Blog: Citizen Science Projects, People, and Perspectives
By Nathaniel Scharping, Dec 15, 2023
In 2017, Jim Webster began going out at night near his New Jersey home to take pictures of our galaxy. With a 14-millimeter lens and a DSLR, he would capture long exposures of the Milky Way galaxy, revealing the delicate filaments of nebulae and countless clusters of stars hidden within the band of the galaxy’s … Read more “SciStarter Ambassador Jim Webster helps others discover how to protect the planet through citizen science”
Categories: Astronomy & Space, Nature & Outdoors, Staff Spotlight
By Nathaniel Scharping, Sep 25, 2023
As fall begins across the Northern Hemisphere, hundreds of millions of birds are preparing for a journey that can take them thousands of miles to warmer climates near the equator. These fall migrations are both a simple fact of life for many avian species, and an epic adventure that takes them halfway across the globe. … Read more “Fall Nighttime Migrations Can Be Deadly for Birds. Help Keep Them Safe With These Simple Actions”
Categories: Animals, Birds, Nature & Outdoors
By Nathaniel Scharping, May 19, 2023
When you make citizen science observations, you might enter the information into an app, take a photo or answer a few questions in an online form and hit submit. That might be the end of your part of the process, but submitting a data point is just the first step in the long, rigorous journey … Read more “Citizen Science Observations Are Showing Up In Dozens of Published Research Papers”
Categories: Astronomy & Space, Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Use of Citizen Science data
By Nathaniel Scharping, Nov 17, 2022
This fall, between September 15 and October 15, more than 30,000 volunteers combed through forests, fields and even their own backyards in search of the humble mushroom. They were participating in the Great North American FungiQuest, a massive bioblitz that aimed to find and identify as many fungi as possible in the span of just … Read more “Largest-Ever Fungi Bioblitz Catalogs the Diversity of North American Mushrooms and More”
Categories: Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoors
By Nathaniel Scharping, Aug 15, 2022
While we might imagine a scientist as a chemist concocting substances in a lab, or a biologist diving with sea creatures, the reality is often far more mundane. Much of science involves collecting and analyzing data, and that process isn’t always very exciting. Think counting bacteria in a petri dish, or noting if two stars … Read more “Gaming for Science: How Video Games Are Making Research Fun”
Categories: Gaming
By Nathaniel Scharping, Jul 28, 2022
Our oceans are vast, powerful and mysterious — and even after centuries of study, there are still many things scientists don’t know about our planet’s blue expanses. But the ocean affects all of our lives intimately, even those of us who live far from the coast. Oceans provide food for billions of people, shape weather … Read more “How Citizen Science Helps NOAA Keep Tabs on Our Oceans”
Categories: Animals, Climate & Weather, Environment
By Nathaniel Scharping, Apr 01, 2022
With the release of its first 100,000 genomes, all from volunteers, the All of Us project is on its way to solving one of the most pernicious problems in modern medicine: a startling lack of diversity. The National Institutes of Health project, which launched in 2018, will eventually gather genetic information and other medical data … Read more “All of Us Releases First 100,000 Genomes to Address a Lack of Medical Diversity”
Categories: Citizen Science Month, Health
By Nathaniel Scharping, Jan 18, 2022
SciStarter has hundreds of citizen science projects to choose from, and our more than 110,000 registered members participate in a diverse range of projects that match their individual interests and passions. But there are a few perennial favorites among our citizen science projects, and perhaps none more popular than the Alzheimer’s-fighting game Stall Catchers. Run … Read more “Stall Catchers Was Our Top Project This Year. Its Project Leader Shares His Secrets”
Categories: Alzheimers
By Nathaniel Scharping, Oct 27, 2021
When a group of friends met up in the tropical forests of Indonesia, they were expecting to take in the verdant surroundings and hopefully nab a few photos of the colorful butterflies that congregate in the area. That’s what Yi-Kai Tea and his buddies found on the island of Sulawesi, nestled in the midst of … Read more “How Citizen Scientists Uncovered the Strange Behavior of ‘Vampire’ Butterflies”
Categories: Biology, Nature & Outdoors
By Nathaniel Scharping, Sep 27, 2021
The Girl Scout Tree Promise is an ambitious effort to plant, protect and honor 5 million trees across the country in five years. Anyone, anywhere can join this global movement to address climate change, one tree at a time! Here’s how: (Optional) Plant a tree and record your good deed on the Girl Scout Tree … Read more “These Fall Projects Let Anyone Protect and Study the Trees Around Us”
Categories: Environment
