Happy April! This month we are focusing on Citizen Science here at Whiting Library.
“Citizen science (CS; also known as community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur (or nonprofessional) scientists. Citizen science is sometimes described as “public participation in scientific research,” participatory monitoring, and participatory action research whose outcomes are often advancements in scientific research by improving the scientific communities capacity, as well as increasing the public’s understanding of science.”
You can get inspired to engage in citizen science by reading a book with a science theme. When was the last time you read one of those? High school?! We have so many great books at Whiting Library dealing with diverse scientific topics, everything from astrology to zoology. You can find a list of Citizen Science books in the adult collection here and a separate list of Citizen Science books in the youth collection here.
Once you’re inspired, it’s time to go out and find a project that matches with your amateur scientist skills!
Here are some places on the web where you can find projects to participate in:Â
SciStarter is the organization that sponsors Citizen Science Month. Check out their featured projects, which are perfect for beginners. You can also browse the featured events to join a citizen science project (virtually or in-person for a socially distant event). Together, we can move the world forward. https://scistarter.org/citizensciencemonth
PBS Nature has a weekly blog post with information about a new citizen science project every week. You can check out all the happenings here: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/topic/citizen-science/
National Geographic has an excellent list of citizen science projects going on right now that you can take part in. There’s everything from helping with helping the National Audobon Society with the bird census to helping NASA by searching images for tiny interstellar dust impacts. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/idea/citizen-science-projects/
CitizenScience.gov is an official government website designed to accelerate the use of crowdsourcing and citizen science across the U.S. government. The site provides a portal to three key components: a catalog of federally supported citizen science projects, a toolkit to assist federal practitioners with designing and maintaining their projects, and a gateway to a community of hundreds of citizen science practitioners and coordinators across government.
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