The National Severe Storms Laboratory needs YOUR help with a research project!

If you live in the area shown on the map, the Precipitation Identification Near the Ground project (PING) wants YOU to watch and report on precipitation type.

PING is looking for young, old, and in-between volunteers to make observations—teachers, classes and families too! We have collected tens of thousands of observations since 2006, already making PING successful because of your help.

PING volunteers can spend a little or a lot of time making observations. The basic idea is simple: the National Severe Storms Laboratory will collect radar data from NEXRAD radars in your area during storm events, and compare that data with YOUR observations.

Why? Because the radars cannot see close to the ground, we need YOU to tell us what is happening. Scientists will compare your report with what the radar has detected, and develop new radar technologies and techniques to determine what kind of precipitation—such as snow, soft hail, hard hail, or rain—is falling where.

The New Forest Cicada is the only cicada native to the UK. During May to July it sings with a very characteristic high-pitched song, which is at the limits of human hearing, and is particularly difficult for most adults to hear. Sightings of the cicada within the New Forest date back to 1812, but the last unconfirmed sighting was in 2000. However, it's quite likely that colonies remain undiscovered in less visited parts of the forest. The New Forest Cicada Project aims to equip the millions of visitors to the forest with a smart phone app that can detect and recognise the song of the cicada, and hopes to rediscover it in 2013.

Periodical cicada (Magicicada spp.) populations are vulnerable to the ways we change the land around us. They live in the dirt. They suck on plant roots. They are born one year and then 17 years later rise to often find a landscape quite different from the one their parents experienced. When forests (and with them, tree roots) disappear completely, periodical cicadas never emerge at all, but in many cases forests do not disappear entirely, they just change. With urbanization, they become hotter, more polluted, and, more afflicted by herbivores other than the cicadas. What do these changes do to 17-year cicadas? We don’t really know.

One particular aspect of the cicadas that is likely influenced by urbanization is how crooked they are – that is, how much the length, width and shape of parts on the right and left side of the cicada body, respectively, differ from one another. Scientists have given a fancy name to these small, random deviations from perfect symmetry; they call it fluctuating asymmetry (FA).

Fluctuating asymmetry has been used as a low cost way to monitor the effects of environmental stressors like pesticides and water pollution on terrestrial and aquatic insects. We (at Your Wild Life) think it might be a quick-and-dirty way to gauge the negative effects of urbanization on periodical cicadas – We predict that cicadas experiencing more intense levels of urbanization (as measured by the amount of forest cover or concrete and blacktop in an area) will be more crooked.

And so we need your help!

Aurorasaurus maps aurora-related Tweets and citizen science reports of the aurora during the first solar maximum (now!) with social media. The google maps contains predictions of the auroral oval based on space data, along with weather, and citizen scientist markers. When auroral activity really occurs this is the best place to go for accurate predictions of whether it can be seen in your area!

Hi, my name is Dr. Dan Duran and I'm an evolutionary biologist and entomologist at Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) and I need your help finding "Desmond," an Elderberry Longhorn Beetle, formally known as *Desmocerus palliatus!*

This *beautiful* beetle species used to live throughout a large part of eastern North America but in recent decades it appears as if it has declined in numbers. We need your help to figure out if and why this might be true and how we can help them move back into areas they once lived.

The Elderberry Longhorn Beetle is easy to spot with its bold patterns of blue and gold and long antennae. It's so attractive, in fact, that it was chosen for a USPS stamp design in 1999! I can't promise you'll find one, but if you keep an eye out, you might have a chance at seeing one of these impressive creatures. They come out at different times in different places, but June is often a good time to see them.

The Dark Sky Meter (available for iPhones) allows citizen scientists to contribute to a global map of nighttime light pollution. Light pollution is a growing problem in urban environments, but now you can help scientists better understand its effects on the environment. By utilizing the camera built in to your iPhone, the Dark Sky Meter actually measures ‘skyglow’ and updates the data in real time.

The Pro version of the app also charts weather conditions and cloud cover so you can take readings at optimal times. The app is as easy to use as taking a picture, and is a fun way to learn about your night sky.

How many stars can you see where you live? The Loss of the Night App (available for Android devices) challenges citizen scientists to identify as many stars as they can in order to measure light pollution. The app is fun and easy to use, and helps users learn constellations as they contribute to a global real-time map of light pollution.

Stargazing is a fantastic way to engage young scientists, but this ancient past time has become increasingly difficult in growing urban areas. Help scientists understand the effects of light pollution and learn about your night sky!

You don't need to leave the city to take part, in fact, the app is designed specifically for use in very polluted areas.

The more stars you observe, and the more often you run the app, the more precise the data for your location will become. As the seasons change so do the stars in the sky, and since there aren't so many very bright stars it is extremely helpful if urban users do measurements in each season.

iPhone users can contribute their own data via the dark sky meter project: http://www.scistarter.com/project/802-Dark%20Sky%20Meter

Anyone without a phone can take part during some parts of the year via GLOBE at Night: http://www.scistarter.com/project/169-GLOBE%20at%20Night

CyberTracker Conservation is a non-profit organisation that promotes the vision of a Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Network. Our ultimate vision is that smart phone users worldwide will use CyberTracker to capture observations on a daily basis.

CyberTracker is the most efficient method of gps field data collection. You can use CyberTracker on a Smartphone or handheld computer to record any type of observation. CyberTracker, which requires no programming skills, allows you to customize an Application for your own data collection needs.

The Marine Debris Tracker mobile application allows you to help make a difference by checking in when you find trash on our coastlines and waterways. Data you submit is available to download online and you also have access to mapping all data, worldwide. Marine Debris Tracker is a joint partnership of the NOAA Marine Debris Division and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI), located within the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia.

FoxPop is a public science engagement project which aims to get Dublin citizens involved in a city-wide collection of data on urban foxes. Despite their presence all over the capital, little or no research has been carried out in terms of numbers. Please help us by submitting any sightings, locations, dates and times if you please.

Become a Splatter Spotter. Join Project Splatter and help us reduce wildlife road casualties in the United Kingdom (UK) using your data.

Project Splatter collects UK wildlife road casualty data via Twitter and Facebook with an aim to identify roadkill hotspots. By collating your data across the country we can identify roadkill 'hotspots' for future mitigation projects and help preserve our wildlife.

A study was conducted 40 years ago which suggested a link between climate and when west-European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) come out of hibernation. Last year we repeated this study and over two thousand people logged around 45,000 hedgehogs across Britain. The unusual weather in 2012 has made patterns of activity quite confusing so we are repeating the survey this year to find out more.

We need your help to collect hedgehog records from 1st February until 31st August 2013. Understanding patterns of hedgehog behaviour across the UK will enable us to target the conservation strategy for this charming animal, which is currently in severe decline.

The iSeeChange Almanac is a socially networked weather Almanac for communities to collectively journal their climate experiences -- their observations, feelings, questions, and decisions --- against near-real time climate information.

Founded in April 2012 in Western Colorado, iSeeChange is a public radio and media experiment that fosters multimedia conversations between citizens and scientists about how seasonal weather and climate extremes affect daily American life. From the earliest spring recorded in the history of the United States, a landmark wildfire season, nationwide droughts, and weather records breaking everyday, climate affects every citizen and binds communities together.

iSeeChange is produced by Julia Kumari Drapkin in Western Colorado at KVNF Mountain Grown Community Radio as a part of Localore, a nationwide production of AIR in collaboration with Zeega, with principal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

We just launched the Almanac this week in Western Colorado. Stay tuned for more locations in the coming year!

In 2012, scientists in Montreal warned Canadians to expect there will be fewer outdoor skating days in the future.* Their predictions are based on the results of data taken from weather stations across Canada over the last fifty years. In some parts of Canada, they warn there may one day be no more backyard rinks at all. Remember the story of how Wayne Gretzky learned to play hockey on the backyard rink his father made for him in Brantford, Ontario? The scientists’ report says some day that will no longer be possible – at least, not in Brantford.

This prompted a group of geographers at Wilfrid Laurier University to create RinkWatch. We want people from coast to coast to coast to tell us about their rinks. We want you to pin the location of your rink on our map, and then each winter record every day that you are able to skate on it. Think of it as your rink diary. We will gather up all the information from all the backyard rinks, and use it to track the changes in our climate. The RinkWatch website will give you regular updates on the results. You will be able to compare the number of skating days at your rink with rinks elsewhere, and find out who is having the best winter for skating this year.

AirCasting is a platform for recording, mapping, and sharing health and environmental data using your smartphone. Each AirCasting session lets you capture real-world measurements, annotate the data to tell your story, and share it via the CrowdMap.

Using the AirCasting Android app, AirCasters can record, map, and share:
(o) sound levels recorded by their phone microphone;
(o) temperature, humidity, CO and NO2 gas concentrations recorded by the Arduino-powered AirCasting Air Monitor, and;
(o) heart rate measurements recorded by the Zephyr HxM.

Using AirCasting Luminescence, these sensor streams can also be represented using LED lights.

Help track the health and abundance of the mid-Atlantic scallop fishery!

