Previously on this blog, Sci4Cits blogger Elizabeth Walter reported on Bard College’s novel attempt to bring citizen science into the minds of all freshmen through an intensive, mandatory, three-week course, aptly titled Citizen Science. Bard’s President, Leon Botstein, is a passionate believer that citizen science activities hold the key to helping people reconnect to science […]

For those of you who watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and wondered how you could go searching for ancient artifacts yourself, here is your chance to get in on some archaeology action. The Calico Early Man Site, located near Yermo, California, is starting its fall digging season this weekend (October 2 and 3) and […]

Science for Citizens is getting some attention over at Motherboard.TV, an online video network. Co-founder Michael Gold and I were interviewed by Jordan Keenan of Motherboard this past spring at Harvard during the Humanity Plus Summit where I spoke about citizen science. Here are the slides from that presentation. You’re welcome to them. In the […]

Exciting news for all you lookers—that is, you folks who like to consume your information visually. We’ve just opened up a new wing of our site that features citizen science-flavored video: the Video Gallery. Please click on over and check out, among other video adventures, underwater footage of the camera-stealing manta ray, a visit with […]

While there might be a lot of metaphorical hot air hovering around Washington, D.C., hazardous weather is no joke. Volunteer scary-weather spotters are needed for many chapters of the SkyWarn network, including the unit that keeps an eye on the sky throughout the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Volunteers are needed to report what the atmospheric forces have […]

There’s a mystery in the night sky that you can help solve. Every 27 years, in the constellation called Auriga (the charioteer), a bright star designated epsilon goes dim for nearly two years. Epsilon Aurigae is a “binary eclipsing variable star,” which is astronomer-speak for a star that appears to change brightness as an orbiting […]

Crisp fall air in the northeastern Appalachian Mountains will soon signal trees to splash entire hillsides with red, yellow, and orange as far as the eye can see. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) hopes that many future generations of hikers will be able to enjoy similarly colorful views to the horizon. However, they need your […]

Ruth Brooks, a gardener with a soft spot for snails, has just won the BBC’s “So You Want to Be a Scientist?” contest. You may recall that she was our favorite when we reported in April on the four finalists for the contest. Brooks’s ground-breaking (if slow) project showed that, contrary to what many scientists […]

On Saturday, September 18, citizen scientists from Virginia to Hawaii will dip jars into rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds, and the ocean, and perform simple tests to measure the quality of their local waters. It’s all part of World Water Monitoring Day, an annual international event designed to raise awareness about the need to protect our […]

Love ’em or not, squirrels play an important role in local ecology. Mapping changes in their population can help researchers better understand–and predict–a range of corollary environmental changes. As described on the Project Squirrel website, “Squirrels can be important indicators of local ecology because they are resident in small territories and active year round, they […]