Below, I’ve listed the top 5 Science For Citizens member blog posts according to the number of visits received. It’s easy to start your very own Sci4Ctis member blog. Start sharing your adventures with other citizen scientists!

5. Rent a Remote-Controlled Telescope! From Michael
It’s pretty hard to be an amateur astronomer without your own telescope–or is it? Michael blogs about the Global Rent-a-Scope network, which lets would-be star gazers rent time on various “robotic telescopes” around the world. As a member, you can control these telescopes from the comfort of your home via the Internet and download images of the planets, stars, and galaxies you observe.

4. Collecting Data, Revising Hypothesis From Don
Data collected by citizen science groups can often provide the information scientists need to answer a question. However, just as often, the data provides the scientist with information the scientist wasn’t expecting, causing a rethinking of their hypothesis. This happened recently with the data collected by volunteers of the Firefly Watch Citizen Science Project.

3. Calling Worm Rangers! From GLWW

The Great Lakes Worm Watch’s 3rd Annual “Big Worm Week” was a free opportunity for all ages, youth to adult, to raise awareness and understanding of exotic earthworms. Participants learned how to conduct earthworm surveys and contribute to this growing citizen science effort. This was an important event because there is very little data collected on invasive earthworm species in the Great Lakes region.

2.The New Rugged Individualism From reinventor32

What is “open education”? Bennett describes it as the conscious and willful act of spreading knowledge and experience to others, helping others (especially younger people) to gain an appreciation and love for learning, and a desire to partner with and help educators especially in subjects relating to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Read more to find out what happens when we connect enthusiasm to the scientific process.

1. National Geographic Kids – November 2010 From Charlotte
Our most popular member blog post of 2010 belongs to Charlotte, who blogged about her favorite articles from the November edition of National Geographic Kids. Thanks Charlotte, and we look forward to more blog posts from you in the future!

Which citizen science projects in our Project Finder were the most visited in 2010? Check out the top 10! Is your favorite on this list? If not, tell us about your favorite citizen science project(s) on your very own (free) member blog!

10. Foldit: Solve Protein Puzzles for Science

Foldit is a revolutionary new computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research. Researchers are collecting data to find out if humans’ pattern-recognition and puzzle-solving abilities make them more efficient than existing computer programs at pattern-folding tasks. If this turns out to be true, researchers can then teach human strategies to computers and fold proteins faster than ever!

9. REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project
Keep track of the fish you see while scuba diving or snorkeling, and submit those observations to an online database. You can start anytime, with or without a training class, as long as you can POSITIVELY identify the fish you see. This is a worldwide program for Pacific Coast, Tropical Eastern Pacific, Tropical Western Atlantic, Hawaii, and northeast U.S. and Canada.

8. Project Squirrel

Project Squirrel is calling all citizen scientists to count the number of squirrels in their neighborhoods and report their findings. The goal is to understand urban squirrel biology, including everything from squirrels to migratory birds, nocturnal mammals, and secretive reptiles and amphibians. To gain data on squirrel populations across the United States, citizen scientists will also be asked, when possible, to distinguish between two different types of tree squirrels – gray and fox. Anyone can participate in Project Squirrel!

7. Moon Zoo
Moon Zoo invites you to help astronomers count and analyze craters and boulders on the surface of the moon. You will examine images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which show the lunar surface in remarkable detail, including features as small as about one and a half feet across. While exploring the lunar surface, who knows what else you might find.

6. Texas Bee Watchers: 52 Gardens, 52 Weeks

Texas Bee Watchers aims to increase awareness and knowledge of native bees in Texas. In 2010, the Bee Watchers are challenging Texans to plant 52 Bee Gardens in 52 Weeks. To watch native bees, you only need to find some blooming plants. Once you see these hard-working insects, you may want to try catching a few native bees with a net, cooling them down in an ice chest, and looking at them close-up. Or maybe you’ll want to practice your photo skills and photograph them? Sounds fun? It is!

5. Sound Around You Project

The Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Salford is building a sound map of the world as part of a new study into how sounds in our everyday environment make us feel. They’re asking people across the world to use their mobile phones (or another audio recording device if their phone is not compatible) to record 10 to 15 second clips from different sound environments, or “soundscapes”–anything from the inside of a family car to a busy shopping center. Then, volunteers upload the clips to a virtual map, along with their opinions of the sounds and why they chose to record those particular sounds.

