Alma/Hooks
Complement that crow.
General
She is a nerd who has pushed through some of the social ignorance due to growing out of it, but still had a tendency to be awkward when it comes to interactions that aren't focus on Topics of Interest or Doing Specific Things. particularly with new people.
She's currently doing field work that involves studying animal behavior around the Wayne State campus. This involves what may seem to be odd behavior, such as watching dumpsters for hours. During the spring she will be banding nestlings. Wherever there are corvids, she is likely there, taking notes on their behavior. Sometimes you might see her playing games with a crow.
She loves to encourage people to learn about behavioral ecology and particularly crow behavior, so if you ask her what she is doing, she may stop to explain and ask if you'd like to help. If she is busy but you appear very interested in the subject, she will give you her contact information (office hours, school email address). She is too busy for Detroit Biodiversity Network student group but will encourage you to see them out.
If you need help with family care, she will want to be there for you. She isn't a medical expert, but she knows enough to take care of someone in a sickbed to give their family some time off.
She recently got guardianship for her niece, who loves math and writing and recently boys. She is 16 going on 17. If you are in high school maybe you know her.
Offer to help with
- LGBQT+ elders volunteer group, part of a fictionalized version of J.I.G.S.A.W. at Wayne State. They have an office in the Student Center and meet every Wednesday.
- grieving support for people at a fictionalized version of the Ruth Ellis Center
- Pamphletting for "Know Your Rights" information
- Composting. she doesn't have a big yard and garden and wants to find places that need compost.
- Citizen science
- setting up remote sensor networks and gathering data from same
Offer to help with field work
Alma has posted flyers around the Wayne State University campus:
How does a changing city soundscape affect corvid populations?
Are you interested in birds and behavioral ecology? sensor networks? drones? audio processing? machine learning? You do not need to be an expert in all of these fields!
I’m seeking student collaborators for multi-disciplinary field work to do population studies of corvids in Detroit.
Help make knowledge and research universally accessible
While doing this work not only will you make exciting discoveries you will also advance the cause of open science and free culture. Existing professional-grade tools are outside of the price range of researchers. Data and research are hidden behind pay-walls. But by following the principles of open science, software freedom, and open source hardware we can make research that is accessible to all.
(In collaboration tla tla yadda yadda supported by foobar grants)
