http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHuY4BF50Jk&feature=player_embedded
Leaping into Science
For James Davis and his fellow students, holding a frog is a brand-new experience.
"Cup your hands," says Washington University graduate student Amber Burgett as she hands him the frog. "Don't squeeze."
"It feels weird," Davis remarks, but the next feeling is even more startling as the creature springs, only to be safely caught on the fly.
"That was a good catch!" laughs Burgett.
But while holding an amphibian - or trying to- is new, Davis and nine other St. Louis teenagers have clearly done their homework. "Is that a tree frog?" one asks. "Yes, it's a grey tree frog," Burgett confirms. "They've just started breeding recently."
These urban teens have been spending their Saturday nights all spring long visiting a local pond to study how frogs, toads and salamanders, already declining worldwide, are now being affected by climate change.
It's part of a "citizen science" project run by the St. Louis Science Center, which in turn is part of a national effort by science museums to involve regular citizens in monitoring local indicators of climate change, funded by the National Science Foundation.
After trading their sneakers for mudboots, donning headlamps, and grabbing an audio recorder and a water-testing device, the students head to the pond to listen for mating calls. more....