4. Stardust@Home

Join Stardust@Home in the search for interstellar dust!  On January 15, 2006, the Stardust spacecraft’s sample return capsule parachuted gently onto the Utah desert. Nestled within the capsule were precious particles collected during Stardust’s dramatic encounter with comet Wild 2 in January of 2004; and something else, even rarer and no less precious: tiny particles of interstellar dust that originated in distant stars, light-years away. Together, you and thousands of other Stardust@home participants will find the first pristine interstellar dust particles ever brought to Earth!

3. Gravestone Project

Help researchers map the location of graveyards around the globe and then use marble gravestones in those graveyards to measure the weathering rate of marble at that location. The weathering rates of gravestones are an indication of changes in the acidity of rainfall between locations and over time. The acidity is affected by air pollution and other factors, and could be used as a measure of changes in climate and pollution levels.

2. Firefly Watch

Firefly Watch combines an annual summer evening ritual with scientific research. Boston’s Museum of Science has teamed up with researchers from Tufts University and Fitchburg State College to track the fate of these amazing insects. With your help, the project aims to learn about the geographic distribution of fireflies and their activity during the summer season. Fireflies also may be affected by human-made light and pesticides in lawns, so researchers hope to also learn more about those effects.

1. Laser Harp: Build It Yourself

Tech musician Stephen Hobley’s laser harp was the most popular project in our Project Finder. After building your laser harp, you’ll coax out the computer-generated sounds by waving your hands to break the light beams and change their lengths. We first found out about Stephone’s harp in recent issue of Make magazine that was devoted to build-them-yourself, high-tech musical instruments. Sounds awesome, huh?

Creative citizen scientists can compose and share their own science songs! Photo: sxc.hu

Songs have helped me remember a lot of academic information – from learning all 50 states* in alphabetic order when I was in elementary school to figuring out which French verbs take “être” (to be) in the past tense by humming  “Heigh Ho” from the musical Snow White.

My science classes got in on the vocal act as well. In math class, we learned the quadratic equation to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel.” In graduate school, my friends created a statistics rap to help their students get interested in difficult material. In my own Biopsychology classes, students enjoyed learning parts of the brain from Pinky and the Brain. (Well, at least they got a laugh!)

Does anyone actually keep track of this scientific creativity? For one, physicist Walter Smith of Haverford College is collecting all of the physics songs he can find. Do you have a physics song? Send an email to have yours added as well.

Whether they’re learning the citric acid cycle to the tune of “Fly Me to the Moon” (start with “oxaloacetate” and the lyrics fit the tune quite well) or the names of every single element thanks to Tom Lehrer, students of all ages remember scientific information more easily through song. Tunes are also a creative way to share your new-found knowledge. If the muse strikes you, come up with your own song to remember something scientific and add it to our member blogs page. Or, if you’re more daring, add a music video to the site!

*For those who want extra credit for singing the states and their capitals, try out this Animaniacs video.

M72: A globular cluster of stars. Photo: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HPOW

For those of you sleepless people who want to learn a bit about stars and help scientists at the same time, consider joining the Great World Wide Star Count taking place from October 29 through November 12, 2010.

In order to participate, download the star count’s activity guide to determine which constellation you should observe. Once you know what to look for, check out the sky an hour after sunset (7 to 9 pm) and find your constellation. Next, match what you see to the set of magnitude charts (included in the activity guide), and report your observations. You can also look online to see results from previous years of international stargazing.

Once you’re hooked on astronomy, consider joining up with NASA’s Interactive Space Physics (INSPIRE) project to record very low frequency radio emissions. For this project, you’ll need to build your own detector with kits from the website. Some of the radio waves you’ll measure come from naturally occurring sources and are called “sferics” (short for “atmospherics”). These natural waves are often generated by lightning and are also called “tweeks,” “whistlers,” and “chorus.” Are you wondering what lightning sounds like? If you don’t yet have a kit, listen to some sferics here. (Want to hear more? Check out their audio gallery.)

In addition to listening in on nature’s noises, your kit will allow you to monitor human-made radio emissions in the same frequencies. This research helps scientists learn more about how naturally occurring very low frequency radio emissions are generated, as well as how our human-made signals interact with the ionosphere and magnetic fields. This is a unique opportunity to collect data and work with real NASA space scientists on important scientific problems.

