Citizen science knows no age limits! Meet Annika, our youngest known zooite, who at just three years old regularly counts penguins over at Penguin Watch, along with dad Nick Throckmorton. Nick tells the amazing story of how Annika became a truly devoted penguin classifier:
One afternoon Annika came into my office before taking a nap, and I showed her [Penguin Watch]. She was thrilled. So that evening, we sat down before bed and counted together again. After that, she insisted that we “count penguins for the scientists” before nap and bed. Eventually, she started to get better and better at recognizing the chicks versus adults, and then the species. She now (361 photos later) shouts the species the moment the picture pulls up…
The [left] image is the project she did for her schools “100 Day” where they had to display 100 of something. She decided to do penguins, so we printed her favourite photos and she counted 100 by poking pins into the penguins. As you can tell, she is very proud! This site has brought her right to the action and has built an authentic interest.
We salute you, Annika and Nick, and wish you much happy penguin-hunting to come. Join them today over at Penguin Watch!
Daily Zooniverse 