Bats, Bones, Zombees! Five macabre citizen science projects for Halloween.

Drag your bones on over to our favorite, spooky research projects just in time for Halloween. Where is my Spider? Share your photos of spiders. When we understand where spiders are living today, we will be better able to predict what may happen to spiders and agriculture in the future. Get started!   Zombee Watch … Read more “Bats, Bones, Zombees! Five macabre citizen science projects for Halloween.”

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

Citizen Sort: Who is in that photo?

Pictures, puzzles, and play. Citizen Sort is a collection of interactive games in which players sort and classify photos of unidentified animals. The project is the brain child of researchers at Syracuse University School of Information. The goal is to enable scientists to use pictures of wildlife from the web to help them study changes … Read more “Citizen Sort: Who is in that photo?”

Categories: Animals, Citizen Science, Gaming, Insects

Save the Tasmanian Devil!

Tasmania, the island state of Australia, is known for its tall trees, its wild mountains, its challenging caves, but most of all for its Tasmanian Devils. While the Warner Brothers cartoon character may be responsible for this infamy, the devils themselves are fascinating creatures. They are also endangered by a mysterious disease and are the … Read more “Save the Tasmanian Devil!”

Categories: Animals, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Health

Visit the bottom of the ocean…without getting wet!

This project is part of our Back to School 2013 round-up of projects. Read more about them! Calling all citizen scientists! It doesn’t matter where you are. You can still be an ‘honorary’ diver to help with this project. The idea is simply to look at seafloor photos on your computer and catalogue what you … Read more “Visit the bottom of the ocean…without getting wet!”

Categories: Animals, Citizen Science, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water

Shark Week: A Feeding Frenzy for Citizen Scientists

That’s right–it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. It’s Shark Week, and SciStarter has a slew of projects for you to try out. Let’s see if you bite. Whether it’s fascination or fear, the sight of a shark makes our hearts skip a beat. Thanks to these featured citizen science projects, that sight can also … Read more “Shark Week: A Feeding Frenzy for Citizen Scientists”

Categories: Animals, Apps, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water

Sevengill shark

More Gills or Eyes? The Purported Increase of Sevengill Shark Populations off the Coast of San Diego

Emerging technologies have a profound effect on how citizen scientists conduct their work. An underwater creature of ancient lineage helps to tell this modern story of technology’s importance to citizen science. Notorynchus cepedianus, the sevengill shark, of the ancient Hexanchidae family (cow sharks), features seven gill slits and a single dorsal fin, giving a prehistoric … Read more “More Gills or Eyes? The Purported Increase of Sevengill Shark Populations off the Coast of San Diego”

Categories: Animals, Apps, Citizen Science, In the News, Ocean & Water

Bio Trails: Identifying Species with DNA Barcoding

SciStarter brings you curated citizen science projects under new themes on a bi-weekly basis. Be sure to check out the other “DNA Barcoding” featured projects for this cycle! Have you ever wanted to know how many different species of creepy crawlies you can spot in a weekend? ‘Biotrailers’ are doing just that at the Mount … Read more “Bio Trails: Identifying Species with DNA Barcoding”

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

Buzzing about cicadas:Your Wildlife is launching a new project!

This post originally appeared on Your Wildlife and was reposted with the permission of the author, Holly Menninger. Over the last few weeks, we’ve watched and envied reports and photos coming from those of you living within the emergence zone of Brood II 17-year periodical cicadas (from Georgia to Connecticut). We even traveled westward to … Read more “Buzzing about cicadas:Your Wildlife is launching a new project!”

Categories: Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Guest Contributor, Insects, Nature & Outdoors

Build a nestbox, help a kestrel.

The American kestrel nesting season is in full swing! Found throughout the Americas, the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) is the smallest of the North American falcons. Unfortunately, its population is in decline particularly along the Pacific Coast and in New England. Much of the decline is due to land clearing which reduces the kestrel’s natural … Read more “Build a nestbox, help a kestrel.”

Categories: Birds