On this, National Squirrel Day, we feature Craig Newmark and squirrelly citizen science.

SciStarter asked Craig Newmark (of Craigslist fame) why he likes squirrels. He told us that it all started with a simple desire to feed birds. But the suet palaces he was using to dispense the raw, fat-based bird food were constantly getting hacked by squirrels. He tried everything; he even upgraded to “squirrel-resistant” models, to … Read more “On this, National Squirrel Day, we feature Craig Newmark and squirrelly citizen science.”

Categories: Animals, Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Contest, Ecology & Environment, Guest Contributor, Nature & Outdoors

Contest unites citizen scientists with DIYers! (Win cool prizes if you enter by Monday!)

This post originally appeared on PLOS blogs. This post was originally published on CitizenSci, a PLOS blog about the projects, people, and perspectives fueling new frontiers for citizen science. Hear ye, hear ye! This is an open call to artists, engineers, filmmakers, scientists, hobbyists, lobbyists, foodies, gamers, musicians, photogs, techies, adults, kids, dreamers, schemers, hackers, … Read more “Contest unites citizen scientists with DIYers! (Win cool prizes if you enter by Monday!)”

Categories: Citizen Science, Contest, Do-It-Yourself

Know your numbers

Do you just “get” numbers? Or have they always left you a little baffled? Now you can test this observation and quantify your number sense. Number sense is our “gut knowledge” of numbers’ magnitude, their relationships, and even basic arithmetic. Number sense is thought to be innate, potently present as early as infancy. But while … Read more “Know your numbers”

Categories: Education

Christmas Bird Count takes flight

See that partridge in a pear tree? Make sure you count it for Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, one of the largest and longest running citizen science projects in existence today. It’s a 112 year tradition, with upwards of 60,000 person-days of effort and more than 60 million birds counted each year. “Each of the citizen … Read more “Christmas Bird Count takes flight”

Categories: Animals, Biology, Birds, Ecology & Environment

Announcing the SciStarter kiosk interface for schools, museums and public areas.

Earlier today, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosted “E.O. Wilson’s Global Town Hall,” with biologist Edward Osborne Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard. In anticipation of this exciting event, the museum revamped its Citizen Science Center and added new features. “I am especially pleased that we now offer a SciStarter kiosk in … Read more “Announcing the SciStarter kiosk interface for schools, museums and public areas.”

Categories: Citizen Science, Education

What’s the Score?

The hills are alive with the sound of citizen science (and music)! Calling all music enthusiasts–the Bodleian Libraries are enlisting the help of the public in order to improve access to their music collections. About sixty-four boxes filled with unbound, uncatalogued sheet music from the mid-Victorian period has been digitized for public access. Although this … Read more “What’s the Score?”

Categories: Archeology, Citizen Science, Computers & Technology, Do-It-Yourself, libraries

Citizen science in space!

This morning, Space Florida announced that a research proposal submitted by SciStarter, Science Cheerleader and UCDavis won a competition to fly innovative research projects on the International Space Station via Space X in December 2013. We are stoked. This research will compare growth rates of microbiomes collected on Earth (by YOU and your fellow citizen … Read more “Citizen science in space!”

Categories: Other