Citizen Science Month: Let’s feature online resources from libraries!

Citizen Science Month is here. National Library Week is next week. We are joining forces to help more people discover online citizen science books and resources from libraries. Share your resources with us prior to a national event we are hosting next week. See details, below. (Next, we’ll focus on Science Centers’ citsci resources!)

General CitSciMonth Reminders:

  • Call in to our open calls tomorrow to learn about Citizen Science Month, get or share event ideas, access more free resources, and hear about updates. Call-in details below.
  • The Citizen Science Month resources page is the place to go for graphics to invite people to tune in virtually. You can also grab those graphics from this newsletter or from this blog post. Use the #CitSciMonth hashtag!
  • Calling all libraries and staff! We want to do a virtual storytime with you. Engaging your community in a livestreamed event is easier than you think; email info@scistarter.org to become a facilitator for our April 21 event.

See CitizenScienceMonth.org to find more than 100 online events this month.

The SciStarter Team

SciStarter and Discover Magazine will introduce you to three scientists leading COVID-19 projects that need your help! Learn how to identify behaviors that influence risk; crowdsource the COVID-19 pandemic in real time; and play an online game to fold and design proteins for scientific research.

Discover Magazine’s Associate Editor will moderate this online event. Can’t make the event? RSVP anyway to receive the recording.

TODAY, 3 PM ET (LIVE on Zoom and YouTube)

Get Started!

It’s Citizen Science Month AND it’s (almost) National Library Week! SciStarter and Arizona State University (ASU), with support from the National Library of Medicine, will shine a light on awesome citizen science-related resources offered by your library.

LIVE: The Field Guide to Citizen Science–and other free resources from your library!

April 21, 5 pm ET

SciStarter, ASU Libraries, and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine will host a live, online event featuring one such resource: The Field Guide to Citizen Science, from the experts at SciStarter. The event will include a reading by Darlene Cavalier, founder of SciStarter and one of the authors, who will help audiences discover what citizen science is, who can be a citizen scientist (everyone!), and how to find and join a project from home. We’ll all do one project, together.

The Field Guide to Citizen Science reading and related activities will serve as a pathway to help people (families, seniors, teens, adults—everyone!) connect with other books and resources they can access for free, online through your libraries.

Please register for this free event and spread the word using any of the resources in this Google Folder! The event will be hosted on Zoom and livestreamed to YouTube.

Does your library offer citizen science resources you’d like us to promote during the live event? Great! Please send us links and the name/city/state of your library.

Would you like to be listed as a partner of this event? Please send us your logo and website. Partners commit to attend and promote the event.

We will run live polls and invite you to send us questions you’d like us to ask the audience (“Have you engaged in a citizen science project?” “Have you used your library’s online resources during social distancing?”).

If you have access to your library’s social media pages, you can post the livestream link from YouTube during the actual event and engage your community from there!

Please email info@SciStarter.org with your thoughts/questions and/or call into our Citizen Science Month call tomorrow (Thursday).

Get Started!

No event is too small. They all matter for Citizen Science Month.

Need help? The weekly calls are open to everyone and are completely optional. Think of them as “office hours” where anyone planning activities leading up to and during Citizen Science Month can share ideas, get feedback, make connections, and leverage resources and support. We can help you plan virtual events.

Our weekly calls are every Thursday at 8 AM ET and 11 AM ET (New York Time).

Zoom link (online dial-in for the all three calls): https://zoom.us/j/264491167

Zoom phone dial-in and PIN (USA): +16465588656,,264491167# US

Link to find global dial-in and PIN: https://zoom.us/u/adXFnyNd9N

Get Started!

Formal and informal educators, parents and instructors, join us on Thursdays for our education webinar series hosted by Jill Nugent.

Learn about citizen science projects that encourage science learning — with an emphasis on projects that our distributed/remote learners can engage in at home, in the backyard, or online.

Find projects that build on grade levels at SciStarter.org/Education.

Thursdays in April, 8 PM ET (LIVE on Zoom and Facebook)

Get Started!

Looking for graphics? We’re here to help! Use our promotional images on social media with the #CitSciMonth hashtag. You can even tag our Twitter and Instagram.

Get Started!

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!

Categories: Citizen Science Month

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About the Author

Caroline Nickerson

Caroline Nickerson

Caroline Nickerson is an advisor at SciStarter, where she assists with the Citizen Science Month Program, SciStarter’s Corporate Volunteer Programs and other programmatic and outreach efforts. Caroline is a Master of Public Policy graduate from American University, where she was a Reilly Environmental Policy Scholar, and is a current PhD student at the University of Florida. She also works with the UF-VA Bioethics Unit, the Christensen Project, Florida Community Innovation and other organizations. She was the 2019 Cherry Blossom Princess representing the state of Florida and the grand prize scholarship winner at Miss Earth USA 2021 as Miss Louisiana Earth.