April 2021 is Global Citizen Science Month, and SciStarter, the National Library of Medicine, Arizona State University, the Citizen Science Association and many other partners from around the world provide free resources, support and an event calendar to help you plan and promote your event.
I’m Caroline Nickerson, SciStarter’s Program Manager for Global Citizen Science Month.
Planning an Event
At SciStarter, we want to make sure citizen science programming is accessible to all, especially with virtual opportunities. Wherever you are in the world, you can apply to host a virtual program with SciStarter’s support, which can include social media promotion, access to our zoom webinar account, facilitation assistance and more.
Note: anyone can add an event to the event calendar for citizen scientists around the world to discover it. This is a special opportunity to apply to receive extra support from SciStarter.
We’re opening this opportunity up to our facilitator community (you!).
These are the steps:
1. Select a potential event time via https://scistarterevents.youcanbook.me (password: citsci)
2. Email CarolineN@SciStarter.org with your event idea
3. Join our weekly office hours via the dial-in at CitizenScienceMonth.org/MailingList to confirm your event. We picked our office hour times for a global audience after conducting a poll last year.
We can’t wait to help you turn your community’s curiosity into impact with citizen science.
Join the Planning Committee
Want to take a more hands-on role in facilitating CitSciMonth (April 2021)? Have ideas about materials SciStarter and other partners could help produce to facilitate worldwide programming and help folks plan public-facing CitSci events? Join our volunteer planning committee! We’re looking for diverse, global perspectives. We meet at 10:30 AM EST on the last Thursday of every month unless otherwise noted, but can reach out to folks in different time zones with one-on-one meetings. Email CarolineN@SciStarter.org to join the planning committee.
Social Media Takeovers
Even though the next Citizen Science Month is in April 2021, it’s never too early to celebrate and we have social media takeovers going to keep the citizen science fun active year-round with @CitSciMonth (twitter.com/CitSciMonth & instagram.com/CitSciMonth).
Anyone can sign up for a social media takeover. We’ve had individuals, community groups, nonprofits, libraries and more take over to share their insights. Review our welcome document to learn how you can get involved.
Office Hours
Have an idea you want to share? Just want to chat? Join the SciStarter team at 8 AM and 11 AM ET on zoom any given Thursday for office hours. Dial-in information available online.
Citizen Science Month is April 2021. Find everything you need at CitizenScienceMonth.org including free posters, flyers, bookmarks, guides, kits, social media prompts, event calendars and promotional tools, logos, images and so much more! We’ll be updating these resources leading up to Citizen Science Month 2021. Looking for projects to spotlight in your programs and a free citizen science tutorial? SciStarter and the Network of the National Library of Medince have these resources available at SciStarter.org/NLM.
