Citizen Science/Open Spectrophotometer Project/Introduction
What is Citizen Science?
[Citizen science]: a term used for projects of scientific work in which networks of volunteers, in general with no specific scientific training, perform or manage research-related tasks such as observation, measurement or computation.
General Objectives of Citizen Science
The use of citizen-science networks often allows scientists to accomplish research objectives more feasibly than would otherwise be possible. In addition, these projects aim to promote public engagement with the research, as well as with science in general. Some programs provide materials specifically for use by primary or secondary school students. As such, citizen science is one approach to informal science education.
Bruce Lewenstein of Cornell University's Communication and S&TS departments points out two additional usages of the terms "citizen science" and "citizen scientist:"
(2) the engagement of nonscientists in true decision-making about policy issues that have technical or scientific components; and (3) the engagement of research scientists in the democratic and policy process. —Bruce V. Lewenstein[4]
Examples of Citizen Science Project
- The longest-running citizen science project currently active is the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, which started in 1900 (http://www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc/).
- Other well-known examples of citizen science programs include:
World Water Monitoring Day http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.org/ (our model?)
- Astronomy Projetcs: Stardust@home http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html, Clickworkers http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov/top , http://www.galaxyzoo.org/
- Citizen science networks are extensively involved in phenology, the observation of cyclic events of nature, in order to investigate how global warming affects plant and animal life in different geographic areas:
- Ornithology Projects: Ebird (http://ebird.org/content/ebird/), NestWatch(http://www.nestwatch.info/), FeederWatch (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/)
- Global Warming Monitoring Projects: Nature’s Calendar http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/ ;
Greenwave http://www.greenwave.ie/ ; Budburst http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/
- Other (debatable) examples: Distributed computing ventures such as SETI@home , Fold@home
