Mission Impossible: WyoBio is a program designed to get kids outdoors, looking in a specific location in Wyoming for specific species of plants, animals, insects, and more. To do this, the Biodiversity Institute produces a short (3.5 minute or less) video tailored for each class or group which requests one which lays out the mission, identifies the resources kids will use to complete the mission, and leaves the rest up to the teacher or group leader!
We work with the teacher or group leader to identify species and locations that are of scientific interest - that is, an area where a species has never been verified before or where it has not been seen recently. This way, all of the data collected by students provides new, real and relevant information about Wyoming biodiversity! We also ensure the organisms fit into the teacher's curriculum, and that they will be in season at the time of the mission.
The data will be available to the general public through interactive maps and databases (they're in the works! Stay tuned!), but in the meantime are available upon request in spreadsheet format.
This program is part of a larger one centered around collecting biological data around the state. These data are incorporated into a database of baseline information about which species are present in which locations and in what abundances. This is critical for understanding changes in species populations and distributions, and biodiversity health as a whole in Wyoming.
The Biodiversity Institute is developing the infrastructure for a large biodiversity database of Wyoming, which includes the professionally-collected biological data from the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, Audubon Society, Teton Science School's Markow-Murie Herbarium and more!. The citizen science data collected via Mission Impossible and the Bumblebee Brigade will go toward this database as well.
Email or call (biodiversity@uwyo.edu or 307-766-6279) to request a Mission Impossible video for your class or group. Please email or call two weeks in advance of when you want the video and supplies.
You will receive a video tailored for your location, class and organisms of interest. You will also receive via snail mail a kit including the supplies you'll need - GPS units, field guides, cameras, observation forms, insect nets, binoculars and other necessary items.
Hit the field! Go to the specified location, search for the indicated species, and record all of your observation data on the provided forms. Be sure to take a picture!!!!
When you get home, submit all of your data online (click here to submit information for vertebrates, other forms coming soon!) and email biodiversity@uwyo.edu with your pictures.