If you’re, ahem, inspired, to hear more, check out a recent segment about this program on NASA/Discovery radio.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Get outside and take a look up, or listen in!

Artist's rendering shows massive star epsilon Aurigae and its mysterious companion. Credit: NASA

There’s a mystery in the night sky that you can help solve.

Every 27 years, in the constellation called Auriga (the charioteer), a bright star designated epsilon goes dim for nearly two years. Epsilon Aurigae is a “binary eclipsing variable star,” which is astronomer-speak for a star that appears to change brightness as an orbiting companion body periodically passes by, “eclipsing” and blocking the primary star’s light. The most recent eclipse of epsilon Aurigae started in August 2009 and will continue into next summer.

The mystery, which has baffled astronomers since the binary system was first noted in 1821, is this: What exactly is epsilon Aurigae’s companion? The companion gives off no light at all, and, to add to the mystery, epsilon Aurigae seems to brighten slightly in the middle of its two-year eclipse. All of this has led researchers to propose that the companion is a “transparent shell star” or a thin disk of material with a gap in the center. Or maybe two smaller stars in the midst of a disk of matter. So far, they just don’t know what it is.

What astronomers need in order to solve the puzzle is many, many more eyes to watch epsilon Aurigae as it fades and brightens. Naked eyes, to be exact, because the star is too bright for most telescopes. Such observations, carefully analyzed, can reveal the masses, sizes, and orientations of the star and its companion—all details that help clarify the architecture of the binary system.

So, last year, the American Association of Variable Star Observers started a citizen science effort to recruit those eyeballs. Called Citizen Sky, the project now has about 2,000 registered volunteers; to date, the few hundred most active have contributed 3,785 observations of the current eclipse.

Citizen Sky creator Aaron Price says collaboration and communication are key to a project's success. Credit: G. Damave

Though still new, the results are promising, says project creator and AAVSO assistant director Aaron Price: “So far we have a beautiful light curve of the epsilon Aurigae eclipse that has helped professionals build a better model for the system causing the eclipse.”

Price and the rest of folks behind Citizen Sky take their volunteers very seriously. Participants train on a 10-star tutorial to get started on data collection and analysis. They are encouraged to develop their own research questions and to form teams, with the help of a professional, to address those hypotheses. And they have been invited to attend workshops, put on by the project leaders, on binary-star science and on data analysis and writing research papers. Through a blog, forums, chat, and newsletters, volunteers keep in touch with each other and with the scientists. “Part of our core mission is to engage participants in every stage of the scientific process–not just data collection,” says Price.

In fact, Price, who is a PhD candidate in science education at Tufts, is writing his dissertation on the impact of the project on the participants’ science literacy. One surprising result, he says: “Collaboration and communication between participants is key.”

Soon, Citizen Sky will have another tool for educating citizen scientists. Guustaaf Damave, an astronomy buff and filmmaker based in Washington state, is putting the finishing touches on an hour-long documentary about the project. It’s called, appropriately, “Mystery in the Sky.”

Amateur astronomer Alice Few is an active member of Citizen Sky. Credit: G. Damave

Like the Citizen Sky organizers, Damave takes the long view, using the film to explore not only the project, but the science of binary star systems and the scientific method itself. In addition to the science leaders of Citizen Sky, such as lead scientist and Denver University astronomer Robert Stencel, the film features volunteer Alice Few, an astronomy podcaster and member of the Tacoma Astronomical Society. “Ultimately, it’s for all the citizen scientists out there,” says Damave.

And all you citizen scientists out there can help make sure the film is released. Damave is asking for contributions to help finish and distribute the DVD, which he plans to sell on Amazon. He needs a total of $1,600 in pledges by October 2 to fund his effort. As of today, he has $1,205. Anyone who pledges $15 receives a copy of the film.

So consider lending your eyeballs to Citizen Sky and a few dollars to the film that will help spread the word.

Dr. Kevin McLin is the Director of the Global Telescope Network. (Courtesy Photo)

Whether tackling the mysteries of the universe or studying birds in the backyard, citizen science projects rely on collaboration between scientists, volunteers, teachers, students, and many other dedicated participants.