Researchers at the University of Delaware have developed a new robot-based approach to surveying marine life the ocean floor. They use Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), which can navigate underwater without direct human control, to take photos of marine life in its natural habitat.

By becoming a SubseaObserver you'll play a roll in ocean conservation by helping organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) make better decisions about how to manage the scallop fishery now and for future generations.

As a SubseaObserver you can name your own virtual AUV and choose what part of the mid-Atlantic you'd like to explore.

SubseaObservers also includes information about scallop biology, how the fishery is managed, how AUVs work and where they're used.

Psychologists at Birkbeck Babylab wants to know what makes babies laugh. We think babies are going to be laughing at things that they are just starting to understand. (Once you know that dogs are supposed to go ‘woof’, a dog that goes ‘miaow’ is only going to be hilarious.) With enough detailed observations from enough babies at different ages we can paint a cheerful picture of what they understand at different ages.

So if you’ve made a baby laugh recently we’d like to hear about it. If you haven’t made a baby laugh recently, go and find one and get to work. It's fun but it's also science!

Digital Fisher needs volunteers to help analyze deep-sea videos -- 15 seconds at a time. Volunteers watch a short video of the ocean and click on a simple response.

The NEPTUNE Canada observatory has recorded thousands of hours of video from underwater cameras, but there is currently no software sophisticated enough to automatically identify a wide variety of animals. This is where you come in!

With no training at all, you'll be able to help scientists unveil the mechanisms that shape the animal communities of the ocean. You'll help scientists answer fundamental questions about biodiversity, species behavior, and the impact of various environmental factors.

IceWatch USA gives you the opportunity to help scientists study how our climate is changing. With as little as 10 minutes, you can report information that will help to analyze how our climate will change in different regions of the United States and how our ecosystems are reacting to the change.

Due to the increased emissions of greenhouse gases, among other factors, our climate is changing. Accurately recording and analyzing "ice on" and "ice off" events (also known as "ice phenology"), as well as other factors like snow depth, air temperature, and wildlife observations, offers a practical way to learn how climate change affects our environment. Even if you live in a southern state that doesn't experience ice, your winter observations of air temperature, precipitation, and wildlife are still important for the big picture.

IceWatch USA needs your help, and becoming an IceWatcher is very easy. All you need to do is:

1. Choose a location to observe over the winter, such as a nearby lake, bay, or river.
2. Record and report your observations.

Your information will be entered into a database, compared to other reports, and shared with interested scientists. IceWatch USA is also a proud partner of the National Phenology Network.

Get started today!

Noah is a mobile phone app that allows nature lovers to document local wildlife and add their observations to a growing database for use by ongoing citizen-science projects.

Using the Noah mobile application, users take a photograph of an interesting organism, select the appropriate category, add descriptive tags, and click submit. The application captures the location details along with the submitted information and stores all of it in the species database for use by efforts such as Project Squirrel and the Lost Ladybug Project.

In addition, users can see what kinds of organisms are nearby by searching through a list or exploring a map of their area, all on a mobile phone.

Noah is all about discovering and documenting local wildlife. We work with research groups and organizations to help gather important data and we want you to help by logging recent spottings on your mobile phone. Missions can range from photographing specific frogs or flowers to tracking migrating birds or invasive species or logging the effects of the oil spill.

How much snow is on the ground where you are? Cryosphere researchers at the University of Waterloo want to know!

The Snowtweets Project provides a way for people interested in snow measurements to quickly broadcast their own snow depth measurements to the web. These data are then picked up by our database and mapped in near real time. We are especially interested in using web-based digital technologies to map snow data; currently, the project uses the micro-blogging site Twitter as its data broadcasting scheme.

To view the snow depth measurements (or Tweets), we have developed a data visualization tool called Snowbird that lets you explore the reported snow depths around the globe. The viewer shows where the reports are located and how much snow there is at each reported site.

The Snowtweets Project is in early stages of development and we plan to update and improve it as we go along. We rely on user participation to measure snow depth (including zero snow depth) and then send the measurements in.

Project BudBurst, a NEON citizen science program, is a network of people across the United States monitoring plants as the seasons change. We are a national field campaign designed to engage the public in the collection of important ecological data based on the timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting of plants (plantphenophases). Project BudBurst participants make careful observations of these phenophases. We are interested in observations from five plant groups – deciduous trees and shrubs; wildflowers and herbs; evergreens; conifers; and grasses. To participate, you simply need access to a plant.

Supporting and enhancing our understanding of continental-scale environmental change, Project BudBurst data are being collected in a consistent manner across the country for scientists and educators to use to learn more about the responsiveness of individual plant species to changes in local, regional and national climates. Thousands of people from all 50 states are participating and have generated a robust data set that is available for use by scientists and educators to increase understanding of how plants respond to environmental change. Formal and informal educators are finding Project BudBurst an effective approach to engaging their students and visitors in an authentic research experience.
Join our growing community!

Whether you have an afternoon, a few weeks, a season, or a whole year, you can make an important contribution to a better understanding of changing climates. Participating in Project BudBurst is easy – everything needed to participate is on the web site. Choose a plant to monitor and share your observations with others online. Not sure where to start? Take a look at our Ten Most Wanted species.

Project BudBurst is a NEON Citzen Science Program funded by the National Science Foundation.

CoCoRaHS, The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages who measure and report precipitation. By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive website, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications.

Each time a rain, hail, or snow storm occurs, volunteers take measurements of precipitation from their registered locations (reports of 'zero' precipitation are encouraged too!). The reports are submitted to the website and are immediately available for viewing. It's educational, but moreover, fun! Just wait until you start comparing how much rain fell in your backyard vs. your neighbor!

The data are used by the National Weather Service, meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities, insurance adjusters, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor and recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community.

Bat Detective is an online citizen science project which allows visitors to the website to take part in wildlife conservation by listening out for bat calls in recordings collected all over the world.

By sorting the sounds in the recordings into insect and bat calls, bat detectives will help biologists learn how to reliably distinguish bat 'tweets' to develop new automatic identification tools.

Bats use lots of different types of sounds, from singing to each other to find a mate, to using the echoes from their tweets to find their way around. Usually bat sounds are inaudible to humans as they are too high for us to hear, but special 'time expansion' ultrasonic detectors convert these sounds to a lower frequency, and visitors to the Bat Detective website can listen to these unique recordings and help distinguish different sounds.

One out of every five species of bats is threatened with extinction and better automatic identification tools are desperately needed to quickly process vast amounts of sound data collected by volunteers from the bat monitoring programme iBats who survey bat populations each year.

Bats are found all over the world from local parks to pristine rainforests and monitoring their population trends provides an important indicator of healthy ecosystems. Developing new tools that allow biologists to interpret population trends from sound will allow bats' tweets to act as a way to track environmental change.

Bat Detective was developed at University College London, Bat Conservation Trust, Bat Life Europe with the Citizen Science Alliance.

You are walking along the beach on a sunny spring day. But what is that? Something is moving slowly out of the water. It looks like a large crab, covered in barnacles and mussels. Creepy? Ugly? No, its home! At least for all those critters that live on Horseshoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs have been around for more than 250 million years, unimpressed by dinosaurs and ice ages.

Since then, Horseshoe crabs have played a key role in coastal ecosystems: the eggs are eaten by shore birds, juveniles are food for sea turtles, and adults aerate the ocean floor through their digging activity.

We believe Horseshoe crabs serve another important function: as substrate for many invertebrate species such as mussels, barnacles and snails. Many marine species require hard substrates to live on, and such substrates are historically rare on the predominantly sandy beaches of the Eastern US.
In more recent times, docks and boats may offer new opportunities for intertidal species - but what about animals that do not like the tidal influence? Are there even species living on Horseshoe crabs that we have not discovered yet?

Help us decipher who lives on Horseshoe crabs! Take clear pictures of Horseshoe crabs and their when you see them on the beach, and send them to us. Just let us know when and where you saw the crab. That's it.

In return, we will post the best pictures on our website and explain every epibiont that you discovered on the Horseshoe crab. New species will be featured on the site, and we would like to name our most successful discoverers.

With your help, we will be able to address the following questions:
Which region has the highest diversity of Horseshoe crab epibionts? When are the crabs found the most? The least?
Moreover, we will build a valuable resource for school classes, beach walkers and everybody else who ever wanted to know: What is that thing sitting on this Horseshoe crab?

Horseshoe crabs come to the beaches to mate and lay eggs when the tides are highest. This happens at full and new moons. This means you will see Horseshoe crabs most likely around the following dates:
Thursday, April 25 (Full Moon)
Friday, May 10 (New Moon)
Saturday, May 25 (Full Moon)
Saturday, June 8 (New Moon)
Sunday, June 23 (Full Moon)
Saturday. July 6 (New Moon)
Monday, July 22 (Full Moon)

The Roadkill Project was launched in 2009 to help determine how significant the threat of roadkill mortality is to Tasmanian devil populations, particularly those populations already decimated by Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). The Roadkill Project aims to continue to monitor the threat of roadkill mortality and the spread of DFTD and to try to reduce Tasmanian devil roadkill. Involving the public helps to greatly extend our limited resources.

