Blog: Citizen Science Projects, People, and Perspectives
By Darlene Cavalier, Mar 31, 2012
How can social media be used to accomplish a seemingly impossible task? Today, a social experiment called the “Tag Challenge” sends 5 individuals to roam the streets of New York, DC, Bratislava, Stockholm, and London. The task is to locate them before the sun sets based only on their mugshots. You can contribute by taking … Read more “CrowdScanner: A social media experiment in crowdsourcing. (Join our team, today!)”
Categories: Other
By Lisa Gardiner, Mar 29, 2012
Today, we are launching a series of SciStarter blog posts titled, “Citizen Science Test Drive” where we will present first-person reviews of citizen science apps, tools and platforms. If you would like to contribute to this series and share your experiences with our community, email john@scistarter.com. Here’s my review of three mobile apps for exploring … Read more “Citizen Science Test Drive: Three Mobile Apps for Exploring Nature”
Categories: Apps, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment
By Darlene Cavalier, Mar 13, 2012
Sergei Winogradsky discovered nitrifying bacteria in 1890, recognizing that these microbes convert ammonia to nitrate (via nitrite). In aquatic environments, ammonia toxicity to fish is avoided almost exclusively due to the activity of these bacteria…or so it was thought. The ability to remove (or oxidize) ammonia was discovered recently in Archaea, which are an entirely … Read more “Aquarium microbial ecology: a living room approach to citizen science”
Categories: Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Guest Contributor
By Kate Atkins, Mar 08, 2012
Spring is in the air, and birds are finally on the move. A recent push of southerly winds through the middle of the United States have put early migrants – particularly geese and swans – on the fast track to their breeding grounds up north. This weather pattern is set to continue through this week, … Read more “Spring swan sightings”
Categories: Biology, Birds, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoors
By Darlene Cavalier, Mar 01, 2012
Amateur science enthusiasts can join forces with top researchers through Your Research Mission—a new partnership between DISCOVER Magazine and SciStarter.com. NEW YORK, NY. (March 1, 2012) – A “citizen science” movement is sweeping the country. Now, amateur enthusiasts who want to collaborate with leading scientists can visit DiscoverMagazine.com to join cutting-edge research projects. DISCOVER is … Read more “Discover Magazine and SciStarter announce new citizen science partnership”
Categories: Citizen Science
By Darlene Cavalier, Feb 24, 2012
For most people, a citizen science project provides a way to address a specific scientific challenge with the help of volunteers. For a group of researchers from MIT, UCSD, Masdar Institute, and University of Southampton, it is also an opportunity to study what motivates people to join the project. Would you rather receive a badge, … Read more “Incentives for citizen scientists: report, recruit, verify”
Categories: Citizen Science, Guest Contributor
By Darlene Cavalier, Feb 19, 2012
How cool! Imagine if 1,000 people took a photo of the same landmark in a park, let’s say, over a set period of time. We’d realize what’s in that part of the park all the time and what’s there temporarily. Changes in nature (phenological changes, in particular) and other activities would be recorded and trended … Read more “Future of crowdsourcing visual data for scientific study?”
Categories: Uncategorized
By Darlene Cavalier,
If you live in or near Philadelphia, here’s a recent piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sandy Bauer, on wildlife citizen science projects for you! We especially like this excerpt: And if you REALLY want to get involved, check out SciStarter, which is considered to be the largest aggregator of citizen science and crowdsourced projects. You … Read more “Show ’em what ya got (Philly).”
Categories: In the News
By John Ohab, Feb 15, 2012
A Conference on Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) will be held in Portland, Oregon on August 4th and 5th, 2012. … Read more
Categories: Science Education Standards
By Kate Atkins, Feb 13, 2012
On the morning of Friday, February 17, I will wake up before work, pour myself a cup of coffee, and stare out my window for 15 minutes. As long as I submit my observations to the Great Backyard Bird Count, my 15 minutes of zone-out time before I jump in the shower will qualify as … Read more “Don’t miss The Great Backyard Bird Count!”
Categories: Biology, Birds, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoors
