Tuesday Trio: Roadkill, Spiders, and Water Monitoring

The Science for Citizens Project Finder is filled with hundreds of citizen science projects, and it’s growing larger every day thanks to submissions by project coordinators, volunteers, and other members of the Science for Citizens community. I’m highlighting a trio of recently added citizen science projects  to introduce you to a few new ways to … Read more “Tuesday Trio: Roadkill, Spiders, and Water Monitoring”

Categories: Animals, Biology, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Insects, Nature & Outdoors

Top Member Blog Posts of 2010

Below, I’ve listed the top 5 Science For Citizens member blog posts according to the number of visits received. It’s easy to start your very own Sci4Ctis member blog. Start sharing your adventures with other citizen scientists! 5. Rent a Remote-Controlled Telescope! From Michael It’s pretty hard to be an amateur astronomer without your own … Read more “Top Member Blog Posts of 2010”

Categories: Animals, Astronomy & Space, Biology, Birds, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, In the News, Insects, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water, Science Education Standards

Meet Our Festival Collaborators: Lindsay from Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary

The USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo is just two days away, and Science for Citizens is excited to be partnering with several fantastic citizen science organizations for our exhibit. Today, I’d like to introduce you to Lindsay from Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, an estuarine site in the state of Maryland about 20 miles east of … Read more “Meet Our Festival Collaborators: Lindsay from Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary”

Categories: Animals, Biology, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Insects, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water, Science Education Standards, USA Science and Engineering Festival

After a clue on colony collapse, what’s status of honey bees?

The mysterious widespread deaths of honey bees over the last four years has been a great worry, both to backyard gardeners and large agricultural companies. That’s why it was such welcome news last week when Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana reported they had discovered a likely cause: a fatal combination of … Read more “After a clue on colony collapse, what’s status of honey bees?”

Categories: Biology, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Insects, Nature & Outdoors

Here be dragonflies

While dragonflies and damselflies might belong to the same scientific class as the common housefly, the gossamer-winged zoomers seem a world apart from their less-enchanting six-legged cousins. Sitting outdoors in the San Juan Islands last weekend, I had a chance to observe a few blue dragonflies up close as they swooped in to check out … Read more “Here be dragonflies”

Categories: Citizen Science, Insects, Nature & Outdoors

Map pollination while beautifying your garden

Think you can spot the difference between and a honey bee and a bumble bee? Well, there’s one day left to test your bee knowledge with the online Bee Challenge, brought to you by the folks at the Great Pollinator Project! A collaboration between the Greenbelt Native Plant Nursery and the Center for Biodiversity and … Read more “Map pollination while beautifying your garden”

Categories: Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Insects

Two batty science projects

For those citizen scientists in the western states who like staying up late, here’s your chance to spy on some winged mammals for science. Two monitoring projects still need your help observing and listening for bats this summer. Citizen scientists in Seattle are needed to help researchers determine what types of bats are chirping in … Read more “Two batty science projects”

Categories: Animals, Bats, Biology, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Insects, Nature & Outdoors

One firefly mystery solved, another needs your help

Recently, my pal at Live Science.com, Dave Brody, produced this video news piece about the results of a fascinating experiment involving fireflies. Scientists at the University of Connecticut have discovered that males in a common species of fireflies synchronize their flashing patterns to attract females. In dense fields or woods, the mass, synchronized flashing patterns … Read more “One firefly mystery solved, another needs your help”

Categories: Citizen Science, Insects, Nature & Outdoors

Got ants? Citizen scientists do

“Everybody have ants?” That’s Kelly Herbinson, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences, training high school students in the art of collecting ants for the Bay Area Ant Survey, one of the Academy’s citizen science projects. (You’ll find a description in our Project Finder.) The project and the problem ant that participants most often … Read more “Got ants? Citizen scientists do”

Categories: Citizen Science, Insects

Science volunteers give endangered butterfly a new start

One of the loveliest butterflies in the San Francisco Bay Area is the mission blue. Hikers who venture south of the city to San Bruno Mountain or north to the Marin Headlands are sometimes lucky enough to encounter the iridescent, inch-wide insect (as I did a couple of weekends ago). But the butterfly, an endangered … Read more “Science volunteers give endangered butterfly a new start”

Categories: Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Insects, Nature & Outdoors