Anyone who is using Tasmanian roads can help by reporting any Tasmanian devil roadkill they see.

Young people and adults collect information on stream health and post biological, chemical and physical data, photos and videos on an interactive map. This provides information to the public, to scientists and to conservation groups about local water quality. The Creek Freaks website includes data forms and activity guides to get started monitoring aquatic macroinvertebrates (stream insects and crustaceans), water chemistry, and to take visual observations and physical measurements of the stream and streamside vegetation.

You’ll learn your dog’s cognitive style by playing fun, science-based games –- an experience that gives you the insight you need to make the most of your relationship with your best friend.

A key aspect of the Dognition methodology is our use of Citizen Science – research that can be conducted by everyone, not just people with Ph.D.s. By gathering this data we can begin to understand more about all dogs, much more quickly and on a broader scale than if scientists had to conduct this research themselves.

Where are the invasive species in Maine? Where aren’t they? Students, educators, citizens, and scientists are working together to find out.

As part of the Vital Signs community you can help steward the 32,000 miles of rivers and streams, 6,000 lakes and ponds, 5,000 miles of coastline, and 17 million acres of forest that are threatened by invasive species.

Together we are using scientific tools and habits of mind to look for native and invasive species in local habitats. We are sharing what we find and do not find online. We are contributing to a greater understanding of our shared environment.

By just taking photos and observing spiders, you can help the Explorit Science Center learn about which climates certain spiders live in and track the distribution of spiders over time.

Join the Explorit’s Community Science Project by finding and recording spiders in your home or neighborhood (as many as you can!). Use your camera or smart phone to take a photo of the spider and submit it online to add to our geographical database.

Spiders have long been thought of a useful natural method of pest control, but how will expected temperature changes or other environmental changes affect the spider’s usefulness as pest-killers and their distribution?

We don't yet know how climate change will impact spiders, and in turn impact agriculture such as crops and farms- but when we understand where spiders are living today, we will be better able to predict what may happen to spiders and agriculture in the future.

Landmark Trees of India is a documentation, geography, and monitoring project with a focus on famous, remarkable, and heritage trees of India.
India is a country of superlative population, superlative biodiversity, and superlative environmental variety. These landmark trees can teach us about the landscapes, biodiversity, and people of India and the other nations of the world.

Marine Metre Squared (MM2) is an easy way to survey the intertidal community. Monitor a 1m x 1m square patch of your local rocky shore once every season by recording the animals and plants that live there.

Take fun in special scientific studies and fun educational challenges such as hunting for pest species, looking for evidence of animals breeding, and measuring seaweed growth.

Help others identify their new finds with the online forum. Submit your own questions and encourage others around New Zealand to take part.

The perfect project for families looking for holiday activities, schools and community groups looking for ways to engage with and improve their local environments.

The project website and database will be launched during Seaweek (2 - 10 March 2013).

Prepare to get wet and muddy for science! We're looking for citizen scientists in North Carolina to help us learn more about the large, charismatic aquatic insects known as water sticks.

Simply find a body of water in your area, follow the protocol, and submit your data! We'll teach you how to identify the water sticks you find and how to cheaply build any equipment you don't already have (you'll have most of it). And if you don't find anything in the body of water you choose, no problem! Every bit of information helps and anything you can share is useful. With YOUR help, we can discover more about the seasonality, habitat preferences, and distribution of water sticks - together!

uBiome is the world's first effort to map the human microbiome through citizen science.

What's the microbiome? The microbiome are the bacteria that live on and within us. It sounds kind of funny, but all of us are actually covered in helpful germs. Many conditions – from diabetes to depression, asthma to autism -- have been found to relate to the microbiome.

uBiome brings this cutting edge technology directly to consumers for the first time. The more data we collect, the more we can learn about this important area of research. We've been featured so far in Wired, Venture Beat, the Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, BoingBoing, and more.

Magpie Mapper is a smartphone app for recording observations of Magpies, one of the most fascinating and striking birds in the United Kindgom. When you see a magpie, simply log it on the app and your data will be used in our research into how birds are distributed throughout our towns cities and countryside.

With their long tails and impressive black and white plumage, magpies are unmistakable. Magpies are so ingrained in our folklorethat people often greet them with "Hello Mr Magpie!".

Now you can digitally salute a magpie with the Magpie Mapper app!

The Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles County, is partnering with Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) to share data and learn more about L.A. butterflies and moths. Help us find and photograph them in Los Angeles.

We know there are 237 species recorded for L.A, County, but how many can you find?

Get to know the nature of YOUR world! The Fairbanks Community of Observers is to encourage greater public clarity around environmental indicators of climate change in Vermont and northern New Hampshire. Using the website developed by the Fairbanks Museum, we'll collect your quantitative data focused on the life cycles of specific birds, butterflies and wildflowers that are sensitive to environmental change as well as seasonal weather data that is characteristic to our region.

The Community of Observers is for individuals, families, clubs, groups and schools. It is designed to encourage citizen scientists to gain a deeper understanding of the cycles and patterns that characterize our region through the seasons, and how the habitats that depend on these cycles might be affected by global climate shifts.

The Bodleian Libraries are enlisting the help of the public in order to improve access to their music collections. Over four thousand digitized scores, mostly piano music from the nineteenth century, many of which have illustrated covers, have now been made available online.

By describing these images, you will not only be helping to provide access to this valuable but hitherto 'hidden' collection, you will also be facilitating future research into popular music of the period and the wider social function which it performed during the Victorian age.

Video games have the potential to do more than entertain. Citizen Sort is taking advantage of this potential by designing video games that make doing science fun.

Citizen Sort is a research project at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University in New York. Students from Syracuse University drew, colored, programmed and coded two unique citizen science video games. They are Forgotten Island and Happy Match.

Happy Match is a twist on the classic matching game. Players will classify photos of animal, plant and insect species that scientists took live in the field. Each round of the game has a different question and players will drag the animal, plant or insect photo into one of the photo answers along the bottom. Scientists wrote the questions in Happy Match based on information they want to know. By classifying the photos, you'll these help scientists as they study the natural world.

Forgotten Island is a point and click adventure game. Players take on the role of a lost adventurer with a secret past. As the player explores the island they meet a suspicious robot spouting orders to re-classify the falling photographs of plant, animal or insect species. The player will also solve puzzles and explore diverse locations from icy peaks to fiery volcanoes.The more classifications a player does, the more money they earn buy items and solve the mystery of Forgotten Island.

Citizen Sort is partially supported by the US National Science Foundation under grant SOCS 09-68470.

SatCam lets you capture observations of sky and ground conditions with a smart phone app at the same time that an Earth observation satellite is overhead.

When you capture a SatCam observation and submit it to our server, it helps us to check the quality of the cloud products that we create from the satellite data. In return, we send you the satellite image that was captured at your location, anywhere in the world! SatCam supports the Terra, Aqua, and Suomi NPP satellites.

SatCam was developed at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison .

Just listen to a few laughs and tell us whether they are real or posed.

The results will help scientists from University College London to understand the way we perceive and react to different sounds. The experiment should take about 10 minutes.

The brown marmorated stink bug is an invasive insect species that has become an damaging pest of a wide variety of fruit, vegetable, grain, and ornamental crops. This stink bug species also enters homes and can be a nuisance pest. Our webpage allows citizens to report the presence and severity of this stink bug species in their home, yard, farm, or commercial nursery.

This DIY mapping tool was the first developed by Public Lab, as part of the Grassroots Mapping project. Citizens use helium-filled balloons and digital cameras to generate high resolution “satellite” maps of areas such as in the Gulf Coast and Gowanus Canal. Although this tool has been in use for two years, components of the kit -- kite and balloon design, the rig, the camera -- continue to evolve as they are adopted in new places and adapted for new purposes. Besides the aerial mapping tools, Public Lab has also developed MapKnitter.org, an online tool for stitching aerial images into maps.

A spectrometer is a ubiquitous tool for scientists to identify unknown materials, like oil spill residue or coal tar in urban waterways. But they cost thousands of dollars and are hard to use -- so the Public Lab community has designed its own.

This open hardware kit costs only $35, but has a range of more than 400-900 nanometers, and a resolution of as high as 3 nm. A spectrometer is essentially a tool to measure the colors absorbed by a material. You can construct this one yourself from a piece of a DVD-R, black paper, a VHS box, and an HD USB webcam.

Public Lab has also created open source software to collect, analyze, compare, and share calibrated spectral data. We've even made an experimental version which converts your cellphone into a spectrometer.

Public Lab community members have used this new tool to identify dyes in "free and clear" laundry detergent, to test grow lamps, and to analyze wines.

Now we need your help in collecting data to build a Wikipedia-style library of open source spectra, and to refine and improve sample collection and analysis techniques. We imagine a kind of "SHAZAM for materials" which can help to investigate chemical spills, diagnose crop diseases, identify contaminants in household products, and even analyze olive oil, coffee, and homebrew beer.

