Handbook:Identification tools
One of the first steps in discovering and understanding biodiversity is to identify the organisms around us. Traditionally, this has been done using paper-printed keys which enable us to correctly name an organism. Most of them, however, are "difficult" and hardly usable for educational purposes. In classic paper keys, the organisation of the information usually follows the taxonomic scheme : they first lead to families, then to genera, and finally to species. Often the characters used for identifying the families and genera are difficult, and so classical keys are often only used by experts, whereas the educational sector is not able to adopt them. KeyToNature tools are easier and paper-free identification tools, for use within schools and universities across Europe. They are enriched by many-sided information and resources for nearly every species and species groups.
KeyToNature has solutions for nearly every user group - primary, secondary, tertiary education and expert communities - and for multiple educational scenarios. The modules of the identification tools are made of:
- Interactive pathways for the identification of organisms (flora, fauna, fungi, etc.) guiding the users on their discovery process with a rich textual and iconographic support (hundred thousands of high quality digital photos),
- Thousands of hyper-textual documents linked to identification pathways with textual information and images (photos and drawing) for each step necessary for the identification of an organisms,
- Ecological-distributional information and organism descriptions, info on taxonomy, ecology, protection status, common names, uses etc.
The KeyToNature identification tools are being developed:
- with different identification foci: tools for the identification of all species (higher taxa) of a pre-defined area and tools focusing on the identification and localisation of a limited set of species from the same genus in a large area (e.g. a country).
- for different target groups: simple identification tools adapted for primary education as well as more complex tools, providing in-depth information for higher education students and researchers.
The interactive identification tools can be used with different media:
- You can use a huge number of identification tools by accessing the Internet.
- Many tools are also available on CD or DVD-ROM, so they can be used everywhere where the Internet access is difficult or not available at all
- In case that electronic devices are not available, a big majority of the tools can be printed
- For some of the tools. versions for Smart phones are already available for online and in some cases offline use.
