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: Sci...
May 29, 2021•21 min
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 ...
Apr 02, 2021•25 min
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 ...
Mar 16, 2021•29 min
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...
Oct 15, 2020•32 min
North Carolina State University -- typically referred to as NCSU, NC State, or just State -- is a public research university in Raleigh, North Carolina and a leader in public engagement in science. In this episode, Caren Cooper, professor at NCSU, and student citizen science leader, Brianna Johns, discuss all the different components of a citizen science campus: the Citizen Science Club, the SciStarter Educational Portal, themed citizen science programs, researchers with important projects that ...
Jan 24, 2020•22 min
This is the first of two episodes that will focus on how citizen science can be done by and within cultural heritage institutions, including libraries, archives, and museums. In this episode, we’ll focus on how natural history museums and public libraries have involved members of their communities in projects that can contribute to local, national, and global understandings of scientific questions. We speak with Richard Smart, one of the managers of the Community Science program at the Natural H...
Nov 22, 2019•37 min
iNaturalist allows anyone, anywhere to contribute to a global record of biodiversity by uploading pictures of plants and animals with their smartphone or computer. In this episode, co-host Justin Schell talks with Dr. Carrie Seltzer, the Stakeholder Engagement Strategist for iNaturalist, about how the platform works, the iNaturalist community, and how iNaturalist advances scientific research. Featured in this episode is the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), the oldest outdoor group in the United ...
Oct 08, 2019•36 min
With thousands of projects listed on SciStarter, a main challenge can be finding the right project, one that really suits your needs and your interests. After meeting at workshop on the Open Science of Learning hosting by the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity, Kobi Gal, a leading expert in human-centered artificial intelligence, and Darlene Cavalier, the founder of SciStarter, collaborated, with support from NESTA, a UK-based innovation foundation, to create a smart recommendation syst...
Sep 26, 2019•32 min
The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (or COASST, for short) project is a network of citizen scientists that monitor marine resources and ecosystem health at over 400 beaches across northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. COASST works to translate long-term monitoring into effective marine conservation solutions. Co-host Caroline Nickerson chats with Dee Richie, a citizen scientist who volunteers with COASST, and Hillary Burgess, the science coordinator for COASST, about h...
Aug 25, 2019•41 min
NASA-funded Community Snow Observations (CSO) project recruits citizen scientists to help collect snow depth observations – anytime and anywhere, and then they can submit their observations via the mobile-sharing platform Mountain Hub. Co-host Caroline Nickerson chats with one of the project leaders, David Hill, and one of CSO’s volunteers, Katie O’Connell, talk about the importance of collecting snow depth data around the world--how that informs both local knowledge of things like avalanches an...
Jul 29, 2019•32 min
This episode spotlights EarthEcho International and one of the organization’s signature programs, the EarthEcho Water Challenge. Kicking off in March each year on World Water Day, EarthEcho encourages participation in the Water Challenge year-round. Founded by the grandchildren of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, EarthEcho's mission is to inspire young people throughout the world to take action for a more sustainable future. Caroline Nickerson talks with Sean Russel, the Manager for EarthEcho's ...
Jul 01, 2019•42 min
This episode is all about trees and how users of the Curio can map and monitor urban and community trees globally. Terrence Pickles is the founder of Exeter Trees, which attempts to document and preserve every tree in Exeter, in the UK, using both YouTube and the Curio app, which was developed by our second guest, Paul Hickey. Co-host Caroline Nickerson talks to Terrence and Paul about their motivations for doing the work they do, the kinds of results they’ve had so far, and how you can get star...
Jun 05, 2019•29 min
This episode features a conversation between Samantha Harrington, ISeeChange's Digital Community Manager, and Amber Kleinman, a volunteer who uses ISeeChange to document weather events in Paonia, a small town in western Colorado. ISeeChange is a platform to help users and their communities document weather in their own backyards, bringing greater visibility to effects of climate change through multimedia storytelling. Samantha and Amber chat with Caroline, Citizen Science's co-host, about how th...
May 15, 2019•39 min
This episode features a conversation between Kyle Copas, Communications Manager at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, which is known as GBIF, and John Turnbull, the Sydney, Australian coordinator for Reef Life Survey. The focus of this conversation is citizen science data: how it’s collected, what happens to it, and what is the process from collection by citizen scientists to the transformation and processing that brings the data into GBIF’s index. A transcript can be accessed here.
Apr 30, 2019•41 min
Our first "mini-sode" is an interview with Dr. Jessica Wardlaw at the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab talking about the Slavery From Space project, which allows allows users to contribute to the antislavery movement by mapping the locations of activities in which people are frequently found to be enslaved. A transcript of the episode can be accessed here.
Apr 17, 2019•14 min
Our first episode features a conversation about Stall Catchers, a game that asks volunteers to examine stalled blood vessels in videos of mice brains to advance the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. We talk with Pietro Michelucci, director of the Human Computation Institute, and Guy Caulkins, a “Super Catcher” who not only helps catch these vessels, but has also utilized his marketing experience to plan the Stall Catchers Megathon on April 13th. A transcript can be accessed here.
Apr 01, 2019•29 min
