Citizen Science Does Grow on Trees!

Trees provide us with oxygen, shade, and that calming rustle on an evening hike. Now, they’re also providing the opportunity to do some citizen science! Here is our round-up of tree-related citizen science projects that you can go out on a limb to participate in! Treezilla Treezilla is a mapping project based in Great Britain … Read more “Citizen Science Does Grow on Trees!”

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

A Picture Saves 1,000 Streams – Water Quality Monitoring on Your Smartphone

This post is part of this week’s featured projects about water quality monitoring. Take a look! Despite over 70% of the Earth’s surface being covered in water, one in nine people do not have access to an improved water source.(1) Contaminated water kills more people than all wars, crimes and terrorism combined yet more people … Read more “A Picture Saves 1,000 Streams – Water Quality Monitoring on Your Smartphone”

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

Water, Water, Everywhere (and Water Projects Too!)

Here at SciStarter, we’re learning something new every day. Last month, when we featured the World Water Monitoring Challenge as a great citizen science project for the classroom, we learned about World Water Monitoring Day. This is celebrated on September 18th and brings people together from around the globe to help keep an eye on our … Read more “Water, Water, Everywhere (and Water Projects Too!)”

Categories: Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water

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

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

The Secchi Dip-In

Calling all water monitoring groups! It is time for the annual Secchi Dip-In. From now until July 22, volunteer and professional water monitoring groups are being asked to take transparency measurements in a local body of water. A secchi disk is a common tool for measuring water turbidity, or water cloudiness. Turbidity is caused by … Read more “The Secchi Dip-In”

Categories: Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Geology & Earth Sciences, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water

That Moment When You Realize How Little You Actually Know

  I like to call it an antipiphany* – that striking realization of the magnitude of what can be known, which reduces what you actually understand to a paltry amount. I’ve seen it again and again with graduate students: they enroll feeling like smarty-pants, and within a year they are humbled by an antipiphany. Eventually … Read more “That Moment When You Realize How Little You Actually Know”

Categories: Astronomy & Space, Citizen Science, Do-It-Yourself, Nature & Outdoors, Science Education Standards

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

On this, National Squirrel Day, we feature Craig Newmark and squirrelly citizen science.

SciStarter asked Craig Newmark (of Craigslist fame) why he likes squirrels. He told us that it all started with a simple desire to feed birds. But the suet palaces he was using to dispense the raw, fat-based bird food were constantly getting hacked by squirrels. He tried everything; he even upgraded to “squirrel-resistant” models, to … Read more “On this, National Squirrel Day, we feature Craig Newmark and squirrelly citizen science.”

Categories: Animals, Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Contest, Ecology & Environment, Guest Contributor, Nature & Outdoors