Welcome to the FieldScope quarterly newsletter! You are receiving this because you may have attended a FieldScope event or signed up for an account to participate in a citizen or community science project hosted on FieldScope. In this newsletter, we aim to keep you updated on new features of the Fieldscope tool, opportunities for training, and more. 
SPRING IS HERE!
For many citizen and community science projects using FieldScope, the spring season for collecting observations and data is well underway! Volunteers for FrogWatch USA have submitted more than 1,400 observations of frogs and toads this year already and will continue until August! See a map and graph of frog and toad calls logged so far in 2021 here).

See a list of all the citizen and community science projects using FieldScope, many of them open to public and classroom participation, on our Projects page (click the button below).
WAIT, WHAT IS FIELDSCOPE?
If you’re not yet a FieldScope whiz, check out this overview video.
INVITATIONS TO INQUIRY LESSONS
BSCS Science Learning has launched Invitations to Inquiry to help middle and high school students work with community and citizen science data from projects hosted on FieldScope. Teachers and students use FieldScope to collect, visualize, and analyze data. Using these new inquiries, students can explore FieldScope’s advanced mapping and graphing tools to dig deeper into data in the context of meaningful science classroom lessons. Students will analyze data to answer questions like:
What is the best time to host a lilac blossom festival?
or
Does a plastic bag tax work to reduce litter in the environment?

The inquiries are designed for 2-4 days of classroom learning and also present opportunities to get outside to collect data for local and global community and citizen science projects. Find the lessons on the BSCS Educator Resources Center.
WHAT'S NEW IN FIELDSCOPE?
As we progress through 2021, the FieldScope team continues to launch new and exciting features and enhancements to the tool. Here are a few highlights! 

Visualization Tool Updates
FieldScope puts tools in the hands of projects and citizen science participants to visualize and analyze data in many different ways. Since the beginning of this year, we have launched two new visualization types -- scatter plots and range plots -- that offer new ways of making meaning of project data. Check out these articles from our Help Center to get started with those tools.
INTERESTED IN LAUNCHING YOUR PROJECT IN FIELDSCOPE?
FieldScope is designed for citizen and community science projects that can benefit from having mobile-friendly data collection forms that participants can use to enter their data (including photos) and then engage with the data in maps, tables, graphs, and data downloads. Are you interested in launching your project on FieldScope? Check out this article on how to do so, and reach out to us to get started at info@fieldscope.org.
WHAT'S COMING IN 2021?
We’re not stopping here. This year, we will continue to enhance the FieldScope platform to make it as useful as possible for the FieldScope community. What can you expect to see added to FieldScope in 2021?
  • More tools for collaboration and sharing within and across projects 
  • Options for an offline data entry mode (for when participants want to collect data outside on phones or tablets but are disconnected from cell signal or Wi-Fi)
  • Better support for groups within a project
  • New options for teacher accounts with students and student groups nested underneath 
  • Additional enhancements to data analysis and visualization tools, such as dynamic displays of change over time

What features would you most like to see in the new FieldScope? Let us know in our new Feature Request channel in the FieldScope community forums.