Through Wildlife Watch, participants gain first hand experience with plants and animals in their natural environment. The Wildlife Watch website features downloadable "watch" lists by state, and the capability for visitors to share wildlife sightings, photos and stories online. Wildlife Watch is an introductory citizen science program that is perfect for families, photographers, kids, outdoor enthusiasts and anyone who wants a deeper connection with world around them.
Operation Bluetongue was a large-scale, community-based study on the roles of bluetongue lizards in the lives of South Australians. This 2007 study, conducted in conjunction with radio station, 891 ABC Adelaide, collected information on: bluetongue distribution, bluetongue ecology and habitat, experiences with bluetongues, and photographs of bluetongues. In total, 1500 questionnaires were completed, with questionnaires returned from 237 metropolitan suburbs and 162 country towns. 2330 bluetongue lizards were recorded, including the endangered pygmy bluetongue. The study revealed that that the community enthusiastically engaged in data collection and were passionately fond of these lizards, that the community improved their understanding of the natural history and distribution of bluetongue lizards, that people interact with these lizards in their gardens to a much greater extent than previously appreciated, that schools and students were enthusiastic about interacting with scientists and that university scientists could work with media outlets to achieve valuable outcomes in research and education.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of South AustraliaPhilip Roetman
Gardeners visit this site and report what varieties perform well - and not so well - in their gardens. Other gardeners visit to view the variety ratings and read the reviews to decide which might work well for them. The VVfG citizen science project also provides an opportunity for researchers to involve knowledgeable, motivated citizens in meaningful scientific research. Research on the performance of vegetable varieties is often limited to commercial production in part, because visiting thousands of home gardens to collect data would be an overwhelming task.
Each class K-8 has chosen a species of local animal to study and collect NatureMapping data. K-spiders, 1st-butterflies and moths, 2nd- birds, 3rd-insects, 4th-reptiles, 5th-wildflowers and weeds, 6th-fossorial mammals. We have produce a native plant garden, a field guide that we add to each year, a school mural. We study on the schoolgrounds, at a local creek area, in a local canyon and on a local mountain so the students can compare common animals and plants from 4 different areas.
Project BudBurst engages people from across the United States in the collection of important climate change data based on the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers. Project BudBurst participants take careful observations of the phenological events such as the first leafing, first flower, and first fruit ripening for a variety of plant species including trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, weeds and ornamentals. Project BudBurst is particularly interested in observations of native plant species. The citizen science observations are reported online to a national database. As a result valuable environmental and climate change information is being collected in a consistent way across the country. Scientists can use this data to learn about the responses of individual plant species to climatic variation locally, regionally, and nationally, and to detect longer-term impacts of climate change by comparing with historical data.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Office of Outreach and EducationChicago Botanic GardenUniversity of MontanaSandra Henderson
Each year over 120,000 Tasmanians go fishing at least once. Imagine...120,000 potential scientists collecting valuable data about the marine environment! We did. Welcome to Redmap! We invite the community to spot, log and map marine species that are uncommon in Tasmania, or along particular parts of our coast, addressing key knowledge gaps in partnership with industry and community. Redmap has proven to be a useful engagement tool to raise awareness about climate change.
The Annual Midwest Crane Count started in 1976 and currently covers 5 states. The primary purposes of the Crane Count are to help ICF monitor the abundance and distribution of cranes in the Upper-Midwest which helps with crane research as well as introducing people to cranes and their natural environment. In the 1930's, an estimated 25 pairs of Sandhill Cranes resided in Wisconsin. The year 2000 Count tallied more than 13,000 Sandhill Cranes.
You can Celebrate Urban Birds by gardening, by organizing a community event, or by connecting to the outdoors through art projects. Become a citizen-scientist by observing birds in your neighborhood and sending the data to scientists at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. For anyone, anywhere, anytime (even in the suburbs or the country!)... everybody can Celebrate Urban Birds in some way.
The South Carolina Oyster Restoration and Enhancement involves volunteers of all ages in hands on habitat-restoration along the coast of SC. Volunteers also monitor reef development and water quality, entering data online. Volunteers can work with marine scientists on related aspects of the project (e.g. sampling fish and invertebrates using created habitats).
Amphibians represent an important part of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the northeastern United States. The Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) monitors forest amphibian populations in order to track trends that may warn of ecosystem degredation and to direct conservation actions. Specifically, this monitoring program is designed to help scientists: 1. Determine changes in forest amphibian populations. 2. Establish and better understand correlations between forest amphibian population sizes and forest health. Salamander monitoring is attractive and appropriate for middle and high-school aged volunteers because activities take place in fall and spring when school is in session and because techniques are simple and straighforward.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
National Park ServiceBrian MitchellAdam Kozlowski
You are invited to join Project Squirrel, a Citizen Science program for all ages. Participation only takes a few minutes--simply log on to ProjectSquirrel.org to tell us about the squirrels in your neighborhood. Join people all across Chicagoland as we learn more about the ecology of our neighborhoods through the eyes of squirrels. For more information go to www.projectsquirrel.org.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Peggy Notebaert Nature MuseumUniversity of Illinois at ChicagoWendy Jackson
The Global Garlic Mustard Field Survey is a collaboration of scientists, students, conservationists, resource managers and 'amateur' scientists. Our goal is to collect high-quality data on the abundance and distribution of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) in its native (Europe) and introduced (North America) ranges. This sampling protocol is designed to be simple and achieved with just a few hours of work, once populations have been located. It well help to fill an large gap in data on native and introduced plant populations.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Global Invasions NetworkRobert Colautti