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Calling Mother Nature
Let’s show our appreciation for all the moms out there, including Mother Nature. Here are five ways to get started in projects that need your help.
Pictured: SciStarter Founder, Darlene, and her mom, Faith
Choose your mom’s favorite flower to observe near you and report when its buds are blooming. Phenology scientists (who study seasonal changes in nature) are standing by!
This video features the scientists, their research goals, and how you can help.
Location: North America
Photo credit: Budburst
Give mom the blessed silence she craves with the free Silent Earth app. Learn how to find and map quiet places around the world to help NASA populate a noise map.
Location: Global
Photo credit: Silent Earth
How about all the other moms in the animal kingdom, like the ant colony queens who are slaving away, day in and day out? With Ant Picnic, you’ll make a simple meal fit for a queen! Then, observe which ingredients ants prefer.
Your data will help scientists understand food preferences of ants.
Location: Global
Photo credit: Leona2013 from Pixabay
Hop online with mom to trace galaxies. Astronomers need your help to annotate online images to understand the curvature of galaxies. Your input can help identify future areas for detailed telescope observations.
This video features the scientists, explains their research goals, and describes how you can get involved.
Location: Online
Photo credit: NASA
CNN spotlighted Science of Sourdough from the Public Science Lab. Capture wild microbes and turn them into bread – for mom and for science!
To make your own sourdough starter, all you need is flour, water, and a little bit of time.
Photo credit: Lauren Nichols
Learn to identify pollinators while coloring. Then, participate in The Great Sunflower project using any flowering plant near you…maybe mom will hang your artwork on her refrigerator!
This new frame let’s you share your love for citizen science AND help your Facebook friends easily find opportunities to get involved in thousands of projects.
Tag “@SciStarter” on Facebook and use the #CitSciMonth and #CitizenScience hashtags for a chance to win a free copy of The Field Guide to Citizen Science book.
THANK YOU! Despite facing unprecedented challenges, so many of you came together to make Citizen Science Month 2020 (April) a huge success.
We will share detailed outcomes once we wrap up evaluations but here are two quick stats:
- 377% more people joined projects on SciStarter over the same time frame last year (April).
- 150+ Citizen Science Month online events took place. View recordings on the new citizen science videos page.
Discover more citizen science on the SciStarter calendar. Did you know your SciStarter dashboard helps you track your contributions to projects? Complete your profile to access free tools. Want even more citizen science? Check out SciStarter’s Project Finder! With citizen science projects spanning every field of research, task and age group, there’s something for everyone!
New on the blogs:
This Citizen Science Project May Help Explain How Supermassive Black Holes Form, via Discover Magazine
Help Researchers Track Coronavirus by Reporting Your COVID-19 Symptoms Online, via Science Connected
