  Journal entries can be written or drawn descriptions of observations you make:  things you see, hear, smell, taste or feel.  You will also be using your journal to record the data you collect when you do the monitoring projects and seasonal activities. 

(Visual - lined pages with a spiral left edge, handwritten text?, small drawings all around) 

Any notebook or sketchpad will do... 

Use a pen, pencil, markers, or crayons to record words and pictures... 

If you do not know the name of a plant or insect that you see, describe it and what it's doing in your journal  The detail you provide might help you to identify it later using the on-line field guide. 

Some journal entries may take half a page, others might take two pages.  There's no space requirement, it's up to you. 

Always record the date and time of day when you make a new journal entry.  When you look back at pages from weeks gone by, you will know what day it was when you saw particular things. 

If you keep a journal for years and years, you begin to notice patterns.  Eventually you can be able to predict when certain animals will return in sight and when particular plants will bloom.  Scientists call this phenology, the study of seasonal weather-influenced changes in living things. 

Journals have been used for centuries by some well known scientists and travellers.  Lewis and Clark, the explorers who navigated a route to the Pacific Ocean from the Missouri River in the early 1800's, used journals to record their route.  They also recorded details about  the plants, animals, geology and even astronomy that they saw.  Their journals are valuable historical records of the environments they traveled through. 

Darwin 
 
Click to see an example page 

Click to choose a study site. 
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