Blog: Citizen Science Projects, People, and Perspectives
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
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
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
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
Fly, don't walk, to these projects to find, study and snap pictures of birds wherever you live. … Read more
Categories: Featured Projects
Have you accepted Your Research Mission yet? SciStarter is challenging you to a special mission to join and participate (at least once) in any three of these SciStarter Affiliate projects. Complete your mission and you’ll earn a SciStarter certificate. Keep on participating and you’ll be eligible to become one of the top three mission contributors to win some swag and be connected with of … Read more “Here’s your chance to earn a SciStarter Citizen Science Certificate!”
Categories: Citizen Science, Do-It-Yourself, Featured Projects, Newsletter, Science Practices, SciStarter News
Dig into even more Thanksgiving projects with your friends and family! Imagine: After months of treacherous sailing across the open ocean, skirting coral reefs and rocky shores, you alight upon lush tropical islands greeted by enticing aromas, unknown species, and a symphony of bird song… Four years into her circumnavigation of the globe, the HMS … Read more “Exploring the Biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands As “Darwin for a Day””
Categories: Animals, Apps, Biology, Birds, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoors
They found paper wasps, cactus flies and fruit flies. They saw dragonflies and butterflies zooming about. And when they peered into bushes like hackberry and creosote they saw ants, termites and ground beetles living underneath. They even found beetles in an old soda can. … Read more
Categories: Citizen Science
On June 1, 2011 at 11:51 PM, a group of people assembled on the beach in Northpoint, New York. There was no moon shining that night, not even a sliver. The people carried flashlights or wore headlamps. They held clipboards and paper. Their mission: to report where horseshoe crabs were spotted along the beach. This was just one of several places along New York’s shoreline where people collect data about horseshoe crabs. Volunteers also amassed on dark beaches in Stony Brook, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Westhampton. In all, volunteers monitored the comings and goings of horseshoe crabs at ten New York beaches that night. They are a part of the New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network, a group of citizen scientists who are documenting where horseshoe crabs emerge from the water to lay eggs along beaches in New York State. On specific dates through the spring and early summer, participants collect data about the number of horseshoe crabs and identify their size and sex. They attach tags to the horseshoe crabs bulky exoskeleton and look for tags from prior years. … Read more
Categories: Animals, Biology, Citizen Science, Ecology & Environment, Ocean & Water
