Help fight illegal fishing with Global Fishing Watch

By Adam Reyer, Project Director for Global Fishing Watch Hundreds of millions of people depend on the ocean for their livelihoods, and almost 3 billion rely on it as a protein source. But countless threats — overfishing, destructive fishing practices, bycatch, dishonest catch reporting, habitat destruction — threaten our oceans and the people who depend … Read more “Help fight illegal fishing with Global Fishing Watch”

Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, Project Profile

Superstition Area Land Trust Community Science

Guest blog post from Charles Ault, Superstition Area Land Trust (SALT) community. SALT Citizen Science program emerges in East Valley. Rhythms of Desert Citizen Science program examines the effects of El Niño on our climate. Four organizations dedicated to advancing scientific research, public policy,  and community-based decision making, have come together to develop a program that harnesses the … Read more “Superstition Area Land Trust Community Science”

Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, libraries, Other

How to Tell a Rock from a Penguin: It’s Harder Than It Sounds

By: Lishka Arata Many things distinguish penguins from rocks. There’s color difference (usually), behavior (penguins waddle, rocks don’t), social structure (rocks don’t have one) — the list goes on. But why might someone need to distinguish between rocks and penguins? It’s a skill central to a long-term project that relies on citizen scientists, working from … Read more “How to Tell a Rock from a Penguin: It’s Harder Than It Sounds”

Categories: Birds, Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, Project Profile

Help Shape New Directions in Open Science: Vote for your favorite Innovation!

By: Elizabeth Kittrie, Senior Advisor for Data Science, National Institutes of Health In the spirit of open science – a movement to make data and other information from scientific research available to everyone — the National Institutes of Health invites you to cast your vote and help us decide which of the projects competing for … Read more “Help Shape New Directions in Open Science: Vote for your favorite Innovation!”

Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, Health, Other

Why it’s OK to fail: empowering students to discover

By Lea Shell Middle school students are presented with a bucket of what, at first glance, looks like dirt. They pull handfuls onto their lab bench and carefully begin to sift. “I found a shark tooth!” one student exclaims,  prompting the other students to peer more intently at their own piles. Before long, they see … Read more “Why it’s OK to fail: empowering students to discover”

Categories: Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering), Citizen Science, Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering), EarthSchool, Education, Guest Contributor, Science Practices

Understanding the Rhythms of the Desert: Citizen Science, Committed Communities, Public Libraries and SciStarter

A guest post from the Superstition Area Land Trust (SALT) community in Apache Junction, AZ. Understanding the Rhythms of the Desert: A Citizen Science and Lending Library Program  Presented by: The Superstition Area Land Trust (SALT), SciStarter, Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, YLACES.org, GLOBE.gov & The Apache Junction Public Library The … Read more “Understanding the Rhythms of the Desert: Citizen Science, Committed Communities, Public Libraries and SciStarter”

Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, libraries, Project Profile

Back To School With Citizen Science: A Conversation with Ben Graves

In the next two posts, as part of our SciStarter in the Classroom collection, guest contributor Ben Graves will share his personal experiences and advice for using citizen science in the classroom. Graves is a fellow with the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, which supports a small cohort of early-career teachers across the United States with intensive professional development. … Read more “Back To School With Citizen Science: A Conversation with Ben Graves”

Categories: Analyzing and interpreting data, Citizen Science, EarthSchool, Guest Contributor, Nature & Outdoors, Science Education Standards, Science Practices

Using Citizen Science to Track Sevengill Sharks

Guest post by Mike Bear The San Diego-based non-profit Ocean  Sanctuaries was founded in 2014 to create and provide support for marine citizen science projects. The Sevengill Shark Identification Project was one of its first citizen science projects, begun in 2010 in response to anecdotal evidence that divers were seeing increasing numbers Sevengill sharks off … Read more “Using Citizen Science to Track Sevengill Sharks”

Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, Project Profile

Autoimmune Diseases Affect Millions of Americans: Here’s How Citizen Science Can Help

Autoimmune Citizen Science is an app to help people with autoimmune diseases track their symptoms, lab tests, and treatments in order to see what’s working and what isn’t. Individual data is aggregated in order to see what’s working for the community as a whole. Check out the project on SciStarter and sign up for the … Read more “Autoimmune Diseases Affect Millions of Americans: Here’s How Citizen Science Can Help”

Categories: Apps, Biology, Citizen Science, Computers & Technology, Guest Contributor, Project Profile