One great example from our Project Finder is the Global Telescope Network, an informal association of amateur astronomers who partner with scientists to conduct cutting-edge astronomy research. Using small telescopes around the world, Global Telescope Network members observe and analyze astronomical objects related to several NASA missions. Members participate in a variety of activities, including gamma-ray burst photometry analysis, surveillance data analysis, and galaxy monitoring, and by donating telescope time.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Dr. Kevin McLin, director of the Global Telescope Network at Sonoma State University, a few questions about the network, its members’ contributions, and what excites him about the field of astronomy.

Dr. McLin, who makes up the Global Telescope Network?

It’s a fairly far-ranging and diverse group of people. We have some university observatories that are members, and we have amateur astronomers who have their own backyard observatories. In addition, we have high school observatories. It’s a mix of professional, amateurs, and educators.

Can you describe how a member of the Global Telescope Network accesses, controls, and gets images from the robotic GORT telescope?

We share time over the Skynet system headed by Dan Reichart at University of North Carolina. We use the Skynet interface to give access to our student members who do not have their own observatories. These are both high school and undergraduates, typically. The Skynet system allows the students to submit jobs to a queue, and then to retrieve their images when the jobs are complete. They don’t have to stay up all night with the telescope this way either, which can be an important part of a project for a high school student.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lenticular cloud in the Canary Islands. Photo by student meteorologist Mario M. Labrador, age 12.

As summer comes to a close, a young person’s fancy may turn to fretting at the thought of being cooped up in a classroom. But for fans of science and nature—and by that we mean kids who like to watch clouds, hunt mushrooms, prowl around graveyards, and check out what gets squashed on the side of the road—fall need not signal the end of fun.

To keep young minds entertained as well as enlightened, we recommend the following 10 back-to-school projects for student citizen scientists. Teachers and parents, please note: Many of these programs provide materials around which you can build lessons. And there are lots more where these came from.  Visit our Project Finder for a full list of citizen science projects for primary and secondary school students.

Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL): Report your observations of clouds—their shapes, height, coverage, and related conditions—so that NASA scientists can compare them with data from weather satellites passing over your area. Tutorials and observing guides are available for students. For teachers, the program provides lesson plans, charts, and advice on related educational standards.

Tracking Climate in Your Backyard: This project teaches volunteer meteorologists aged 8 to 12 about the scientific process by enlisting them in the collection of weather data in their communities. Download free support material and curriculum.

Gravestone Project: With Halloween less than two months off, here’s an appropriate activity for young citizen scientists: Map the location of cemeteries near you using a GPS device. Then, following instructions on the project website, measure the rate at which marble gravestones erode at each site due to weathering. You’ll be helping researchers determine changes in the acidity of rainfall between locations and over time.

Roadkill Project: From science in the cemetery, it’s a small hop over to science on the side of the road. In this project, students collect data on the presence of roadkill on a defined stretch of pavement. Comparing observations with those of their fellow roadkill researchers, participants learn about local animals’ habitats and migratory patterns, make predictions about which animals are at most and least risk of being killed by vehicles, and study the effects of geography and topography.

Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration: SCOPE needs citizen scientists to classify stars based on images of their spectra. After a quick registration and online tutorial, you can examine your first stellar spectrum and compare it to the “light signature” of well-known reference stars. Check out what high school student Eli Moorhouse wrote in our Member Blogs section about his recent adventures working on SCOPE.

Mushroom Observer: What weird and wonderful plants mushrooms are, not to mention numerous and mysterious. According to the Mushroom Observer project, “it is still a common experience to come across a mushroom that cannot be easily identified in the available books or which doesn’t really fit the definition of any recognized species.” Volunteers are invited to share observations, upload photos, and discuss findings with their fellow fungi fans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Einstein@Home analyzes data from the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. Credit: Cornell University

Our pal, Elsa Youngsteadt, at Sigma Xi (one of the oldest and largest scientific organizations in the world) asked us to invite you to participate in an online conversation taking place right now over at The World: Science.

Elsa co-produces the popular science podcast for The World, a daily international news magazine broadcast on public radio stations across the United States.

Some of her most interesting subjects extend beyond the podcast to online forums. One such example includes the physicists who run Einstein@home: Bruce Allen and Benjamin Knispel, from the Max Planck Institute of Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany. Einstein@Home asks volunteers to donate their computers’ idle time to search for gravitational waves and new astronomical objects. Recently, three of their volunteer citizen scientists were credited with discovering a new pulsar!

