Lisa LaCivita
April is citizen science month! Citizen science is public involvement in the inquiry and discovery of new scientific knowledge. Community science, participatory research, DIY science, crowdsourcing, and public engagement in scientific research, among others, are also terms used to describe this movement. A citizen science project can involve one person or millions of people collaborating toward a common goal. Millions of citizen scientists are accelerating many areas of scientific research.
Since April is Citizen Science Month, it is a perfect time to get started. This is easy to do because of the website www.SciStarter.org which organizes thousands of projects within their portal. This may sound overwhelming, but it is well organized. They feature several projects on their home page, to give you an idea what kind of things are available. You decide how much time to spend on a project and when it is convenient for you to participate. You are asked to create an account; this helps you keep track of your activities. Once you log on then you can use the search box to type in keywords related to your interests. The Project Finder uses several parameters to help you refine your search. If needed, tutorials are included to explain the protocols. Some projects, such as FoldIt have been crafted into game-like activities. Projects vary wildly but many are trying to make information accessible and digital. The Smithsonian has thousands of hand-written records that they need transcribed so they can become searchable. These could include ship logs, plant tags or letters. Whatever your interests there is a citizen science project waiting for you!
The benefits of Citizen Science:
- Allows people with diverse motivations to participate in science.
- Broadens the scope of who can contribute to science and provides a pathway for introducing new processes, observations, data, and epistemologies to science.
- Provides an opportunity for participants to learn about data, data analysis, and interpretation of data.