USE CIT SCI NEWSLETTER April 2022

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Announcements

1. April is Citizen Science Month – see our overview on the SciStarter organization below!

 

2. Our new website (still accessed through use-cit-sci-network.org) will serve as a place to easily share and discover resources related to using and assessing citizen science-based activities in your classroom. Have you created learning activities, best practices, or assessments? Do you know of useful websites, projects, organizations, or publications? Share your resource by uploading it to our Collections. Have you used someone else’s activity, but found a simple tweak that made it work better in your context? Post a comment on their resource or start a discussion in the Forum.

 

3. The 2022 conference of the Citizen Science Association will take place from May 23-26 and will feature keynotes, symposia, and poster presentations. Regional events will be hosted in conjunction with the core virtual program and will offer opportunities to get to know project leaders, researchers, and funders doing work near you. For more information, see https://citizenscience.org/c-sci-2022/

 

4. Congratulations to Na'Taki Osborne Jelks (Steering Committee member) on her AAAS Member Spotlight! See here for more information: https://www.aaas.org/membership/member-spotlight/nataki-osborne-jelks-pushes-environmental-justice-climate-change

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Happy 2022 Global Citizen Science Month!

In lieu of a focus on one citizen science project and one instructor who uses citizen science in coursework, we would like to highlight SciStarter, one of the largest national hubs of citizen science projects and partnerships in the US.

 

SciStarter was born from a graduate school project of Darlene Cavalier from the University of Pennsylvania and was adopted by Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society. With the support of the National Science Foundation, a “SciStarter 2.0” community hub was built in 2014 which empowers both research project coordinators and citizen scientists through a variety of tools designed to connect people with projects that are local or relevant to citizen scientists. SciStarter also has protected profiles that enable citizen scientists to track their participation and volunteer hours in addition to keeping them updated with other project opportunities. SciStarter facilitates all of these tools for free for the advancement of science.

 

From SciStarter’s website, their mission values are:

SciStarter helps bring together the millions of citizen scientists in the world; the thousands of potential projects offered by researchers, organizations, and companies; and the resources, products, and services that enable citizens to pursue and enjoy these activities.

We aim to:

• Enable and encourage people to learn about, participate in, and contribute to science through both informal recreational activities and formal research efforts.

• Inspire greater appreciation and promote a better understanding of science and technology among the general public.

• Create a shared space where scientists can talk with citizens interested in working on or learning about their research projects.

• Satisfy the popular urge to tinker, build, and explore by making it simple and fun for people—singles, parents, grandparents, kids—to jump in and get their hands dirty with science.

 

SciStarter facilitates partnerships with organizations such as Girl Scouts, Museums, National Geographic, NASA, and many others. SciStarter has over 100,000 registered citizen scientists and helped connect citizen scientists to over 3,000 research projects. Some of SciStarter’s most useful tools for researchers are the free NSF-supported API’s like the Participant API that was “created for one-click sign ups, volunteer management, enhanced promotions, and to enable your awesome volunteers to track their contributions” to learn more see https://scistarter.org/api and learn about their affiliate program!

 

You can learn more about all of SciStarter through: https://scistarter.org/about. We would like to share some ongoing projects that were highlighted for Citizen Science month which use SciStarter!

 

SciStarter and Educator Resources

SciStarter has a plethora of information and resources dedicated to educators looking to incorporate citizen science into the classroom!

 

• Find resources here (https://scistarter.org/education) on...

  • Merging SciStarter projects into your curriculum

  • Projects ideal for students sorted by level of education: PreK-2+, Grades 3-5+, Grades 6-8+, Grades 9-12+, and undergraduate college students.

  • Tracking student participation in projects on SciStarter

  • Creating collections of projects for student assignments (students can chose from your selected projects rather than any project on the website to participate in)

  • Hyperlinks on the left side of the page from the partnership with the National Science Teaching Association (NTSA) to resources such as the Earth Echo Water Challenge, iNaturalist, and NASA GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper.

