Call for Citizen Science Abstracts: American Geophysical Union

Consider submitting abstracts to two exciting education sessions being offered at the Fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting in San Francisco, December 12-16, 2016 (http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2016/). Abstracts may be submitted at http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2016/abstract-submissions/. The deadline for abstract submission is August 3, 2016 at 23:59 EDT. If you are not a member of AGU, an AGU member may sponsor you to submit an abstract.

Session ID# 13679: “ED020. Educator/Student Programs Promoting Authentic Scientific Research:  Celebrating its 14th year, this session seeks to highlight programs and initiatives that provide authentic research experiences for educators and students at all levels from K-12 to undergraduate experiences.  Presentations can address the roles of scientists and education experts in bringing research experiences to the classroom. We welcome presentations from educators, scientists, and students as well as those who design, facilitate, evaluate or fund programs. Presentations can focus on designing and implementing research experiences that align with national, state, and/or local reform efforts in science education. Other topics may include recruitment strategies, program sustainability, internet and archival research projects, citizen science, mentoring, student outcomes, evaluation results, and lessons learned from past efforts. Additionally, we invite presentations from student-led research projects. Presentations are welcome from all scientific disciplines including astronomy, planetary and space science, geology and geophysics, seismology, biogeoscience, atmosphere and ocean sciences, and climate and environmental science.Session ID# 12673: “ED008. Citizen Science with Big Data: Intersection of Outreach, Crowd-Sourced Data and Scientific Research: The traditional method of outreach to formal, informal, science and non-science audiences has undergone a fundamental change with recent advances in technology, social media and crowd-sourced data, giving way to citizen science with many applications. With increasing “Big Data” projects, active partnerships between professional, amateur and data scientist communities are necessary. Innovative design, sustainability and evaluation of these projects is as important as the citizen science they generate. This session invites papers from scientists, educators and as well as those who design, facilitate, evaluate or fund such programs. Topics may include methodology, applications of citizen science to enhancing outreach, transformative approaches to science education, lessons learned, and the future of citizen science. Presentations are invited from all scientific disciplines including astronomy, planetary and space science, geology and geophysics, seismology, biogeoscience, and atmosphere and ocean sciences. Join us for our 8th year, to learn and share experiences.

Session ID #12794: “The Priceless Science of Citizen Science: Questions, Q-Values and QA/QC”: Citizen science data in Earth and Space Science is priceless, providing both invaluable information and effort beyond the means of the largest research budget. People with smartphone accelerometers capture earthquakes for USGS, while online astronomy enthusiasts count craters. Insights into the changing Earth system also come from biology. Outdoor explorers record phenological data at more sites than could ever be reached by university or government staffers. Projects like the century-old Audubon Christmas Bird Count allow citizen ornithologists to go from spotting birds to contributing invaluable data. This single project – one of over 1500 in the SciStarter database – has accumulated 25 million volunteer hours. Now Big Data approaches convert those records into transformational results on bird migration and climate. This session invites leading academic/agency researchers working in a wide range of disciplines to describe results from citizen science, and address questions of QA/QC and implications for professional researchers.
For more information, please feel free to contact the session conveners listed below.Sincerely,
Connie Walker, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 520-318-8535cwalker@noao.edu (both sessions)Sanlyn Buxner, UArizona Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies, 520-626-1825sbuxner@gmail.com (Session ID# 13679)
Padma Yanamandra-Fisher, Space Science Institute, 909-899-0210padmayf@gmail.com  (Session ID# 12673)
Edgar Bering, III, Physics Dept., University of Houston, 713-743-3543ebering@central.uh.edu  (Session ID# 13679)
Rachel Freed, Consultant, Educational Technology and STEM Curriculum Development, 707-326-8310r.freed2010@gmail.com (Session ID# 12673)
Stephen M. Pompea, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 520-318-8285spompea@noao.edu (Session ID# 13679)
Thilina Heenatigala, Galileo Teacher Training Program/NUCLIO, heenatigala@nuclio.pt  (Session ID# 12673)
Pamela Gay, Southern Illinois University, starstryder@gmail.com (Session #12794)

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About the Author

Catherine Price

Catherine Price

Catherine was the project manager with the development of SciStarter 2.0. She loves finding new ways to connect the public to science through education. Catherine received her Bachelor's in Zoology from Miami University and her Master's of Science in Zoology from the University of British Columbia.