The U.S. Geological Survey is asking volunteers to help map man-made structures and facilities, such as schools and fire stations, in the state of Colorado then, in a few months, the United State. Using an internet mapping application, volunteers can help the USGS update The National Map by correcting or adding information about structures nearby.

"Correctly locating and identifying fire stations, police stations, schools, and hospitals not only makes USGS maps more useful, but can literally save a life," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt.

This smartphone app will help you explore habitats in your area and easily monitor wildlife populations by logging locations, photos, and responding to form questions all with the ease of your smartphone.

Roadkill smartphone app for citizen scientists that will help you monitor wildlife roadkill patterns in your area by logging locations, photos, and responding to form questions all with the ease of your smartphone.

Australia's national crowdsourced koala map, plotting the locations of koala populations in the wild, points of impact, causes of death and injury. Become a member of KoalaTracker.com.au to view the map, search the database, see the library of member images available for use in non-commercial projects. Learn more about the koala and how you can really do something to save it before it is too late.

The chloroplasts inside plant cells appear to "clump" together during bacterial infection; this can be devastating for plants and seriously compromise crop yields. We need your help to classify plant cell images by their "clumpiness" in order to further this research.

Helping us to classify the images will give insights into the progression of bacterial infection in plant cells.

ZomBee Watch is a citizen science project sponsored by the San Francisco State University Department of Biology, the San Francisco State University Center for Computing for Life Sciences and the Natural History Museum of LA County. ZomBee Watch was initiated as a follow-up to the discovery that the Zombie Fly Apocephalus borealis is parasitizing honey bees in California and possibly other areas of North America.

ZomBee Watch has three main goals.
1. To determine where in North America the Zombie Fly Apocephalus borealis is parasitizing honey bees.
2. To determine how often honey bees leave their hives at night, even if they are not parasitized by the Zombie Fly.
3. To engage citizen scientists in making a significant contribution to knowledge about honey bees and to become better observers of nature.

We need your help finding out where honey bees are being parasitized by the Zombie Fly and how big a threat the fly is to honey bees. So far, the Zombie Fly has been found parasitizing honey bees in California and South Dakota. We are teaming up with citizen scientists (like you!) to determine if the fly has spread to honey bees across North America.

We need your help to better understand dragonfly migration in North America. Although it spans three countries and has been documented since the 1880s, North American dragonfly migration is still poorly understood, and much remains to be learned about migratory cues, flight pathways, and the southern limits of overwintering grounds. Become part of an international network of citizen scientists and help monitor the spring and fall movements of the 5 main migratory species in North America, or report on these species throughout the year at a pond or wetland of your choice.

Love tigers? Then connect to wild lives: follow real wild tigers and their cubs, while we keep an eye on them in their jungle homes.

Using cutting-edge ID technology, everyone, guides, naturalists, photographers, conservationists and visitors can all help with your photos and sightings, helping us keep an eye on their last strongholds, and supplying unending dramas in the lives of our wild tigers.

The Tiny Terrors Project needs volunteers to monitor the invasive insect species of adelgids that attack both hemlocks and Fraser firs (the most popular Christmas Tree in North America).

Although barely visible to the naked eye, adelgids and their effects on trees can be detected by citizen scientists. Tiny Terrors is calling on you to help them identify both health and infected trees all across the Eastern United States.

The project runs through the Spring 2013. Data collection is easy once you have identified an area that contains hemlock or Fraser fir, and you can submit your observations online.

Not only are both tree species valued for their beauty, but because of their numbers, they provide wildlife habitat and are an important source of lumber. Your help can help researchers find potentially resistant trees and aid in developing genetically resistant trees to restore forests.

The Tiny Terrors Project is based out of the North Carolina State University Forest Entomology Lab and was created for the Alliance for Saving Threatened Trees.

The Reinforcers is a new crowdsourcing project sponsored by [ ] to encourage the public to take an active role in taking care of their local infrastructures supported by concrete (bridges, parking garages, tunnels, overpasses, etc).
[blurb about corrosive steel, etc...why this effort is important; how it can help] [links to existing educational materials and activities.]

Simple upload pictures to report suspicious-looking concrete structures in your neighborhood to help build a map to identify structures in need of review.

Your reports will be shared with the [xyz] who will review each picture and report those of concern to [ xyy] for further analysis.

FreeGeek is a nationwide movement that harnesses the power of volunteerism to recycle, rebuilt, and re-sell used computers for the economically underprivileged.

Volunteers receive comprehensive training about how to take apart and rebuild computers as well as how to test and install operating systems.

No formal background in science or computers required, all ages welcome!

Adventurers and Scientist for Conservation is a unique initiative that helps create working reationships between scientists and adventure athletes to perform some truly unique research. Projects have been created all over the world and by groups of all kinds. The project even provides training for adventurers to become adventure-scientists.

The exciting benefits from these projects are numerous. Adventurers benefit by contributing to meaningful conservation research in areas that they visit. Additionally, scientists benefit from attaining inexpensive data that would have been previously hard or impossible to acquire. By no means, however are these adventure research projects limited to avid adventurers and professional scientists. Programs can be created anywhere for any age group. The goal of the project is to train and inspire the next generation of citizen scientists. In short, Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation will help you create a project, recruit participants, and start an Adventure Science project near you!

Leafsnap is an exciting new mobile app that is designed to help citizen scientists identify and locate tree species from photographs and ultimately help the scientific world develop a better understanding of biodiversity. Developed by Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution, Leafsnap contains a unique visual recognition software that helps users identify species from the photographs taken straight from your iphone or ipad.

The app is completely free and will be the first in a series of apps that takes advantage of the newly developed recognition software. The app also contains high-resolution photos of the leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds, and bark of all sorts of species, and is a wonderful visual field guide. Currently, the species of New York City and Washington D.C. are supported, but this list will be expanded in the future.

The app is very user friendly and easy to use. With each photo of a leaf you take, the photo, species information, and geo-location is all automatically sent to the Leafsnap database for scientists to study species distribution.

This Leafsnap website shows the tree species included so far, a visual map of the collectors that have recently contributed, and more information on the project. Contributing to citizen science couldn’t be easier than with this visually engaging app! Get snapping and identify a tree near you!

Invasive species are a growing global concern because of their negative impacts on ecosystem functions and biodiversity. American shad are an andaromous (ascend rivers from the ocean to spawn) fish native to the Atlantic coast of North America that were deliberately introduced to the Sacramento River, CA, in 1871. The species has now spread to additional Pacific coastal rivers, and have dramatically increased in abundance in the some systems like the Columbia River.

Despite their prevelance in the Pacific northwest, basic information about the ecological effects of shad on native species remain unknown. A first step towards gaining an understanding of the species impacts requires knowing where they continue to be found.

The Brook Trout Pond Survey Project is an effort to recruit volunteers to identify previously-undocumented wild brook trout populations in remote Maine ponds.

Maine brook trout are a special resource, and we need to know where they are before we can protect and manage them appropriately. The information collected by volunteer anglers will help inform future fisheries management decisions.

The Brook Trout Pond Survey Project is a collaborative effort by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine Council of Trout Unlimited, and Maine Audubon.

eButterfly is a citizen science project that helps document butterflies in Canada. By creating a user profile and documenting observed butterflies, citizens can help scientists better understand butterfly distribution in Canada. Users can also track which butterflies they have observed on a dynamic map application, and share photos with the eButterfly community.

The 2,045 eButterfly records of over 170 species help the Canadian Facility for Ecoinformatics Research at the University of Ottawa's Department of Biology better understand how butterflies adapt to environmental change. Eventually, the data you collect will help contribute to the preservation of Canada’s great biodiversity.

Do you have an Astronomy Story to tell? Create interactive, narrated tours about your favorite astronomical objects in WorldWide Telescope, and share them with the world.

Solitary bees and wasps in your own backyard!!!

Native Buzz is a citizen science project created by the University of Florida (UF) Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab. Our goal is to learn more about the nesting preferences, diversity and distribution of our native solitary bees and wasps, share the information gained and provide a forum for those interested in participating in the science and art of native beekeeping (and wasp-keeping!).

Here at University of Florida Native Buzz you can keep track of your own native buzz nest site and see the results of other participant’s nest sites.

Osprey Watch is a project of the Center for Conservation Biology for birdwatchers across the nation to help identify osprey nests and observe osprey behavior. The project hopes to acquire data across a large enough spatial scale in order to address three pressing issues associated with aquatic ecosystems: climate change, depletion of fish stocks, and environmental contaminants. Ospreys are great indicators of the health of aquatic ecosystems as they are sensitive to small changes in fish populations and water quality.

OspreyWatch has almost 500 Osprey Watchers monitoring almost 800 nests across the nation and in Europe. Ospreys are incredible birds of prey and viewing them in the wild can be an amazing experience. And it may be easier than you think. Many osprey nest in man made objects and might even be right outside your backdoor.

So grab a camera, some binoculars, and locate a nest near you to add photos and descriptions to OspreyWatch’s interactive map. You can even find other nests in your area and help monitor and add updates to nesting activity.

