Field Day pilot kit

Run a Field Day.

One afternoon, a group of helpers and a ready-made set of fields. Make careful observations in Clio One, check them together, and publish only what you are happy to share. This is a new pilot kit.

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About Clio

What Clio is.

Clio Online Museum is an open museum for the living and mineral world. People contribute observations, specimens and images, and each record keeps its method, its uncertainty and its credit. Clio One is the private workspace inside Clio for a field group. You make a project, invite helpers, bring in your observations and review them together. Nothing is public until someone publishes it.

Choose one

The two kits.

Each kit is a Clio One project preset with a ready-made list of fields. Both are starting points for a first afternoon. They are not tested monitoring protocols.

Backyard pollinators

Watch one patch of flowers for a set time (10 minutes works well). For each kind of insect that visits, write down the most you saw at the same moment, plus the flower, the weather and the temperature.

Each row is one kind of insect in one watch. If you saw three kinds, write three rows and repeat the watch details. If nothing visited, write one row with none_seen and a count of 0.

You name insects by group, such as honey bee or hoverfly, not by species. Counts are by eye.

Beach microplastics

Mark out a square of beach (a quadrat), scoop the top layer of sand from inside it, sieve it and count the plastic particles by shape: fragments, fibres, films, foam and pellets.

Each row is one quadrat at one size range. Write 0 for a shape you did not find, so that “none” is recorded as a result and not left blank.

You judge by eye. Without a laboratory test you cannot be sure a particle is plastic, so treat every count as unconfirmed.

Before the day

What you need.

For both kits

An adult to run the Clio account and the project, and to supervise. Clio isn’t designed for children under 16.
A phone or tablet for each small group. You use it for the timer, the weather and, if you wish, photos.
A timer. Your phone’s timer is fine.
The printed field sheets from the end of this guide, and pencils.
A laptop, or a phone with a spreadsheet app, to type the sheets into a CSV file afterwards.

Backyard pollinators

A patch of flowers. A square about 50 cm by 50 cm is 0.25 square metres.
A way to mark the patch, such as four pegs and string.
A thermometer in the shade, or a weather app for your suburb.
A hand lens, if you have one.

Beach microplastics

A quadrat: a square frame, or pegs and string. A square 50 cm on each side is 0.25 square metres.
One or two sieves with the mesh size printed on them, a trowel and a tray.
A ruler to check your sample depth, and a hand lens if you have one.
Gloves, a bucket for rubbish you find, and somewhere to tip the sand back.

Five steps

Step by step.

Create your identity.

Do this a day or more before the Field Day. Scan the code, or type the address, to open the Clio sign-in page. Verify with a Google or Microsoft account, protect your new identity on your device with a passkey or passphrase, then save your recovery kit and your recovery phrase. If you lose every device and the recovery material, Clio can’t restore your identity. There is more on the identity page.

Clio sign-in https://cliomuseum.org/app/sign-in Every helper who wants their own Clio account does this step too.
Make a Clio One project with the Field Day preset.

Open Clio One from the contributor workspace (cliomuseum.org/app/one). Under New field project, type a project name for your group, such as the school or club name, and not a child’s name. In What are you collecting? choose Field Day: Backyard pollinators or Field Day: Beach microplastics, then select Create private project.

Clio One opens the Project schema tab with the kit’s fields already saved as a private draft. Read them. When you’re happy, select Publish and sign. Clio asks you to sign with your identity, because a published version never changes. Publish before the Field Day, so that you can download the spreadsheet template.

If a project already exists, open its Project schema tab and use Import a starter schema. It loads the fields into the draft form without saving anything.
Invite your helpers.

Each helper creates their own identity (step 1), opens Clio One and copies the contributor ID on the overview page. In your project, open Team, paste their ID, choose a role and select Invite to project. A Submitter can bring in observation files. A Viewer can read the project. The helper accepts from the project invitations list on their Clio One page. Invitations expire after 7 days. You can skip this step and enter everything yourself.
Record.

