Citizen Science

Helping Medical Researchers Track Disease and Save Lives

By donating your time, energy and, for one project, a saliva and blood sample, you can help researchers make life-saving medical discoveries. In this episode, we focus on three of the many health-related citizen science projects in the SciStarter database.

Projects and websites featured in this podcast are:

National Library of Medicine/ All of Us

Mobile Health and Movement Assessment

Outbreaks Near Me (formerly, COVID Near You)

 

Exploring Earth with NOAA Citizen Science

In this episode of Citizen Science, we learn about citizen science projects sponsored by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We speak with NOAA staff in charge of sharing their vast data sets with the public, managing meteorological data, and running their program on earth magnetism.  

Projects featured in this podcast are:

CoCoRaHS

CrowdMag

Find citizen science projects supported by your local science center or museum at SciStarter.org/NOAA

Sharing Citizen Science

In this episode of Citizen Science, we share stories from citizen science volunteers about how they share citizen science with others, and about how they got involved in citizen science themselves. We speak with a school teacher in Texas, an astrophysics graduate student in India, a Girl Scout troop leader in Virginia and a college professor in Upstate New York.

 

Projects discussed in this podcast:

 

iNaturalist

Ant Picnic

Globe at Night

Disk Detective

Clean Water Hub

 

Download a transcript of the episode.

Climate Change and the Environment

As a citizen scientist, you can help researchers explore the causes, effects and potential responses to global climate change and other environmental issues. And you can do it from home or out in the field! In this episode of Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together, we explore six projects coming at the issue from six very different angles.  Discover these and many other climate change-focused and environment-related citizen science volunteer opportunities through the SciStarter Project Finder!

Projects featured in this podcast episode include:

• Caroline Nickerson’s Miss Louisiana Earth featured projects
• Climate Change in Scripted Media
• OSDG Community Platform
• Climate History Australia
• Urban Buzz
• Ghosts of the Coast
• Ripple Effects via the Citizen Science, Civics and Resilient Communities program supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Find other NOAA-supported citizen science pages hosted by science centers and museums on SciStarter.

The article by Max Cawley (of the Museum of Life + Science in Durham, North Carolina) that Caroline mentions in the episode intro is on the SciStarter Blog.

Transcript for this episode coming soon on the SciStarter Podcast page.

The Citizen Scientist Song by Monty Harper

We found the song of the summer! The "Citizen Scientist Song" was written and recorded by Monty Harper for SciStarter.org. You can find Monty on Twitter @montyharper and his website is www.montyharper.com. 

Enjoy!

 

CitSciCon with NASA Projects

NASA offers an entire universe of citizen science projects, and at CitSciCon – the first-of-its-kind online event series that was hosted by the Citizen Science Association and SciStarter in May of 2021 – project leaders and volunteers from dozens of those projects shared their stories. Check out this podcast to hear some of those stories, and if you'd like to learn more and participate in the featured projects, visit SciStarter's NASA CitSciCon webpage (https://SciStarter.org/NASA). You'll find links to the original livestreamed events, and project pages for all of these exciting citizen science volunteer opportunities!

 

Projects mentioned in this podcast include:

 

Backyard Worlds: Planet 9

Disk Detective

GLOBE Observer: Trees

Fjord Phyto

iNaturalist

NASA NeMO-Net Coral Classification

GLOBE Observer: Landcover

Snapshot Wisconsin

 

Access a transcript of the episode. 

 

Citizen Science Month (April 2021) Roundup

Citizen Science Month is an opportunity to showcase the entire panoply of citizen science projects all over the world, and we try to capture it all in this roundup episode. Which isn't possible. But we do hope this show gives you a taste of what the month had to offer. If you want to go deeper, you can learn more at CitizenScienceMonth.org. Video of some of the webinars described in this podcast can be found at SciStarter.org/Citizen-Science-Videos

 

Projects mentioned in this podcast include:

 

SciQuest

Caterpillars Count

Public Editor

Demo Watch

Fjord Phyto

GLOBE Observer: Clouds

Happywhale

OpenStreetMap

Globe at Night

Stall Catchers

GLOBE Observer: Mosquito Habitat Mapper

Safecast

iNaturalist

Marine Debris Tracker 

All of Us

 

Access a transcript.

Libraries and Citizen Science Month 2021

Public libraries are playing an increasingly important role in citizen science, running educational programs – both in-person and online – and loaning out kits with citizen science instruments, material and other resources. And they are very involved with Citizen Science Month. In this podcast episode, Caroline and Bob speak with library-based partners implementing ambitious plans for Citizen Science Month and beyond. Guests include Robin Salthouse, formerly of the Southeast Regional Library in Gilbert, Arizona and now an advisor to the SciStarter team; Alynda Smithey a Children’s/Youth Services Librarian from the Riverside Regional Library in Missouri; Don Ficken, President of International Dark Sky Association - Missouri Chapter; and Vivienne Byrd, Librarian III - Lead on STEM/STEAM & Citizen Science Initiatives at the Los Angeles Public Library. All of them have planned events for you to discover throughout April on CitizenScienceMonth.org! 

 

Projects mentioned in this podcast include:

 

Globe at Night

Stall Catchers

GLOBE Observer: Mosquito Habitat Mapper

GLOBE Observer: Clouds

ISeeChange

iNaturalist

Marine Debris Tracker

 

Access a transcript of this episode as a PDF.

Virtual Travel

To kick off Season 2 of the Citizen Science podcast, new host Bob Hirshon and citizen science enthusiast Caroline Nickerson take a virtual trip around the world – and even into intergalactic space – to learn about some exciting new citizen science projects, including CrowdWater, Spiral Graph and Land Loss Lookout. In addition, they preview upcoming Citizen Science Month events coming this April. 

 

Projects mentioned in this episode:

 

CrowdWater

 

Spiral Graph

 

Land Loss Lookout

 

Theme music is Podcast Theme by Keith Hartnell used under Creative Commons license.

 

A complete transcript of this episode can be found as a PDF.

Cultural Heritage Institutions and Citizen Science - Part 2

This episode, our second that looks at community and citizen science in cultural heritage institutions, explores how natural history museums use crowdsourcing to unlock the potential of biodiversity collections for research and education. Justin Schell talks to researchers and volunteers involved in the Notes From Nature project, which is one of the largest crowdsourcing projects focused on natural history information. 

Projects mentioned in this episode:

Notes From Nature

WeDigBio (October 15-18, 2020)

Zooniverse

 

Other transcription platforms to visit:

Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Transcription Center

Library of Congress - By the People

DigiVol (Australia)

Les herbanoutes (Paris Herbarium)

 

A complete transcript of this episode can be found here.