The Finding Fluorescence website has received over 3,000 visits from 40 countries and 48 U.S. states since its launch in July 2020. Visitors have uploaded 37 unique citizen science observations from three countries and six U.S. states. These data uploads even include several accounts of biofluorescence that are new to science—providing pertinent, novel, and easily accessible data for scientists studying biofluorescence in any taxa. I created Finding Fluorescence Kits that classrooms and student groups can borrow for free and a virtual Finding Fluorescence field trip activity to increase the accessibility of my resource. To further bring Finding Fluorescence to the community, I have given several virtual lectures, led biofluorescence activity tours (through the Tallahassee Museum and local homeschooled co-ops) with participants ranging from age four to 70 years old, and presented this resource at the Tallahassee Science Festival.
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See the Finding Fluorescence webpage for more information. If you have any questions about Finding Fluorescence, biofluorescence, or are looking to set up a group activity, please send an email to cwhitcher@bio.fsu.edu. Inquires or recommendations regarding data usage, equipment rental, and classroom modules are welcome.
Finding Fluorescence
I designed and developed the citizen science and educational resource: Finding Fluorescence. Finding Fluorescence is a resource to teach about biofluorescence, get people involved in and excited about making discoveries, and to document the presence or absence of biofluorescence in the vast number of species across the world, in a format accessible to scientists of all fields. Finding Fluorescence allows people of all ages to discover the glowing world of biofluorescence in their own backyards using simple blacklights. My goal is to show children that they can be scientists too and thus gain an appreciation for the discoveries to be made around them. Furthermore, people can upload photographs of their glowing discoveries to my open-access database for biologists to utilize for research. I have produced a website, an interactive phone application for uploading citizen science data, and free downloadable worksheets that allow students to connect the activity with the mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology behind biofluorescence. With my collaborator Dr. Santiago Ron’s help, we translated the materials into Spanish to provide broader public access.
Other Efforts
In addition to the Finding Fluorescence outreach efforts described above, I aim to play an integrative role as a scientist in my community. To do so, I participate as a Science Fair Judge for local schools, acts a a scientist for Skype a Scientist classroom visits, and am an active member of the Florida State University Ecology and Evolution Graduate Research Group Outreach Committee.
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Outreach Projects
I plan to increase my outreach efforts through improvements to the accessibility of my Finding Fluorescence program and through increased integration into both my local communities and the communities surrounding my fieldwork sites. Specifically, while in Ecuador for data collection in Spring/Summer 2023, I aim to advance collaborations between scientific and non-specialist communities by engaging students and indigenous communities in biological discovery by utilizing my outreach resources.