Citizen Science Projects

What is Citizen Science? 






According to Wikipedia, "Citizen science is sometimes called "public participation in scientific research."  Basically, citizen science includes every person, like you and I, to participate in science research and study. 

This is very exciting for our children, especially if they are interested in science and nature. By participating, we are helping scientists do research on a larger scale that they might be able to do alone. 

There are many projects that we can choose to participate in. I will share extra links at the bottom of this post, but first I wanted to write about the citizen science projects we have participated in. 





Project Noah is ongoing. We take photographs of nature around us and share it on the site. There is also an app available. You can share your discoveries and if needed, get feedback with identification. 

The goal of Project Noah, from the site: "By developing tools to help the mobile masses share their encounters with nature, we are building a powerful force for crowdsourcing ecological data collection and an important educational tool for wildlife awareness and preservation. "




The Great Backyard Bird Count  happens in winter and is something I look forward to every year. In February, over four days, we count birds that we see near our home. We chose to either count for 15 minutes each day the birds we see in our backyard or we can go to a local park and record our sightings there. We then submit our findings online. 

How does it help? Here is what the site tells us: 

"Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time."






The Tulip Test Gardens from Journey North is an international citizen science experiment. We planted Emperor Tulips in the fall and kept track of their progress in the spring. This information was then shared on their website, showing the differences in climate and seasons all over the world. You can read more about the project here. 



On a more local level, the University of Prince Edward Island invites the community to report sightings of urban red foxes for their study of ecology and behaviour of urban foxes. We have logged our sightings to the PEI Urban Fox Project.  


My Pinterest board has a collection of links to more citizen science projects: 

Follow Alex Dk's board Learn: Citizen Science Projects on Pinterest.

Comments

  1. We were going to do the Backyard Bird Count last year and I forgot! Eek! Most of the birds we get in our yard are starlings and jays. As much as we love them, it would be nice to see more different types, so we venture to the trails but we aren't very knowledgeable with the bird species. This project would certainly get us on our way!

    I am going over to read about Project Noah now - sounds great!

    Thanks for sharing! ;)

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