Citizen science is an increasingly valuable and legitimate scientific tool, where the general public – people without any formal scientific training or education – are actively involved in scientific research.
Modern citizen science has been around for over 100 years, although the term “citizen science” itself was not coined until the mid-1990s by sociologist Alan Irving. With an increase in the accessibility of new technology such as the Internet and smartphones, there has been a dramatic increase in the number and diversity of citizen science projects in recent decades.
Citizen science was featured on the Cosmos Science Briefing panel as one of the “7 Ideas That Are Changing the World.”
It is truly a game changer if it allows scientists to undertake research that would not otherwise be possible, perhaps due to a lack of people or funding. It is also an opportunity for education and communication where the participating public can learn about science and the scientific research process.
Citizen science has been used to help classify recordings of baby chatter, identify behavioral changes in birds during COVID-19 lockdowns and even discover a massive coral reef on the Great Barrier Reef.
Here are some hand-picked science projects and resources that can help you start your journey in becoming a citizen scientist.
Read more: The Current State of Citizen Science
Citizen science has been used to help classify recordings of baby chatter, identify behavioral changes in birds during COVID-19 lockdowns and even discover a massive coral reef on the Great Barrier Reef.
Here are some hand-picked science projects and resources that can help you start your journey in becoming a citizen scientist.
Why not get involved in these citizen science projects?
Insect investigators
Estimates suggest that more than 70% of Australia’s insect diversity is still largely unknown to science, meaning they don’t have an official name. Insect Investigators is a collaborative science project that works with schools across South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland to collect invertebrate specimens – bugs, insects, spiders and some sea creatures – and then formally describe them.
The team of taxonomists organize sessions with students to educate them on the scientific process and how it applies to Australian biodiversity. They go with students to regional Australia to catch insects, and then expert taxonomists hit the microscopes and DNA labs to place species within the tree of life. Then they go back to the students who found it to name the species.
foldi
There’s nothing better than playing a game that actually teaches you something, and with Foldit players can get hands-on experience with the all-important molecular biology process of protein folding. Players solve how a protein folds into a functional 3-dimensional structure based on its amino acid sequence.
Predicting how proteins fold is extremely computationally demanding, so researchers rely on the player’s intuition and reasoning to discover new protein folds and models to then test in the lab.
This Game
What’s better than getting out into nature while learning something new about the incredible wildlife you encounter? QuestaGame is a multiplayer outdoor adventure game where the mission is to take pictures and submit as many views of unique species as you can. Even better, the footage is shared with national and global biodiversity databases.
Stall clamp
Citizen scientists are helping to accelerate research by focusing on one aspect of Alzheimer’s disease with the online game Stall Catchers. Researchers had previously discovered that in mice with Alzheimer’s, stalls (clogged blood vessels in the brain) were responsible for this reduction in blood flow, and by reducing the number of stalls, the lab was able to restore memory and reduce other symptoms. cognition in rats.
But to understand exactly how stalls are contributing to Alzheimer’s, they need to get a lot of data, and that’s where Stall Catchers comes in; players watch videos of rat brains and try to identify blood vessels as “leaky” or “stuck”.
Or go hunting for your next citizen science project yourself
The Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA) encourages participation in citizen science and has developed an Australian citizen science project finder to find Australian projects.
Zooniverse is the largest and most popular global platform for finding online citizen science-based research and is home to some of the most successful citizen science projects on the Internet – such as Galaxy Zoo, Chimp & See and Backyard Worlds: Plans 9. It also lets you know which projects could really use your help right now, in case you need help narrowing down your choices!
Through SciStarter’s project finder you can find, join and contribute to science through more than 3,000 formal and informal projects, events and research tools, and even filter by location to find projects near you.
You can read and join CSIRO-led projects and of course, view stories written on the Cosmos website under our Citizen Science label.