The aim of PHOWN is to study variation of colony sizes of weavers, to map their breeding distribution, and to study these aspects in relation to climate change. This is achieved with the help of citizen scientists submitting photos of weaver nests or colonies.

Some feral populations exist throughout the world, and may be included in PHOWN. Species include the true weavers, bishops and widows, queleas, social weavers, sparrow weavers, buffalo weavers, malimbes and fodies. Sparrows are not included.

Weavers are often common species, and often found near human habitation. This makes them easy to study. Some species are of conservation concern and for some the nest has not even been described yet!

FieldScope is a community web-mapping tool that promotes student engagement as citizen scientists and involves them in learning through mapping. By combining easy data integration with powerful mapping visualization, FieldScope is on the cutting edge of community mapping.

The application is accessed online and is requires no installation. Students are able to upload field data photos and other media as well as collaborate with other students and scientists, and perform analysis on existing data. There are many rich projects to choose from, including mapping water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, investigating watershed dynamics, and mapping rivers and streams in the National Parks.

With students able to contribute and interact alongside scientists, meaningful science is sure to happen!

Help scientist improve maps of Mars and participate in other research tasks to help NASA manage the large amount of data from the Red Planet.

Users create Martian profiles and become "citizens" of the planet. In the map room, citizens can then earn Martian credits by helping place satellite photos on Mars’s surface, counting craters, and even helping the rovers Spirit and Opportunity by tagging photos with descriptions.

The highly interactive website is rich in content and contains other informational videos and mapping applications for citizens to tour Mars and get to know every nook and cranny of its rocky surface.

Become a Martian, explore Mars, have fun!

Spy on nature, and contribute to science. Share photos and observations through SciSpy and you're contributing to research initiatives that rely on amateur participation. Created by Science Channel (Discovery), SciSpy enlists paticipants to document the natural world of their backyards, parks, cities, and towns. Photos and observation data are tagged and stamped with date, time and location information and will hopefully provide helpful information to track migrations, changes in the natural environment, seasonal trends and more.

THE BROAD PICTURE: The aim of MammalMAP is to update the distribution records of all African mammal species. Through collaborations with professional scientists, conservation organisations, wildlife authorities and citizen scientists across Africa, we consolidate all reliable and identifiable evidence (camera trap records, photographs) of current mammal locations into an open-access digital database. The database software automatically generates online distribution maps of all recorded species which are instantly visible and searchable. The information consolidated within MammalMAP will not only yield crucial information for species conservation policies and landscape conservation policies, but provides an excellent platform for educating the public about African mammals and their conservation challenges.

WHY MAMMALMAP IS NECESSARY: In Africa, our knowledge of mammal distribution patterns is based largely on historical records. However, the last three centuries have seen extensive human-modification of African landscapes with the associated conversion, compression and fragmentation of natural land. With further land development presenting a likely reality for the future, the effectiveness of mammal conservation efforts depends on ecological records being updated so that they accurately reflect mammal distribution patterns in the 21st Century. With MammalMAP we plan to conduct these ecological updates over the coming years, by mapping the current distribution of mammal species (including marine mammals and small mammals) across Africa.

HOW MAMMALMAP CONTRIBUTES TO CONSERVATION: The conservation benefits of this research are multiple. First, the comparison of these updated distribution records with both historical and future records will enable the detection of species’ distribution changes in response to human-related and climate-related habitat changes. These change detections will assist the guidance of continent-wide conservation policies and decision making processes. Second, the research will promote and facilitate interdisciplinary and international collaboration amongst scientists and conservation practitioners, with potential benefits to the advancement of conservation science. Finally, both the project input stage (data collection) and output stage (data dissemination) will offer interactive, dynamic and widely applicable education tools suitable for both formal and informal education sectors.

THE WHERE AND THE HOW OF MAMMALMAP: The area of interest for MammalMAP is the whole of Africa. To achieve this we collaborate with scientists, conservation organisations, wildlife authorities and citizen scientists across the continent. Our methods involve consolidating evidence of mammal occurrence in a given location (camera trap records, photographs and other reliable records) into a digital database hosted by the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town. In time, we will use the records in the database to generate distribution maps for all recorded species, in the same way that the ADU has done for birds, reptiles, frogs and butterflies.

Wildlife Sightings is a free service that lets anyone to publish, organize, and manage their own wildlife sightings data.

Wildlife Sightings helps eliminate the technical barriers and costs to non-profit organizations and educators wishing to conduct their own wildlife surveys. That way, nature lovers, conservation groups, eco-tourism business, and educators can focus their energy on what they love most -- citizen science!

By documenting the biodiversity around you, you can enjoy nature and aid conservation efforts at the same time.

Temperature Blast is a Maryland Science Center C3 Citizen Science project designed to introduce participants to methods of studying climate. Citizen Scientists collect live and archive Weatherbug data from select stations in the Baltimore region to compare temperatures and log this data for scientists.

Scientists at the Baltimore Ecosystem Study then use this data to test models of temperature patterns across the city to aid in urban planning. This data illustrates the Urban Heat Island effect on the area, a phenomenon classified by temperature differences between a metropolitan area and more rural landscape nearby. An Urban Heat Island is not an effect of climate change, but rather of our activity shaping the environment around us.

Using either this website or our Smartphone application (available free of charge for both iPhone and Android) Citizen Scientists submit temperature data from six weather stations in the Baltimore region. The purpose of this is to collect a stream of simultaneous data from multiple sites in and around the metropolitan area. This data, along with first-hand location observations, will be used to understand the Urban Heat Island Effect in Baltimore.

Anyone with access to the Internet and/or a Smartphone can be a Citizen Scientist and participate in Temperature Blast!? While the data obtained from the program is relevant to the Baltimore metropolitan region, there is no geographic or age restriction for Citizen Scientists.

In order to conduct a large-scale survey of urban spiders, we need the help of the public. We are asking people to collect spiders in their homes and gardens, fill out a simple data sheet about their collection, and send or bring the spiders and forms to the Natural History Museum.

In spite of their importance and abundance, we do not know much about the spiders in Los Angeles. There are no truly large collections of urban spiders from this area, as most collectors concentrate on studying natural areas.

As an important international port, new species of spiders from various parts of the world are always being accidentally introduced into the Los Angeles area, and some of these have established breeding populations. We need to know how widespread these introduced species have become, and how they have interacted with the native spiders. Also, we want to know how urbanization and the loss of natural habitat has affected populations and distributions of naturally occurring spiders.

Students and teachers will gain hands on experience undertaking field work led by a team of experienced scientists from CSIRO. A comprehensive website is available (teachwild.org.au) to further student learning and to provide a unique, protected environment in which students and teachers can connect with other schools across the country to share their experiences. Also, students can continue their monitoring program without the assistance of our staff.

Your school will be provided with access to the Australian Biosecurity Intelligence Network (ABIN) and our Teach Wild secure community space. This community space will be kept up to date with innovative information about marine debris.

The activities have been developed to ensure part of the key learning areas in Science, Maths and Geography in the Australian Curriculum are achieved for years 6‐12.

The Black Squirrel Project aims to gather data on the geographical range of the black squirrel within the United Kingdom.

Black squirrels originate from North America and are the same species as grey squirrels. The only difference is that they have a piece of DNA missing on a gene that produces pigment, which means they can only produce black fur.

You can make an important contribution to the project by submitting your own squirrel sightings (grey, black or red) and also learn more about the history and genetics of the black squirrel.

The Your Wild Life team needs citizen scientists to go boldly where few have gone before -- into the life-filled ecosystem of your house!

The species in and around our households are interesting intrinsically. They are the ones we interact with most often, and they are the species among which evolution is likely proceeding most rapidly. These species living on and beside us are also interesting for another very important reason: their presence and absence may directly influence our health and wellbeing.

Yet curiously scientists have dedicated relatively little attention to understanding the ecology and evolution of the species that live alongside us, be they bacteria, fungi, or insects…until now.

With simple sampling devices, statistical wherewithal, and the ability to detect invisible species using genetic methods, scientists now have the tools and techniques necessary for domestic exploration. But they're missing one very important member of our team: YOU.

With an easy-to-use sampling kit, you can help research test a handful of hypotheses related to microbial wild life in and around you home.

The Your Wild Life team needs citizen scientists to share observations and photos of camel crickets in your home!

To date, their network of keen citizen observers has reported a preponderance of camel crickets in their basements, garages and garden sheds. Some interesting patterns in cricket distribution have emerged, and the researchers have learned that a Japanese camel cricket is way more common in the US than previously thought.

Have you seen one of these leggy beasts? Submit your observations today!

Mountain Watch is an ongoing trail-side citizen science program that tracks reproductive (flower/fruit development) plant phenology of a small set of alpine and forest plants In the Eastern Appalachian mountains and other Northeast areas. The program has had over 9,000 plant phenophase observations made by volunteers since 2005, and a similar number of observations made by trained staff. This citizen science program is one component of the alpine ecology and climate science research being conducted by the Appalachian Mountain Club in the Northeast mountains.

Bumble bees are important pollinators, and science needs YOUR help to conserve them. You can contribute to our knowledge of bumble bees and their lives all over the world. Your contribution will tell us about which bumble bees live where, the flowers they visit, and when they're active during the year.

