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Resources

Apps and tools for your project.

Free apps and web tools that turn a phone or laptop into a research instrument. Each line has a project idea to get you started. Some ask you to make a free account.

Identify what you find

  • Seek Point your camera at a plant, bug, or bird and get a name. No account. What lives in your backyard?
  • iNaturalist Log observations that scientists use. Map one species across Woodland.
  • Merlin Bird ID Bird ID by photo or song. Cornell Lab. Which birds visit at dawn vs. dusk?
  • BirdNET Bird ID from a sound recording. Count bird species by noise level.
  • Pl@ntNet Plant ID from a photo. Native vs. non-native plants on campus.

Phone as an instrument

  • Phyphox Phone sensors: light, sound, motion, pressure. Exports data. RWTH Aachen. Is it cooler and darker under trees?
  • NIOSH Sound Level Meter Noise meter from the CDC. iPhone only. Traffic noise vs. bird diversity.

Photos and sound

  • Fiji (ImageJ) Measure length and area, count objects in photos. Desktop. Seed counts, root length, leaf size.
  • LeafByte Leaf area and bite damage from a phone photo. Which plants get eaten most?
  • Canopeo Percent green cover from a photo. Oklahoma State. Drought stress in lawns vs. gardens.
  • Audacity Record and edit sound, see spectrograms. Frog calls by pond.
  • Raven Lite Spectrograms of bird song. Cornell Lab. Do city birds sing higher?

Maps and satellites

  • Google Earth Historical aerial imagery. Land-use change around Woodland.
  • Earth Engine Timelapse Decades of satellite change in one animation. Growth of farms and towns since 1984.
  • Copernicus Browser Free satellite imagery, including vegetation greenness. ESA. Yolo Bypass flooding, crop greenness.
  • CalEnviroScreen Pollution burden by neighborhood. State of California. Environmental justice in Yolo County.

Soil

  • SoilWeb Soil survey map for any spot. UC Davis. What soil is under Pioneer?
  • LandPKS Soil texture by feel and land cover, on your phone. Garden vs. field vs. roadside soil.
  • Tea Bag Index Bury tea bags, weigh them later to measure decay. Lesson plans for schools. Does soil type change decomposition?

Water

Air, weather, fire

  • AirNow Air quality and smoke forecasts. EPA. Smoke days and outdoor activity.
  • PurpleAir map Neighborhood air sensors, live. Woodland vs. Davis air quality.
  • Watch Duty Live wildfire tracking. Nonprofit, free. Fire season trends in the Valley.
  • CoCoRaHS Measure rain at home for a national network. Rain differences across town.

Join a citizen science project

  • eBird Bird checklists used in research. Cornell Lab. Campus vs. home birds.
  • Nature's Notebook Track when plants leaf out and flower. Is spring coming earlier?
  • Budburst Plant life cycles and plant-animal interactions. Monarchs on milkweed.
  • GLOBE Observer Clouds, land cover, tree height. NASA. Compare your data to satellites.
  • Bumble Bee Watch Photograph bumble bees, experts verify. Which flowers do bees pick?
  • Globe at Night Measure night-sky brightness. NOIRLab. Light pollution, Woodland vs. Davis.
  • i-Tree Value of trees: shade, carbon, stormwater. USDA Forest Service. What are Pioneer's trees worth?
  • Zooniverse Help classify real research data online. Find a dataset for your project.

Analyze your data

  • CODAP Drag-and-drop graphs and data analysis in the browser. No code. Graph your measurements.

Checked October 2026. Found a broken link or a tool we should add? Email gmonroe@ucdavis.edu.