How Citizen Scientists Are Helping Sharks Around the World

Mike Bear had just slipped underwater, offshore near San Diego, and was floating among the long fronds of a kelp forest when a long shadow passed between him and his diving partner. Gliding by, nearly within arm’s reach, was the sleek bulk of a sevengill shark, which Bear estimated at about nine feet long. “To … Read more “How Citizen Scientists Are Helping Sharks Around the World”

Categories: Animals

Volunteer Community Scientists Key to Pioneering UMaine Tick Study

A study led by researchers at the University of Maine spearheaded a new approach to finding where ticks love to lurk. The Maine Forest Tick Survey trained hundreds of woodland owners in Maine to systematically comb their properties for disease-toting ticks to discern how forest management may influence the pest’s prevalence. Ticks pose a growing … Read more “Volunteer Community Scientists Key to Pioneering UMaine Tick Study”

Categories: Animals, Ecology & Environment

The aurora-like phenomenon known as STEVE over a mountain in Canada.

Citizen Science Observations Are Showing Up In Dozens of Published Research Papers

When you make citizen science observations, you might enter the information into an app, take a photo or answer a few questions in an online form and hit submit. That might be the end of your part of the process, but submitting a data point is just the first step in the long, rigorous journey … Read more “Citizen Science Observations Are Showing Up In Dozens of Published Research Papers”

Categories: Astronomy & Space, Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Use of Citizen Science data

SciStarter’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide Is Here!

The best gift is one that keeps on giving, and these nifty tools and resources certainly fit the bill! We’ve got useful gifts for birdwatchers, skygazers and weather-trackers, as well as books that will inspire anyone’s curiosity. Even better, many of these ideas tie directly in with one or more citizen science projects on SciStarter. … Read more “SciStarter’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide Is Here!”

Categories: Affiliate Tools, Animals, Apps, Astronomy & Space, Biology, Birds, book, Book Review, Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Education, Environment, Field Guide to Citizen Science, Nature & Outdoors, Newsletter

Four photos of different squirrel species and the SciStarter logo.

Go nuts with these 5 squirrel-themed citizen science projects

Squirrels are fantastic creatures that live all over the world, including your backyard! These floofy-tailed creatures are more than adorable (and sometimes annoying) creatures — they’re actually perfect models to study evolution, species conservation and habitats (like woodpecker cavities). Your local squirrel observations are needed for research questions like these and more. Find out how … Read more “Go nuts with these 5 squirrel-themed citizen science projects”

Categories: Newsletter

A mother and son doing citizen science.

Citizen Science Month 2022: Turning Curiosity Into Impact Around the Country

Each April, with support from the National Library of Medicine, SciStarter, in partnership with Arizona State University, hosts Citizen Science Month, a one-of-a-kind celebration of citizen science that includes events hosted around the world, thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of new contributions to citizen science projects. Citizen Science Month 2022 featured collaborations with … Read more “Citizen Science Month 2022: Turning Curiosity Into Impact Around the Country”

Categories: Citizen Science Month

Hands hold up a smartphone camera to take a photo of an open field with trees in the background, near a Chronolog signpost.

Three Tips for a Successful Citizen Science Project: Lessons Learned from Chronolog

This post is by SciStarter guest contributor Jake Rose. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then over 20,000 photos are definitely very valuable. That’s one of the first lessons learned by the leaders of Chronolog, a citizen science project that uses crowd-sourced photos to create time-lapse images of places changing over time. Chronolog and … Read more “Three Tips for a Successful Citizen Science Project: Lessons Learned from Chronolog”

Categories: Guest Contributor

Martin Dohrn filming a bumble bee hovering over a dandelion.

Inspire Your Community to Protect Local Pollinators

When the global pandemic hit, acclaimed wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn, locked down in his small city garden in Bristol, England, decided to turn the cameras on the wildlife in his backyard. He was particularly fascinated with the bees visiting his garden. Putting his unparalleled skills and cameras to use, he filmed more than 60 different … Read more “Inspire Your Community to Protect Local Pollinators”

Categories: Animals, Biology, Citizen Science Month, Ecology & Environment, Environment, Events, Insects, Nature & Outdoors