Blog: Citizen Science Projects, People, and Perspectives
In-depth posts on one or more projects
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is sharing more details than ever before about its 15,000 collected plants. The best part—you can help make it happen! … Read more
Categories: Biology, Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, Health, Project Profile
I used to think of birds as delicate creatures, airy and carefree, with pretty feathers and pretty songs. Then I saw the film “Winged Migration” and came to understand just how gritty and daring these lovely creatures really are. The film uses bird’s-eye footage to document the treacherous treks birds across the globe make each … Read more “Exploring the wonder of birds through the Migratory Shorebird Project”
Categories: Animals, Birds, Project Profile
Editor’s Note: Today starts the beginning of Bat Week and there are many opportunities for citizen scientists to get involved. Below, we have reposted an article from 2015 on the popular online project Bat Detective. Want to support more bat projects? Check out SciStarter to find a list of fun possibilities.
Categories: Bats, Citizen Science, Nature & Outdoors, Project Profile
By: Dr. Libby Ellwood Each year, millions of people flock to natural history museums to see examples of plants, animals, gemstones and more from places around the world. But what those visitors don’t get to see are the countless additional specimens behind the scenes. These specimen collections, housed at museums, universities, and other institutions, are … Read more “Mobilize hundreds of years of biodiversity information with WeDigBio!”
Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, Project Profile
How can you protect an astronaut from getting a sunburn in space? The Royal Society of Chemistry in London has designed a collection of hands-on chemistry experiments that kids can do to explore this question and discover the answer for themselves. The project is called Mission: Starlight. It is free and includes downloadable videos, worksheets, and … Read more “Mission: Starlight Uses Space to Spark Curiosity in Chemistry”
Categories: Astronomy & Space, Chemistry, Citizen Science, Project Profile
Detecting emotional concepts, such as sarcasm, within a text is not an easy task for an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. For instance, consider the sentence below. Without the emoji present it’s not clear what the author was feeling. The author could have been sad because of a lack of a special someone in his life … Read more “DeepMoji: Citizen science to create emotional AI algorithms”
Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor, Project Profile
Like many people, I was first introduced to the world of archaeology by Indiana Jones, that adventuresome character who lit up the big screen rescuing artifacts from villains by the skin of his teeth. Indy was awesome and will always have a place in my heart. But while he succeeded in making archaeology seem romantic, … Read more “Discovering our Common Humanity through Space Archaeology”
Categories: Archeology, Citizen Science, Project Profile
By: Lily Bui In the brief span of two months, a series of disasters have swept across the globe. Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean left homes, businesses, and streets flooded, disarmed power grids and basic services, and devastated the communities that rely on them. An earthquake in Mexico spurred mass evacuations and … Read more “Digital Disaster Relief: Crowdsourced Responses to Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Floods Around the World”
Categories: Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Project Profile
By: Megan Ray Nichols It’s always fun to have a ladybug land on your arm while outside — but these days, it’s more and more likely that any ladybugs landing on you or the plants in your garden are not native to North America. Over the past three decades, several ladybug species native to North … Read more “Help Cornell Researchers Find the Lost Ladybugs”
Categories: Citizen Science, Girl Scouts, Guest Contributor, Insects, Project Profile
By Dolores Hill and Carl Hergenrother, Target Asteroids! Co-Leads Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission Today’s amateur astronomers carry on long held traditions in citizen science by making valuable contributions in data collection and monitoring celestial objects of all kinds. They supplement work done by professional astronomers and fill gaps … Read more “The Sky is Falling! Or is It?”
Categories: Astronomy & Space, Citizen Science, Project Profile