The photo group is administered by Athena Rayne Anderson, a doctoral candidate in Ecology at the University of Georgia, and author of the website.

By 1900, Trumpeter Swans were extirpated from their nesting and wintering areas in Central and Eastern North America. Their historic migrations to southerly wintering sites were totally destroyed. In recent decades wild nesting populations of Trumpeters have been successfully restored in several northerly states and Ontario. Most swans now winter near their northern breeding areas, but an unknown number are pioneering southward where they are beginning to establish use of more southerly wintering sites.

Little is known regarding the numbers and groupings of southward migrants, the location and characteristics of the sites they are pioneering, the duration of use, or problems they may be encountering. By providing information through Trumpeter Watch, observers can help document the changing distribution of wintering Trumpeter Swans and help identify potential new southerly wintering sites.

Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate.

Humans shed about 1.5 million microscopic skin cells, and ten times as many bacterial cells, every hour. These cells are transferred to numerous surfaces in a home via touch. What type of biological impression are we leaving on our home environments? If you are moving to a new home soon, then we need your help to find out.

We are looking for 20 people (four individual bachelors or bachelorettes between 18-30, four couples between 25-65, and two families with couples between 35-45 and two children 15 years old or younger) to participate in our study. Those relocating within the Chicagoland area are preferred, but all are welcome to apply. Households with cats, dogs, or uncaged birds are not eligible.

The goal of this study is to collect and examine the unique biological material shed by individuals throughout the normal course of a day to determine how rapidly their unique community of bacteria - called a microbiome - is established in their new home environment.

This study examines microbiota associated with the hands, feet, and nose of each individual, as well as those present on the most-often used doorknobs, light switches, floors, and countertops. You collect the data! ***This material is collected using swabs every other day for two weeks prior to moving, and four weeks following a move into a new home.*** All collection and storage materials will be provided to you. The research team will also ask you to note your cleaning schedule and some basic information about guests and visitors to the home for one month after moving in.

The results of this study will demonstrate the way in which we interact with the living surfaces of our home, and the fundamental impact humans have on the composition of microbes in their houses. The experimental design allows for a detailed examination of variables that make up the home environment, such as temperature and moisture, and how they favor different types of microbes shed by the human inhabitants.

Researchers at the Trumpeter Swan Society need volunteers to report their sightings of Trumpeter Swans in the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain regions.

Why? By 1900 Trumpeter Swans were extirpated from their nesting and wintering areas in Central and Eastern North America. Their historic migrations to southerly wintering sites were totally destroyed. In recent decades wild nesting populations of Trumpeters have been successfully restored in several northerly states and Ontario. An unknown number are pioneering southward where they are beginning to establish use of more southerly wintering sites. Little is known regarding the numbers and groupings of southward migrants, the location and characteristics of the sites they are pioneering, the duration of use, or problems they may be encountering.

By providing information through Trumpeter Watch, observers can help document the changing distribution of wintering Trumpeter Swans and help increase this vulnerable swan population.

WeSolver was created to define and address the most important problems that face human beings. It was made for everyone, a gift to the solvers in the world and anyone can help in any way they are willing to.

There will be many ways to participate in the site itself from creating, reading, promoting, linking, sharing and policing content. WeSolver will be open and transparent to everyone while respecting any individuals wish to remain anonymous should they so choose. Hopefully people will find new connections and relationships between seemingly different problems and solutions inspiring experimentation and innovative approaches.

How can we possibly solve the many problems that face us as a species without using every available asset to do so? How can we leave this work in the hands of experts or governments or any other organization to solve on their own? It would be foolish to ignore the potential solutions which come when everyone is invited to the table. Our common future depends on it.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources needs your help to ensure that Greater Prairie Chickens remain in Iowa. All you have to do is submit your sightings.

Greater Praire Chickens were once abundant in central and eastern United States; however, their numbers have dwindled since the 1800s.

Project organizers are looking for information about how prairie chickens are distributed in Southern Iowa regions, including Adair, Madison, Adams, Union, Clarke, Taylor, Ringgold, Decatur and Wayne Counties.

Marine scientists need your help to categorize the complex calls of Killer Whales (Orcas) and Pilot Whales and to understand what the calls mean.

Whales and dolphins make sophisticated sounds that play a critical role in communicating, orienting in the ocean environment, and locating food. Scientists have already begun to categorize Killer Whale calls; however, Pilot Whale calls are much less studied.

Project organizers have assembled recordings of two species from across the world's oceans and seas. Citizen scientists simply listen to individual whale calls and identify potential matching calls. Your contribution will help researchers understand what the whales are saying. You can also help discover whether certain calls are made by an individual, one group, or across broad areas.

Now's the time to set up your American Kestrel nest box! This bird's population is experiencing long-term declines in North America, and existing data are insufficient for understanding the causes. The American Kestrel Partnership is an international research network designed to generate data, models, and conservation plans for kestrel habitat and populations at large spatial scales. The Partnership unites the data-generating capacity of citizen scientists with the data-analysis expertise of professional scientists by promoting research collaboration among citizen scientists, universities, government agencies, conservation organizations, schools, and businesses. The Partnership also fosters long-term conservation values and appreciation of science by engaging the public with hands-on research experiences.

Help NASA find life on Mars by exploring the bottom of the lakes of British Columbia, Canada.

The Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) has been investigating the underwater environment with DeepWorker submersible vehicles since 2008. Now with MAPPER, you can work side-by-side with NASA scientists to explore the bottom of these lakes from the perspective of a DeepWorker pilot.

The PLRP team makes use of DeepWorker subs to explore and document freshwater carbonate formations known as microbialites that thrive in Pavilion and Kelly Lake. Many scientists believe that a better understanding of how and where these rare microbialite formations develop will lead to deeper insights into where signs of life may be found on Mars and beyond. To investigate microbialite formation in detail, terabytes of video footage and photos of the lake bottom are recorded by PLRP's DeepWorker sub pilots. This data must be analyzed to determine what types of features can be found in different parts of the lake. Ultimately, detailed maps can be generated to help answer questions like "how does microbialite texture and size vary with depth?" and "why do microbialites grow in certain parts of the lake but not in others?". But before these questions can be answered, all the data must be analyzed.

The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count (WMTC) is a citizen-science project designed to census the size of these winter colonies. As the name implies, it is conducted over a two-week period around the (American) Thanksgiving weekend in November by a large number of volunteers. The project is coordinated by several individuals including Dennis Frey (professor emeritus, Cal Poly) and Mia Monroe (National Parks Service & Coordinator of California Monarch Campaign, Xerces Society).

Partner with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to monitor turkeys in the wild. The DEC seeks wildlife lovers in every county to help them observe and count young male and female turkeys (also known as Jakes and Jennies) in August 2012. This survey sheds light on the interaction between weather, environment and flock vitality. It also helps determine fall hunting potential.

Count birds within a 15-foot area, anywhere in the Western states, for one hour on Thanksgiving Day; you decide the hour and the location.
Last year 431 counters in the eleven Western States and Alaska made 440 counts. They tallied 161 species of birds (plus a lot of mammals and other things, too). The top five species counted in these states were House Sparrow (1), Dark-eyed Junco (2), House Finch (3), Black-capped Chickadee (4) and European Starling (5). As predicted, the Pine Siskin dropped out of the top five last season, but should be more numerous this year. Participants should send in a report even if no birds were seen during the hour.

Harsh winter conditions significantly affect young turkeys. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation seeks wildlife lovers in every county to help them observe and count young male and female turkeys (also known as Jakes and Jennies), from January 2012 through March 2012.

N.H. Fish and Game's winter wild turkey flock survey invites you to help record sightings of wild turkey flocks in New Hampshire from January to mid-March each year. This effort helps biologists assess the impact of winter weather on our turkey population!

Creek Watch is an iPhone application created by IBM Research that enables you to help monitor the health of your local watershed. Whenever you pass by a waterway, spend a few seconds using the Creek Watch application to snap a picture and report how much water and trash you see. We aggregate the data and share it with water control boards to help them track pollution and manage water resources. You can use the map on the left to explore the data that people have contributed, or see recent contributions as a table.

The Creek Watch App uses four pieces of data:

The amount of water: empty, some, or full.
The rate of flow: still, moving slowly, or moving fast.
The amount of trash: none, some (a few pieces), or a lot (10 or more pieces).
A picture of the waterway.

This data helps watershed groups, agencies and scientists track pollution, manage water resources, and plan environmental programs.

Creek Watch is a project developed at IBM Research - Almaden in consultation with the California State Water Resources Control Board's Clean Water Team.

The iPhone application is now available free on the iTunes store, so you can get started contributing data!

Constellation is a platform for different aerospace related projects that need intensive computational power. The platform supports the efforts of participating projects by providing Distributed Computation capability using BOINC (Berkeley Open Interface for Network Computing).

