One of the main motivations of many citizen scientists is that they want to learn about a topic and one of the best ways to achieve that is by being involved in a group of people working on this topic. In biological monitoring it is essential to be able to recognize different organisms if you want to count them. For many groups there is excellent literature nowadays but it is good to get some practice with some more experienced people.
When dragonflies emerge from the water they mold and leave the last skin they had as larvae behind. These can be found hanging in the vegetation and prove that that species successfully reproduced there. Knowing from which species a larval skin is, is not always easy. Therefore, we organised a workshop with the Dutch Odonatological Society (NVL) where people could practice and get tips from the people who literally wrote the book on this. These workshops are very informative, fun and help us to better track how dragonflies are doing.