• Current selected projects for college students:

  • Satellite Streak Watcher

  • Flu Near You

  • Foldit

  • Mping

  • Land Loss Lookout

  • Colony B

 

Selected SciStarter Projects for April

Citizen Science Project: GLOBE Mosquito Spare Tire Blitz

Main Event Information
When	03/01​/2022, 12:00 AM EST to 06/30​/2022, 12:00 AM EDT 03/10​/2022, 2:00 PM EST to 3:00 PM EST
Where	Anywhere on the planet
Presented by	The GLOBE Program
Web	https://observer.globe.gov/news-events-and-people/news/-/obsnewsdetail/19589576/are-old-tires-new-mosquito-condos
About	Did you know that spare tires are prime mosquito breeding sites? Between March and June, citizen scientists use the Mosquito Habitat Mapper tool in the GLOBE Observer app to report the location of spare tires. Participants will document the mosquito tire habitat by submitting a photo using the Mosquito Habitat Mapper tool within the app and follow up with the Land Cover tool to provide photos of the tire location. You are also invited to attend the March GLOBE Mission Mosquito Webinar, where you can learn more details about this year’s Spare Tire Blitz. And who knows? If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you might just find the first spring hatches of larvae in your area! Join the free webinar on 10 March. Learn more about GLOBE Mission Mosquito: https://www.globe.gov/web/mission-mosquito Register for the webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ryKmuYc_T7uHb4i0rKO3Gw
How to Join	Download the GLOBE Observer app and register for an account in the app: https://observer.globe.gov/about/get-the-app

 

Citizen Science Project: Tree Snap

Presented By	University of Tennessee Knoxville
Goal	Locate threatened trees for scientists to study
Task	Collect sightings of threatened trees
Where	Global, anywhere on the planet
Description	Help our nation’s trees! Invasive diseases and pests threaten the health of America’s forests. Scientists are working to understand what allows some individual trees to survive, but they need to find healthy, resilient trees in the forest to study. That’s where concerned foresters, landowners, and citizens (you!) can help. Tag trees you find in your community, on your property, or out in the wild to help us understand Forest health! The Treesnap app is a means for participants to record the location and health of particular tree species of interest. Scientists use the collected information to locate candidates for genetic sequencing and breeding programs. To learn more about the Treesnap project, visit our website.
How to get started	Good news! This is a SciStarter Affiliate project. You can earn credit in your SciStarter Dashboard for your participation. Sign up or Log in to SciStarter. Your free account, while not required, enables your participation to be credited on your SciStarter Dashboard. Click the Visit button on this page. You will be directed to the project's website or app and invited to create a project account there. Use the same email address (case sensitive!) you used to create your SciStarter account to join this project. Visit www.treesnap.org for instructions on how to find the app in the app store.

 

Citizen Science Project: Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS)

Main Project Information
Presented By	Fungal Diversity Survey
Goal	Document the biodiversity of fungi in North America.
Task	Photograph mushrooms & post to iNaturalist
Where	Anywhere in US
Description	FunDiS’s mission is to equip citizen scientists with the tools to document the diversity and distribution of fungi across North America. High quality observations of fungi on iNaturalist are an important part of this. If you contribute your observations of fungi to FunDiS, they’ll become a part of a database of high quality observations that can be used by scientists and conservationists to better understand and protect fungi all across North America. What’s in it for you? You’re contributing to a worthwhile cause. And if your find hasn’t already been definitively identified, our expert identifiers will help with identification or give feedback on making your observations even more valuable. Start here: https://fundis.org/participate/contribute-observations

 

 

 

Lastly, This video introduces the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s report, Learning Through Citizen Science: Enhancing Opportunities by Design (2018) that identifies ways citizen science projects can be designed to effectively support learning. 

 

 

1. April
2. citizen science
3. Citizen Science Month