Constellation will send work-units of attached projects to volunteering, idle PCs where the units are processed. The combined power of all volunteering users will help to solve important scientific tasks in fields from astronomy to aerospace-engineering beginning from student up to university projects. The bottom line is to benefit from the generosity of the volunteers and to benefit from the accumulation of different projects, like sharing programming knowledge in distributed computing and influencing the others' simulation by its own solutions.

The platform is an open space for anyone, who is an air and space enthusiast and wants to donate idle computing time or even skill for a sub-project on platform. Applications for sub-project are welcome!

If you are a SCUBA diver, we ask that you send us data logged by your dive computer, so we can put it to scientific use! Millions of divers dive all around the world everyday, with state-of-the-art dive computers that log temperature as a function of depth. As a citizen scientist scuba diver, you can help put this information to the use of oceanographers and marine scientists. Send us your dive site location & an export of your dive computer log; or just write up in an email the information you record in your logbook (like surface temperature, bottom temperature, date, time, location, dive computer brand)!

The goal of this project is to channel temperature & location data from divers to scientists. The data collected will be processed by graduate students and will be made available online on our website for anyone to download.

My Invasive allows the public to report sightings of invasive species. You can take a picture of the animal or plant and upload it along with details about the location of your sighting. Sightings are plotted on a map to help scientists track the geographical distributions of invasive species like Giant African Snails, weeds, and insects.

GreenprintMaps presents the urban forest of the Greenprint region – Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Sutter, and Yuba Counties. Everyone is invited to join us in mapping all of our trees – in parks, on streets, at schools, in parking lots and at home. You can find trees, add trees, ask a question about a tree, and calculate the value of a tree. GreenprintMaps is fun and easy for everyone. Cities can better manage their trees, planners can protect trees, scientists can combat tree pests and diseases, and homeowners can share their tree stories. We hope you’ll help us grow the best regional urban forest in the nation.

The goal of the Spotted Wing Drosophila*Volunteer Monitoring Network (SWD*VMN) is to the track the movement and seasonal biology of the spotted wing drosophila (SWD, Drosophila suzukii).

SWD is a recently detected invasive species in the United States and is a potentially significant pest of berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries) and other crops. SWD has rapidly spread throughout the US, and we want to help farmers and gardeners understand WHERE and WHEN this new insect is active.

We are developing classroom tools to use SWD in teaching exercises and are seeking

Play your part and help discover our Universe!
Have a computer? Want to help astronomers make awesome discoveries and understand our Universe? Then theSkyNet needs you!
Your computer is bored. It has spare computing power nearly all the time that could be used to do something cool. So why not let it?
By connecting 100s and 1000s of computers together through the Internet, it's possible to simulate a single machine capable of doing some pretty amazing stuff. That's what theSkyNet is all about - using your spare computing power to process radio astronomy data.

The New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network encourage participants to get involved with the annual horseshoe crab monitoring program on various reference beaches throughout New York’s Marine District. Participants assist with the collection of scientific data that is used to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in NY State, and will help determine the management and conservation of this important species throughout the region.

This data will be used by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in New York’s Marine District, and to assist with the regional management and conservation of this species through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

If you participate in this educational survey you will be helping to collect data on horseshoe crab spawning abundance, size, sex and tag returns around full and new moon evenings from May to July.

Cornell University Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program is working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to develop and organize this project.

The goal of the Chestnut Mega-Transect Project is to document the current status of American chestnuts along the Appalachian Trail. Using the idea that the Appalachian Trail is really a transect through a unique US ecosystem, TACF trains hikers to identify and count American chestnuts along the Appalachian Trail as divided into approximately 1 miles segments.

Science Hack Day is a 48-hour-all-night event that brings together designers, developers, scientists and other geeks in the same physical space for a brief but intense period of collaboration, hacking, and building 'cool stuff'. By collaborating on focused tasks during this short period, small groups of hackers are capable of producing remarkable results. Some Hack Days have a specific focus. There have already been very successful Music Hack Days and Government Hack Days. It's time for a Hack Day focused on science!

The Musical Moods experiment for National Science & Engineering Week UK is a sound experiment which aims to find out what you think the mood is of BBC TV theme tunes, past and present. It aims to find out whether there are new ways of classifying online TV content through the mood of the music rather than the programme genre.

Wherever you are – anywhere in the world – contribute to science by taking a photo of a blank white piece of paper!

Photos are needed on the following dates:

September 17 and 18, 2011
September 23, 2011
November 6, 2011
December 12, 2011
February 4, 2012
March 20, 2012
May 5, 2012
June 20, 2012
August 6, 2012
September 22, 2012
November 5, 2012

Your photo will used to measure how much of the sun’s energy is reflected back from the Earth -- our planet's "albedo." It's one way scientists can monitor how much energy – and heat – is being absorbed by our planet. By contributing to the Albedo Project, you will be providing data that can be used to examine the similarities and differences of reflectivity around the world.

Should grassy surfaces have the same value in Brazil as in Norway? How does clay soil in the southeastern USA differ from sandy desert in the southwestern USA? Is there any difference in urban “hot spots” that can be attributed to latitude?

Individuals, schools, small and large groups can all use these data to help inform activities that are appropriate and effective for their communities. Whether it is maintaining the health of parks and green spaces, or legislating green building codes, there is something each can do. It is the hope of this project to present some of the actions taken, as well as follow their albedo records over time.

We are inviting members of the public to take digital photographs of specific sculptures and monuments in the City of Brighton and Hove (United Kingdom) as part of a unique project to record the city's heritage.

The process is really simple and your pictures will contribute to a library of 2D and 3D models that will raise awareness of our heritage locally, nationally and beyond.

The School of Ants project is a citizen-scientist driven study of the ants that live in urban areas, particularly around homes and schools. Collection kits are available to anyone interested in participating.

Teachers, students, parents, kids, junior-scientists, senior citizens and enthusiasts of all stripes are involved in collecting ants in schoolyards and backyards using a standardized protocol so that project coordinators can make detailed maps of the wildlife that lives just outside their doorsteps.

The maps that are created with these data are telling us quite a lot about native and introduced ants in cities, not just here in North Carolina, but across the United States and, as this project grows, about the ants of the world!

Do you know what bugs are living near you? Take part in OPAL Bugs Count and discover the incredible variety of invertebrates that make their home around us.

Bugs, or invertebrates, are a vital part of our environment. They can pollinate plants, recycle nutrients, and they provide an important food source for birds and mammals.

Find as many bugs as you can in our timed challenges and keep a special eye out for the six Species Quest bugs.

Your findings will help scientists learn more about the distribution of invertebrates across the country and how the urban environment may be affecting them.

STE - Scuba Tourism for the Environment is aimed at obtaining information on the Red Sea marine biodiversity state, by collaborating with volunteer dive tourists.

In this way the research can provide the institutions with tools to implement conservation and preservation measures, and at the same time it contributes to the development of ecotourism in the area, providing the tourists with a discerning, active and useful way to increase their naturalistic awareness and recreational value of their holidays.

MonarchHealth is a citizen science project in which volunteers sample wild monarch butterflies to help track the spread of a protozoan parasite across North America.

The project's mission is to achieve a broader understanding of host-parasite interactions in monarch butterflies and to enhance awareness of monarch biology and conservation through the coupling of citizens and scientists.

Participants either capture monarch butterflies as adults or raise the caterpillars in separate containers until they become adult butterflies. In either case, you will gently tape each butterfly’s abdomen with a sticker to collect the OE spores (helpful instructional videos). Next, you will send the sample, along with a simple data sheet for each butterfly, back to the scientists at the Altizer lab where they will analyze the sample. After the data are compiled, project coordinators will send you the results of your sampling contribution as well as post them on the project results page for the public to see.

Anyone interested in monarch butterflies can participate. MonarchHealth is conducted by people of all skills, ages, and backgrounds including families, retired persons, classrooms, monarch organizations, nature centers, and individuals.

We need people to document where and when they see Pika (smallest member of the rabbit family), hear pika, or see their hay piles.

If you are out hiking in scree fields, this is a great opportunity to contribute.

The Invaders of Texas Program is an innovative campaign whereby volunteer "citizen scientists" are trained to detect the arrival and dispersal of invasive species in their own local areas. That information is delivered into a statewide mapping database and to those who can do something about it. The premise is simple. The more trained eyes watching for invasive species, the better our chances of lessening or avoiding damage to our native landscape.

The Invaders of Texas Program supports the creation and perpetuation of a network of local citizen scientist teams who seek out and report outbreaks of selected environmentally and economically harmful invasive species. These teams, coordinated by the Wildflower Center contribute important data to local and national resource managers who will, in turn, coordinate appropriate responses to control the spread of unwanted invaders. The Invaders Program is designed to move the target audience beyond awareness to action on invasive species.

This is your chance to help slow down the spread of harmful invasive species and reduce their ecological and economic damage.

Invasive self-cloning crayfish are on their way to a stream or lake near you!

We need your help to monitor our waterways for the invasion of new species of crayfish. High on our priority list is Marmokrebs, a species that reproduces asexually – making it an extremely successful intruder in pristine ecosystems. Let’s make sure we know exactly where this and many other potentially invasive species are headed!