On the day, write each observation on the printed field sheet. Use the words in the key at the foot of the sheet for lists, so they match the spreadsheet later. Afterwards, open the Project schema tab and select Download CSV template beside the published version. Keep the header row and add one row for each line on your sheets. Lines that start with # are notes, and Clio skips them. The title column needs a short title for each row, for example “Garden flower watch, honey bee”.

Leave the latitude and longitude columns blank, or round them to 2 decimal places (about 1 km). Use a place name or code, never a home address.
Review and publish.

In Import, choose your CSV file and the published project schema, then select Preview private import. Fix anything marked as an error in your spreadsheet and preview again. Warnings tell you what is missing for a record to count as research ready. Select Save as private drafts.

In Review, open the import and select Approve private import, then Hand off to Clio editor. Your records are now private drafts in the contributor workspace. Check each one, set who can see the exact place, and publish the ones you’re happy to share. Publishing is a separate choice for every record.

Look after people and places

Safety and privacy.

People and photos

Keep faces out of photos, and keep children out of photos. Frame the shot on the flowers, the insect or the sand.
Don’t put children’s names, or anyone’s home address, in a project name, a note or a record.
Only upload photos you took yourself, or have permission to share under CC BY 4.0.
An adult supervises. If you’re under 16, take part only with a parent, guardian or teacher supervising you.

Places

Ask the landholder or land manager before you watch or sample on private land, or in a park, reserve or other protected area. Check local rules too. Clio doesn’t give legal advice.
Don’t publish the exact place for a rare or threatened species, a nest, or a culturally significant place. Leave coordinates blank, or set Who can see the exact place to Generalised or Restricted. Generalised rounds the point to about 10 km for you.
Leave nests, plants and wildlife as you found them. Tip sand back where it came from.

This guide is not a risk assessment. Your school, club or group needs its own, covering sun, tides and waves, stings and allergies, sharp or unknown objects on a beach, and first aid.

Before you publish

What happens to your data.

Private first

Your project, your uploaded file, your discussion messages and your drafts are private to the project and to you. Uploaded file content and project messages follow a 30-day intake retention policy. Drafts have their own, separate lifecycle. Nothing becomes public until a record is published.

Public, with credit, when you publish

A record you publish is public and carries a CC BY 4.0 licence. Anyone may reuse it if they credit you. When you publish, you also accept the deposit agreement shown at that point. You can correct a record later, but corrections make a new version and the history stays. Read the terms and the privacy notice first.

Publishing is not checking. A published record is not a verified identification. Clio does not send your records to GBIF, OBIS or any other archive for you, and it does not assign a DOI automatically. If you want to share your data elsewhere yourself, the Export tab can download a research package for your project.

Clio has no institutional partners yet, and this kit is new. If you try it, tell us how it went. Please don’t email personal or project data.

Reference

The fields in each kit.

Each field is tied to a published term, such as Darwin Core, ENVO, PATO or the NERC unit lists, so the numbers and words keep their meaning when they leave Clio. The CSV template lists the link for every column. These terms say what a field means. They don’t mean your data has been accepted by anyone.

Backyard pollinators

ColumnsurveyMinutes

Minutes you watched. How long you watched the flowers, in whole minutes. Use the same length every time (10 minutes works well) so watches can be compared.

What to writeA whole number in minutes. From 1 to 120. Needed for every row.
ColumnstartTime

Time you started. Use 24-hour time, for example 14:05. Insects are busier at some times of day, so the time helps.

What to writeA few words.
ColumnflowerPlant

Flower or plant you watched. The plant's name if you know it (for example lavender), or a short description (for example small white daisy-like flowers). Guessing is fine; say so if you are not sure.

What to writeA few words.
ColumnflowerColour

Main flower colour. The colour of most of the flowers in your patch. Choose several colours if no one colour stands out.

What to writeOne of the words listed in the key.
ColumnflowerPatchAreaM2

Size of the flower patch (square metres). The area of flowers you watched. A patch about 50 cm by 50 cm is 0.25. Watching the same size patch each time makes counts easier to compare.

