In 2024, volunteers like you made more than 2.5 MILLION data contributions to SciStarter Affiliate projects alone! Science thanks you! And while we appreciate each and every one of you, in this year-end edition of the newsletter, we highlight the top 10 participants based on data contributions.
You’ll also find our Top Ten Projects based on participation in projects ranging from tracking squirrels to discovering black holes; Top Five Projects to Watch in 2025; and citizen science in the news this year.
Happy Holidays!
The SciStarter Team
P.S.– Reminder for project leaders: This is the most wonderful time of the year to update your projects! Log in, go to your dashboard, click edit, update, save!
2024 was another banner year for SciStarter, with:
- 5 million data contributions from SciStarter members to Affiliate projects
- Close to 20,000 people completed a SciStarter training module
- 512 new projects and events were added to SciStarter
- 45,132 people created SciStarter accounts (welcome!)
- We now have close to 1,000 public libraries active in the SciStarter Citizen and Community Science Library Network
- Nearly 500,000 people accounted for more than 1.1 million “Acts of Science” across 790 projects on SciStarter during Citizen Science Month in April
- We expanded the “Do NASA Science LIVE” event series in partnership with NASA
- Two new peer-reviewed papers were published based on data from SciStarter
- And we debuted the Certified SciStarter Citizen Science Ambassadors program!
This eclectic collection of projects topped the year in terms of participation:
- Stall Catchers– Advance Alzheimer’s Disease research by finding blood vessel “stalls” in mouse brain images.
- CoCoRaHS– Use a precipitation gauge and report rain, hail and snowfall.
- iNaturalist– Submit high quality photographs of flora and fauna.
- Black Hole Finder– Discover brand new baby black holes by analyzing gravitational wave events.
- The Daily Minor Planet– Scan telescope images to identify previously unknown asteroids passing near Earth.
- Osa Camera Trap Network– Analyze photos taken by motion-triggered cameras in Costa Rica, to monitor wildcats and their prey.
- Project Sidewalk– Use your mobile device to report the condition of city sidewalks to improve navigation for anyone using wheeled transport, especially wheelchairs, but also grocery carts, baby carriages, delivery dollies and wheeled luggage.
- Project Squirrel– Report on what types of squirrels live in your area.
- Stream Selfie– Share a photo of your local stream to help map stream conditions nationwide.
- The Great Sunflower Project– Grow a giant sunflower and report on the insects that come to visit.
- Darwin’s Cats– Help scientists better understand cat behavior and improve cat health by completing a survey and/or have your cat’s DNA analyzed (fee for DNA analysis).
- Firefly Atlas– Fireflies are vastly understudied even as their populations and diversity are declining. This project needs your discerning eye to help monitor these unique insects.
- Dolphin Chat– Lend an ear to dolphin vocalizations to help scientists understand what they’re talking about.
- Name That Neutrino– Analyze data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica to help scientists spot these elusive particles.
- Yale Music Lab– A whole suite of projects presented as games in which your responses help answer questions about music and the brain.
Citizen Science 2024 News Highlights
Citizen scientists contributed to ground-breaking discoveries in 2024, including mapping the fruit-fly brain, discovering a potentially habitable exoplanet, finding 144 species of “lost” birds that hadn’t been observed in at least 10 years, spotting a hypervelocity object the size of a small star traveling one million miles per hour, uncovering the importance of car transport in the spread of hitchhiking invasive ant species, and learning that cats that fetch are much more common than was thought.
The iNaturalist program recorded nearly 50 million observations of over 300,000 species in 2024, and the Zooniverse platform received the White House Open Science Award. Four asteroids discovered through The Daily Minor Planet project were named for the citizen scientists who discovered them.
The Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $4.55M in funding to support a pair of new community-science relevant centers, one to enhance community science observations and data collection on extreme heat, and the other to provide assistance to communities planning for and evaluating equitable heat resilience projects.
Scientists writing in the journal Nature detailed the vibrant relationship between citizen science and artificial intelligence (AI), with citizen scientists contributing data in understudied areas of science vital to building and maintaining useful AI engines, and AI becoming increasingly important in helping citizen scientists correctly identify species and phenomena. To get the latest on artificial intelligence and citizen science, see this special collection featured in the journal Citizen Science: Theory and Practice.
These are just a few of the science discoveries of the past year. Many more await energetic citizen scientists in 2025!
Ambassadorial Ambitions?
With all the new ambassador appointments being named in Washington, are you feeling left out? Then why not apply to be a SciStarter Ambassador! Unlike being Ambassador to Aruba or Monaco, as a SciStarter Ambassador you’ll make full use of your citizen science expertise and enthusiasm at libraries and other public spaces. Applications for the next cohort are due by January 25!
Print the January Calendar
SciStarter LIVE!
Join Emma Giles and the SciStarter team Tuesdays from 2-3 PM ET, to meet inspiring project leaders, gain valuable tips for participating in citizen science projects, and discover the incredible impact your contributions can make. Join the action via Zoom or catch the live stream on SciStarter’s Facebook page.
How Satellites Track Santa (and Do Science)! Santa Claus is coming to town, and NORAD tracks him. On this special edition of SciStarter LIVE, we discuss satellites and citizen science with experts from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the NASA project GLOBE Observer: Clouds. Watch now on YouTube.
January 14th, 2025 – EZIE-Magnetometer Project for Libraries! More info to come. Register.
In case you missed it:
Jumpstart Planning for Citizen Science Month 2025: If you are planning to help others participate in Citizen Science Month, watch our recorded webinar on how to get started. Watch on YouTube.
November 19th – Leave No Trace Announces the #LeaveNoTrash 2025 Challenge. Join us to learn how your university or community can get involved! Watch on YouTube.
Project Leaders: Learn how to leverage Citizen Science Month to (re)inspire and (re)engage your volunteers! Watch on YouTube.
Upcoming opportunities:
Please share with Veterans and Service Members! Don’t miss the two-part Do NASA Science LIVE event January 29th and April 10th for service members, veterans and their families. Meet NASA scientists and learn about citizen science projects tailored just for you! Learn more and register!
Congratulations to Dr. Caroline Hewitt Nickerson!
SciStarter’s own Caroline Nickerson recently completed her doctorate in Agricultural Communication at the University of Florida! Caroline has been instrumental in the success of SciStarter and a friend to all, so please join us in congratulating Dr. Nickerson!
New projects featured on SciStarter
iSPEX® Smartphone Spectrometer and Polarimeter
For Practitioners
Planning activities or events for Citizen Science Month? Consider inviting a SciStarter Ambassador to help! Check out the SciStarter Ambassador Directory to see if there’s an Ambassador near you. New cohorts are being added, so check back frequently.
The CAPS 2025 conference needs your submission! Share your insights, research, experience or new ideas about practices for participatory sciences. Visit the Call for Individual Presentations.
The journal Citizen Science: Theory and Practice is looking for abstracts for a Special Collection on citizen science in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM). Learn more at their Call for Abstracts!
