• Time varies depending on depth of study

• 1 or more people  

Each spring, frogs and toads start to call to each other as the warmer weather starts their breeding season. Conservationists can’t be everywhere to track when each species starts calling, so they rely on volunteers to record the first time they hear frogs calling in their area and report it through Journey North, an organization that coordinates several participatoryscience projects. Training and observations are simple, volunteers need to know which species call first in their area and what the calls sounds like. Each evening, they’ll listen for the frogs to call, when they hear frogs, they will report the species and the date through Journey North. 

Frogs and toads find a mate by calling to each other when spring starts. By tracking when the first frogs start calling, climatologists can look for patterns over time. Using the map below and consider the following prompts. 

• What do you notice about the dots? Are there any patterns to how they show up on the map? Why do you think they’re following those patterns?

• Zoom in near where you live, what do you notice? 

• Play the animated map from 2000, then for the current year. 

  • What do you notice?

  • Are there any other patterns?