What to writeA number in square metres. From 0.01 to 100.
ColumninsectGroup

Kind of insect. The closest group for the insects you saw on the flowers. Choose none_seen if nothing visited during your watch. If you are unsure, pick the nearest group and say what you were unsure about in your notes.

What to writeOne of the words listed in the key. Needed for every row.
ColumninsectCount

How many of that kind. The most of this kind you saw at the same moment during your watch. Counting the most at once means you do not count the same insect twice. Use 0 with none_seen.

What to writeA whole number, with no unit. From 0 to 10000. Needed for every row.
ColumninsectNotes

Notes about the insects. Anything useful: what they were doing, what made you unsure of the group, or a photo reference. Leave names of people out.

What to writeA few words.
Columnweather

Sky and weather. How the sky looked while you watched. Pick the closest one.

What to writeOne of the words listed in the key.
ColumnwindCondition

Wind. How windy it felt at the flowers. Strong wind keeps most insects away, so it is worth noting.

What to writeOne of the words listed in the key.
ColumnairTemperatureC

Air temperature (degrees Celsius). From a thermometer in the shade, or a weather app for your suburb. Say which in your notes if you can.

What to writeA number in degrees Celsius. From -10 to 55.

Beach microplastics

ColumnbeachZone

Where on the beach. Where your quadrat was. Plastic gathers on the drift line, so this changes the counts. Use the same zone for every quadrat in a comparison.

What to writeOne of the words listed in the key.
ColumnquadratAreaM2

Size of the square you sampled (square metres). The area of beach you sampled. A square 50 cm on each side is 0.25. Mark it out the same way each time.

What to writeA number in square metres. From 0.01 to 100. Needed for every row.
ColumnsampleDepthCm

How deep you scooped (centimetres). How far down you took the sand. Use the same depth every time.

What to writeA number in centimetres. From 0.5 to 100.
ColumnsieveMeshMm

Finest sieve you used (mesh size in millimetres). The mesh size of the finest sieve, in millimetres. Anything smaller fell through and was not counted. It is printed on the sieve or its packet.

What to writeA number in millimetres. From 0.05 to 25. Needed for every row.
ColumnsizeClass

Size range counted on this row. The size range of the particles you counted. It should match your sieves. If you counted two ranges, use two rows and repeat the other details.

What to writeOne of the words listed in the key.
ColumnfragmentCount

Fragments (hard, irregular pieces). Hard pieces with an uneven shape that look broken off something bigger. Use 0 if you found none.

What to writeA whole number, with no unit. From 0 to 100000.
ColumnfibreCount

Fibres and lines (thin, bendy threads). Thin threads and lines. Threads from your own clothes can land in the sample, so work out of the wind and note it if you are not sure. Use 0 if you found none.

What to writeA whole number, with no unit. From 0 to 100000.
ColumnfilmCount

Films (thin, flexible sheets). Thin, flat, bendy pieces, such as torn bag or wrapper. Use 0 if you found none.

What to writeA whole number, with no unit. From 0 to 100000.
ColumnfoamCount

Foam (light, spongy pieces). Light pieces with a sponge-like texture, often white. Use 0 if you found none.

What to writeA whole number, with no unit. From 0 to 100000.
ColumnpelletCount

Pellets (small hard beads). Small, hard, smooth, roughly round or lentil-shaped beads (sometimes called nurdles). Use 0 if you found none.

What to writeA whole number, with no unit. From 0 to 100000.
ColumnparticleColour

Most common colour among the particles. The colour you saw most among the particles on this row. Leave it blank if you found none.

What to writeOne of the words listed in the key.
ColumnsampleNotes

Notes about your sample. Anything that might change the counts: weather, a recent storm, how you checked the particles, or doubts about whether something is plastic. Leave names of people out.

What to writeA few words.

Print these

Field sheets.

Print as many copies as you need. Fill them in by pencil on the day. The key at the foot of each sheet lists the exact words to type into your spreadsheet.

Field sheet: Backyard pollinators

One block for each watch. One line in the table for each kind of insect that visited. Write the most you saw at the same moment.

