Lizards on the Loose! is a middle school student scientist community project run in collaboration with the Fairchild Challenge program, a nationally-recognized K-12 environmental education program that reaches >200k students each year.
Our “Lizards on the Loose” project is one of the Fairchild Challenge’s most popular school scientist programs. First started in 2014, >20,000 middle school Lizards on the Loose student scientists from nearly 100 schools in south Florida have since participated in our project. Between 2017-2023, these school scientists contributed >30,000 lizard identification records to the online science initiative iNaturalist — a truly phenomenal undertaking by our talented young scientists! (you can see our latest Florida lizard records to the right of this text box)
Owing to its success, we are expanding the Lizards on the Loose into a new citizen science program in which students and families from throughout South Florida will be trained to record backyard observations on the occurrence, habitat use, and behavior of Anolis species. This program will be modeled after ongoing Fairchild community science projects.
To help with students participating in this project, our team has created a Field Identification Guide for the Anole Lizards of Miami and an established protocol for how to collect project data.
(Above) Dr James Stroud (left) and Dr Chris Thawley (right) — Lizards on the Loose project coordinators — celebrating with 2017 Lizards On The Loose award winners at the annual Fairchild Challenge Middle School Awards Ceremony.
(Above) As an aid for students participating in this project I published a short video teaching the identification of Anolis species in south Florida that citizen scientists may encounter. I apologise for the horrendous angle of my name badge.
FIU News article on Lizards on the Loose project!
“I hope their participation in this project fuels their curiosity in the natural world, and I hope they realize science can be conducted anywhere and with very simple equipment,” Stroud said. “A greater understanding of ecology, even if it doesn’t lead students into the sciences as a career, can positively impact future conservation efforts.”
Terri Ortiz, a sixth grade science teacher at Palmetto Middle School, has participated in the challenge every year since its inception. It provides new opportunities to engage her students in science beyond the classroom walls. For some middle schoolers, it’s the first time they are being exposed to South Florida’s rich and diverse population of reptiles.
New format for 2016/17: Video entries!
For this year we have changed project submissions from Posters or Powerpoints to Video entries, and we think you’ll agree that they’re fantastic!
Below is a submission from the extremely talented children at The Biltmore School in Miami FL. These middle schoolers have conducted visual encounter surveys of anoles in their school yard. In this video they not only present their results, but offer some incredible insights into the behavior of the lizards that they observe! Great job!
Click here to see other entries on Twitter using our #LizardsOnTheLoose hashtag!
2016 ecological society of america (ESA) Meeting
I was invited to speak about our Lizards on the Loose citizen science program at a special session on “New Frontiers in Conservation Ecology of Tropical Amphibians and Reptiles” at ESA 2016, hosted by Dr. James Watling and Dr. Steven Whitfield. Thank you if you managed to stop by and here about the talk!
2015/2016 Results are in!
The standard of this year’s Lizards on the Loose Middle School competition was exceptional! In late January 2016, I joined a group of other volunteers and academics in forming a judging panel for posters submitted to the Lizards on the Loose project. We had a total of >70 schools participate, and it was tough to wittle it down to 1st, 2nd and 3rd!
The top two posters can be seen at the bottom of the collage opposite.
