Blog: Citizen Science Projects, People, and Perspectives
By Bob Hirshon, Feb 03, 2022
This post is based on the latest episode of our podcast, Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together! In it, co-host Bob Hirshon and Caroline Nickerson discuss some of the inspiring citizen science work conducted under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Listen here: Citizen Science: Stories of Science … Read more “Exploring Earth with NOAA Citizen Science”
Categories: Apps, Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Education, Environment, Featured Projects, Geology & Earth Sciences, Ocean & Water, Other, podcast
By SciStarter Team, Jan 27, 2022
People across the country are looking for opportunities to directly engage with scientific research on a meaningful level. That means interacting with scientists and their research directly, instead of just reading about it in journals and magazines. The desire for true interaction isn’t so hard to understand. Extreme weather around the world is pushing many … Read more “Science Near Me: Connecting Curious People With Opportunities To Explore, Experience and Engage In Science”
Categories: Other
By Sarah Noyes, Jul 01, 2021
Have you seen a ghost forest? As sea levels rise around the world, coastlines are increasingly marked by lingering stands of dead trees. The cause of death isn’t a mystery. Sea level rise is intensifying the effects of flooding and pushing saltwater into low lying coastal ecosystems. That saltwater kills the trees, leaving behind … Read more “As Ghost Forests Spread, Researchers Ask for Help Keeping Track”
Categories: Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water, Other
By Emily Esten, Jun 14, 2021
For nearly a thousand years, Jews at the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo stored their worn-out, torn, or otherwise unusable manuscript fragments — everything from biblical texts to business ledgers, Talmudic commentaries to children’s writing exercises — in the geniza, or storage room. During the nineteenth century, the archive was excavated by British academics … Read more “Uncovering the Secrets of the Egyptian Geniza With Citizen Science”
Categories: Citizen Science, Other, Project Profile
By Eric Betz, Apr 26, 2021
For most of human history, we slept under the stars. Instead of staring at electronic screens, our ancestors watched the light from the heavens. Things have changed dramatically in recent decades. Seven out of 10 people living in the U.S. today have never seen the Milky Way. Light pollution from street lights, homes, businesses and … Read more “Help Fight Light Pollution With a Science Experiment From Your Local Library”
Categories: Astronomy & Space, Other
By Caroline Nickerson, Mar 24, 2021
Anyone, anywhere can plan a Citizen Science Month (April 2021) program or effort! SciStarter and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS) at Arizona State University, with support from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), are engaging the public to help speed up research on … Read more “Citizen Science Month Mini Grants Awarded by the Network of the National Library of Medicine to 15 Libraries”
Categories: Citizen Science Month, Other
By Nathaniel Scharping, Jan 29, 2021
Sometimes the old methods truly are the best methods. When astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, it was the result of countless hours spent straining his eyes at a machine called a blink comparator. Using it, Tombaugh could flip rapidly back and forth between two images of the night sky taken at slightly different … Read more “Citizen Scientists Have Found Dozens of ‘Failed Stars’ Near Earth”
Categories: Astronomy & Space, Other
By Eric Betz, Dec 23, 2020
Every year around Christmas time, tens of thousands of volunteer birdwatchers gather in familiar locations across the Western Hemisphere for a tradition that dates back more than a century. On select days between December 14 and January 5, volunteers with the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count take a census of every bird they see … Read more “How a Christmas Tradition has Helped Track Billions of Vanishing Birds”
Categories: Animals, Other
By Shruthi Manjunath, Dec 08, 2020
In today’s world, computers both big and small produce vast volumes of data in record time — millions of trillions of bytes worth. It’s so much information that researchers can’t properly analyze all the data produced, and the overload can also lead computers to make mistakes. That’s why researchers are increasingly turning to citizen scientists … Read more “How Playing Science Games is Advancing Genetic Research”
Categories: Gaming, Other
By Molly Schools, Dec 04, 2020
Air quality impacts our health, our quality of life and even the length of our lives. Most people don’t think about what’s in the air they breathe — but perhaps they should. That’s the driving force behind the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative. The citizen science project wants to let people know what’s in their air. … Read more “How One Person in Pakistan Made a Difference for Air Quality”
Categories: Ecology & Environment, Other