From The World: Science website:

In a study published in the journal Science this week, the scientists report Einstein@Home’s first discovery – a pulsar, some 17,000 light years from Earth. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars (leftover cores of dead giant stars). They spin rapidly and emit pulses of electromagnetic radiation. Those radio waves are picked up by radio telescopes like the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which was used in this study.”

Elsa, Bruce, and Benjamin are participating in an online science forum, hosted by The World: Science, and they want to share with you information on how scientists are working with citizen scientists–and their computers – to make discoveries in space. (You’ll also find more details about the pulsar discovery–it’s a rare type called a “disrupted recycled pulsar.”)

They also want to hear from you. Do you participate in distributed computing projects? Care to share your experience? Is there anything you would like to ask Bruce and Benjamin?

If you’d like to participate, simply visit the Volunteer Computing online forum. But do it soon. This forum ends August 25th.

And if you learn something the ScienceForCitizens.net community might find interesting, be sure to tell us about it on your Sci4Cits member blog.

International Observe the Moon Night: September 18, 2010

You are cordially invited to what might be called a worldwide moon-up.

September 18 is International Observe the Moon Night, when, if the program’s organizers get their wish, people all over the world will collectively gaze up and admire the dry seas, mountain peaks, fields of rubble, and, of course, the craters of our planet’s closest celestial companion.

When you stop to think about it, it’s pretty amazing that we can look so directly into the face of another object in our solar system. Just a naked-eye view can be plenty dramatic. Add binoculars or a basic telescope, and suddenly you feel as if you’re hovering a few thousand feet over a stark and stunning extraterrestrial landscape. If you’ve never seen the moon this way, you owe it to yourself to find a viewing party on September 18.

As astronomy wonks know, it’s no accident that this event is scheduled for a night when the moon will be in “waxing gibbous” phase. At that time, the angle of the sun’s rays and the position of the “terminator,” the line that marks the transition from moon day to moon night, will make lunar features easy to pick out.

At a recent meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, NASA’s Brooke Hsu described the upcoming lunar meet-up as an extension of a much smaller event that she helped organize last year. Following the success of two lunar missions (the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), NASA’s Ames Research Center in northern California and its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland hosted simultaneous moon-watching parties in July 2009. The events went so well that plans were made to repeat them this year and to add a few more U.S. locations.

But then organizations all over the world got wind of the news and asked if they could join in. The momentum was irresistible, said Hsu, so International Observe the Moon Day was rushed into production by popular demand.

Want to set up your own moon-viewing party for September 18? The program ’s website provides advice, complete with templates for flyers and postcards to publicize the gatherings and a guide to help observers identify lunar features. Or you can search an interactive map for an observing event near you. The site also describes plans for a photo contest, live webcasting of public lectures, and other activities.

There’s even a line of observe-the-moon goodies to help commemorate the night: T-shirts, coffee mugs, water bottles. And, oh yes, beach bags, perfect for a September visit to the sea—whether it be terrestrial or lunar.

Can I pick your brain for a minute?

Next week I’m going to be part of a panel discussion on the topic of citizen science. It’s part of a joint conference of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Geological Society of America titled ”Earth and Space Science: Making Connections in Education and Public Outreach.” To fuel that discussion I’d like to get your opinion on what makes a citizen science project successful for you, the participant.

If you’ve taken part in a project—or even if you’re just considering it—please share your thoughts by adding a comment here at the bottom of this post. I plan to refer to selected comments during the panel discussion. As an added nudge, I’ll award a free t-shirt to the authors of the three comments I deem to be most helpful and illuminating.

Many of the folks attending this conference are the scientists who actually dream up and design citizen science projects—so here’s your chance to influence their thinking and help shape new activities that you can take part in.

Please let me know what factors determine whether a project was (or would be) an effective and successful experience for you. In addition to your general thoughts, I’d like to know in particular:

• How important is it that you increase your own scientific knowledge as part of the project?
• How important is it that you contribute to scientific knowledge?
• Is it important to you that you do more than collect data (for instance, help analyze the data, help design the project, help disseminate the findings)?

Looking forward to your feedback.

By the way, if you’re in Boulder next week (that’s where the conference is) and want to chat about citizen science, just let me know. It would be great to connect.