Watch 1

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Place name or code (not a home address)
Minutes you watched
Time you started
Flower or plant you watched
Main flower colour
Size of the flower patch (square metres)
Sky and weather
Wind
Air temperature (degrees Celsius)

Insects seen in watch 1
Kind of insect	How many of that kind	Notes about the insects

Watch 2

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Place name or code (not a home address)
Minutes you watched
Time you started
Flower or plant you watched
Main flower colour
Size of the flower patch (square metres)
Sky and weather
Wind
Air temperature (degrees Celsius)

Insects seen in watch 2
Kind of insect	How many of that kind	Notes about the insects

Key: the words to use

Main flower colour: white Whiteyellow Yelloworange Orangered Redpink Pinkpurple Purpleblue Bluegreen Greenbrown Brownmixed Several coloursother Another colour
Kind of insect: honey_bee Honey beeother_bee Another bee (not a honey bee)hoverfly Hoverflyother_fly Another flybutterfly_or_moth Butterfly or mothbeetle Beetlewasp Wasp (not a bee or an ant)ant Antother_insect Another insectnone_seen No insects visited
Sky and weather: clear_or_sunny Clear or mostly sunnysome_cloud Some cloudovercast Overcastdrizzle_or_showers Drizzle or showers
Wind: calm Calm (leaves hardly move)light Light (leaves rustle)moderate Moderate (small branches move)strong Strong (whole trees sway)

Field sheet: Beach microplastics

One block for each quadrat and size range. Write 0 for a shape you did not find. Counts are by eye and unconfirmed.

Quadrat 1

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Beach name or code
Sample number
Where on the beach
Size of the square you sampled (square metres)
How deep you scooped (centimetres)
Finest sieve you used (mesh size in millimetres)
Size range counted on this row
Fragments (hard, irregular pieces)
Fibres and lines (thin, bendy threads)
Films (thin, flexible sheets)
Foam (light, spongy pieces)
Pellets (small hard beads)
Most common colour among the particles
Notes about your sample

Quadrat 2

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Beach name or code
Sample number
Where on the beach
Size of the square you sampled (square metres)
How deep you scooped (centimetres)
Finest sieve you used (mesh size in millimetres)
Size range counted on this row
Fragments (hard, irregular pieces)
Fibres and lines (thin, bendy threads)
Films (thin, flexible sheets)
Foam (light, spongy pieces)
Pellets (small hard beads)
Most common colour among the particles
Notes about your sample

Quadrat 3

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Beach name or code
Sample number
Where on the beach
Size of the square you sampled (square metres)
How deep you scooped (centimetres)
Finest sieve you used (mesh size in millimetres)
Size range counted on this row
Fragments (hard, irregular pieces)
Fibres and lines (thin, bendy threads)
Films (thin, flexible sheets)
Foam (light, spongy pieces)
Pellets (small hard beads)
Most common colour among the particles
Notes about your sample

Key: the words to use

Where on the beach: above_high_tide Top of the beach, above the high tide line (dry, soft sand)drift_line Drift line (the line of seaweed and rubbish the last high tide left)mid_beach Middle of the beachwater_edge Water's edge (wet sand just above the waves)
Size range counted on this row: microplastic_under_5mm Under 5 mm (microplastic)mesoplastic_5_to_25mm 5 to 25 mm (mesoplastic)
Most common colour among the particles: white Whiteclear Clearblack Blackgrey Greyblue Bluegreen Greenyellow Yelloworange Orangered Redbrown Brownmixed No one colour stands out

Run a Field Day.

What Clio is.

The two kits.

Backyard pollinators

Beach microplastics

What you need.

For both kits

Backyard pollinators

Beach microplastics

Step by step.

Create your identity.

Make a Clio One project with the Field Day preset.

Invite your helpers.

Record.

Review and publish.

Safety and privacy.

People and photos

Places

What happens to your data.

Private first

Public, with credit, when you publish

The fields in each kit.

Backyard pollinators

Beach microplastics

Field sheets.

Field sheet: Backyard pollinators

Field sheet: Beach microplastics