LEARN ABOUT CREATURES
(IN OUR OWN NEIGHBORHOODS)
this project is called LOCAL BIOLOGY (until we think of something better)
Tiny Field Guides
Our plans for the summer
There are a few of us who decided that we really will make some tiny field guides for our own neighborhoods. Subjects so far include: birds, ants, trees, bees, bike sound mapping.
We are going to try sharing these with the people in our neighborhood. We will let you know how it goes.
If you want to get involved, it's easy. Pick something you want to learn about, and make a little guide. Share it with us and we will be happy to give you some feedback.
What is a Tiny Field Guide?
Tiny Field Guides are little books made from 1 piece of printer paper. The paper is folded & cut to make 8 little pages — a front, back, and 6 pages for descriptions and observations.
Through this website, we can upload our guides, and digitize the content in the guides. This will make the content of the guides searchable through the internet. This means people in our neighborhoods might find our little guides!
(we will make a picture of this for you!)
Technical Instructions
Print out the template if you would like to hand-draw your own tiny field guide.
Add your guide to this website by uploading a scanned version of your drawing.
(Oh, did we forget to mention...if you aren't a drawer, you can still make and share a guide, just fill in the form and the computer will lay out your text for you, and also format it so you can print, cut and fold it into a little book.)
Digitize your guide by typing out the information you handwrote on your illustrated guide. This helps the internet find your field guide.
Tips on writing guides
Start writing your field guide now. You come up with 6 things people can look for in the natural world. These could be things you notice, things you wish you knew how to notice. Your guide can include tips, advice, descriptions of creatures or phenomena.
It might take you a while to think these up. (Commiserate) (I've written one and a half guides now, and want to make many more.)
Why we think this project is a good idea
We believe that by sharing many tiny field guides, we will enrich our own communities with new views of the outdoor spaces that we all share.
This is what we hope to gain by sharing tiny field guides:
- More understanding of wild things near our own houses
- An understanding of what interests other people about nature
- Many little field guides for our neighborhoods
- Hints on finding things that are easy to spot, or common, where we live
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| TINYFIELDGUIDE.pdf | 251.6 KB |
© 2009 Local Biology, a social business
A social business is owned by the people who directly benefit, and need its existence. We all benefit from the earth, and knowing about the earth, therefore, the earth owns Local Biology and we are simply noticing her, and how she created us.
It is by being a social business today that we can reach out to all people who want to understand the world they live in - the science, the spirit, the changing planet. We can reach around walls built by schools and other educational institutions, television, media, science, religion, language and country.
We know that we love and care about our Earth and in this we unite as this 'social business,' the business being that we are all working together to bring this knowledge together on this website and to other real projects in our towns — working with our own communities and, especially, friends.
Local Biology by Local Biology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.localbiology.org.
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