Take pictures of crayfish and tell us where and when you found it. The goal of this project is to help monitor waters for introduction of new and potentially invasive species of crayfish.

Invasive crayfish have had devastating effects in many freshwater ecosystems across the world, often driving local fish and invertebrate species to extinction. With your help, we can make sure to prevent this from happening here! Thanks in advance for helping us in this important project!

Help identify and catalog the trees in Philadelphia's urban forest! PhillyTreeMap is an open-source, web-based map database of trees in the greater 13-county 3-state Philadelphia region. The wiki-style database enables non-profits, government, volunteer organizations, and the general public to collaboratively create an accurate and informative inventory of the trees in their communities. The project was funded by a USDA Small Business Innovation Research Grant and is in support of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation's 30% tree canopy goal and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's "Plant One Million" campaign. As more trees are added to the database, PhillyTreeMap uses the iTree software from the USDA Forest Service to calculate the environmental impact of the region's urban forest. So get outside and add some trees!

EcoSpark's Changing Currents program introduces grade 8-12 students from across the Greater Toronto Area (Toronto, Peel, Durham, and York school boards) to their area's watersheds. Students get outside, put on hip waders, explore a local river stream, and learn about its importance and quality.

By participating in the program students will:

use benthic macro-invertebrate bio-monitoring to examine the health of their local river or stream (it's easy!),
contribute to a GTA-wide study of watersheds, and
have the chance to take action around what they discover

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography has been funded by the Georgia Coastal Zone Management Program to assess the distribution of wrack in the salt marshes of coastal Georgia. Marsh wrack is the dead marsh grass that forms large layers on top of the water or the marsh surface.

The project will map the distribution for a number of different years from aerial photographs to determine how much wrack is present in coastal Georgia and where wrack is found in different seasons. The project also aims to study how long wrack persists in a variety of marsh settings.

To do this, the project needs citizen scientists to help document marsh wrack sites. Volunteers will do the following activities:

1. Identify site or sites that you can document at least weekly by taking photos.
2. Gather latitude/longitude location data for each site.

Anyone who helps out will get a copy on the final results of the study and acknowledgement of their help in the text

Interested in volcanoes and want to help research carried out by the BGS and UK universities?

There are two ways in which you can help:

1) Fill our a questionnaire to help researchers study the distribution of the volcanic ash fall and produce a map.

2) Collect some samples of volcanic ash

Collecting samples of volcanic ash can be very simple and helps to provide information on the distribution of the ash fall.

The ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library is a visual database of whale shark (Rhincodon typus) encounters and of individually catalogued whale sharks. The library is maintained and used by marine biologists to collect and analyse whale shark encounter data to learn more about these amazing creatures.

The Library uses photographs of the skin patterning behind the gills of each shark and any scars to distinguish between individual animals. Cutting-edge software supports rapid identification using pattern recognition and photo management tools.

You too can assist with whale shark research by submitting photos and sighting information. The information you submit will be used in mark-recapture studies to help with the global conservation of this threatened species.

The American Chestnut Foundation has several efforts underway to help restore the American Chestnut tree. There are many ways to get involved as a citizen scientist:

1. Hiking and counting American chestnuts. We have a few upcoming training events, usually all done by the end of June. We've been concentrating on the Appalachian Trail, but hope to expand the project beyond there.

2. Planting breeding orchards / germplasm conservation orchards of American chestnuts: Involves planting chestnut trees, maintaining the planting, and sending yearly measurements to our central office.

3. Breeding / Harvesting chestnut trees: Involved finding American chestnuts on which to breed, following their flowering, and performing controlled pollinations on the trees through the end of June and beginning of July. Follow-up during harvest in September and October is the final step. Harvesting can be done on it's own without controlled pollinations

4. Participating in the data collection, testing and selection of advanced breeding materials. If one does not want to plant their own orchard, we hope to match interested people with current growers to help maintain and collect data on orchards already in place.

5. Outreach liaison: More of an outreach position, and potentially less of a citizen science position, but we have continuing need for folks to learn about our program and give presentations to various groups - anyone from girl scouts to Audubon groups and Lions' Clubs - anything of that ilk.

TuAnalyze is an application for recording and sharing measures of your diabetes. The application allows those touched by diabetes to track, share and compare their health information. Contributions will help advance diabetes care and public health response.

TuAnalyze is available to any TuDiabetes community member. The application supports sharing of diabetes information throughout the community and feedback of community-level diabetes information to users.

You can learn more about your diabetes by viewing information on your TuAnalyze app in the My Apps section of your profile. You can compare personal measures of your diabetes to community measures on the TuAnalyze map.

The TuAnalyze app is jointly developed by Children's Hospital Boston and TuDiabetes.

The Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch is a web-based map and database designed to record your observations of road-side and road-killed wildlife.

There are two ways to participate in the project:

1. Entering random wildlife observations from around the state.

2. Regular route surveying for "Adopt A Road".

Information about where wildlife attempt to cross roads, what animals are involved, on what kinds of roads are collisions frequent, and other data can help inform policy, management, and financial investment in reducing road-kill and habitat fragmentation. Maine Audubon scientists will use the data to improve our collective understanding of where wildlife attempt to cross roads and what we can do to reduce road-kill and increase safety for people and wildlife.

Start contributing your own observations today!

Redwood Watch needs volunteers to take photographs of redwood trees and submit them to researchers. Your data will help researchers understand where redwoods survive and help track redwood forest migration over time.

If you spot a redwood in a park, your own backyard, or in a botanical garden, snap a picture and submit it online. You can use a digital camera, or the Redwood Watch iPhone application, powered by iNaturalist.

Scientists don't yet know how climate change will impact the redwood forest. By understand where redwoods grow well today, scientists can better predict where the redwood forests of will thrive in the future. Join Redwood Watch and help redwoods survive!

The project is a partnership between the Save the Redwoods League, iNaturalist, Google Earth Outreach, and the California Academy of Sciences.

You can help the fight against invasive species by tracking phenophases of invasives through the USA National Phenology Network’s Nature’s Notebook. We need observers to track species such as leafy spurge, purple loosestrife, and tamarisk-species designated as invasive by the USFS, USGS and NatureServe.

Invasive species have infested hundreds of millions of acres across the United States, causing widespread disruption to ecosystems and reducing biodiversity. The invasive species threat is one of the top priorities of the US Forest Service. Knowledge of invasive species phenology can assist managers to better control invasives and predict future spread. The purpose of the Track Invasive Species project is to monitor distribution and phenophases, or life cycle events, of invasive species across the US.

NoiseTube needs citizen scientists to monitor noise pollution. Participants install a free mobile application on their cell phone and measure the level of noise in their area.

Noise pollution is a serious problem in many cities. (Noise can change the balance in predator /prey detection and navigation among migratory species, among other detrimental effects.) This is your chance to turn your mobile phone into an environmental sensor and make an important contribution to science.

Your data will be shared with the NoiseTube community through a collective map of noise pollution. Local governments, city planners, researchers, and others will be able to access and analyze the data.

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, working with many partner organizations, has established Mitten Crab Watch as a public reporting and information network to track the distribution, abundance, and status of this invasive species for the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

The Oklahoma Invasive Plant council needs Oklahoma residents to report data on invasive plants in their area.

Participants gather information about the invading species and its location, and then submit it on the project website.

By contributing, you can help the project facilitate management of invasive plants and protect the economic and natural resources of Oklahoma’s land and water.

Trees have more benefits than just the tangible wood products. Trees clean our air, raise property values, reduce energy costs, and redirect stormwater.

You can calculate the non-tangible value the trees in your yard or city produce.

MySwan is a citizen science project for people who love swans. Just record your black swan sighting on the interactive map, and you can make a valuable contribution to research on the behavior and movement of swans.

After you submit your sighting, you'll get an instant report about the swan, with interesting information about its history and recent movements.

Project Calliope is an upcoming orbiting satellite that will convert Earth's ionosphere to music for people to share. Calliope lets people get a sense of how active space is. Calliope will measure the ionosphere for its 12-week life and transmit that data as sonified MIDI data (akin to sheet music) so anyone with a ham radio or web connection can listen to it-- or remix it into their own music compositions. It is planned to launch into orbit in late 2011.

BeeSpotter needs volunteers to go outside with a camera and capture quality pictures of bees.

Researchers at the University of Illinois are trying to better understand bee demographics in the state of Illinois, and they can't do it without your help. Your data will become part of a nationwide effort to gather baseline information on the population status of these insects.

BeeSpotter is a partnership between citizen scientists and the professional science community. The project is designed to educate the public about pollinators by engaging them in a data collection effort of importance to the nation.

We want to study the biogeography of microorganisms by taking water samples from domestic water heaters. Participants will acquire a water sample from their kitchen tap and answer 20 questions. The process will take ~30 minutes. We are recruiting 2-3 households per state. By looking at the genetic differences from isolates of similar microbes from across the globe, researchers are currently trying to understand the degree to which populations of microbes are isolated and whether this isolation suggests an allopatric speciation model for prokaryotes. We are still looking for participants in: AL, AK, DE, DC, KS, KY, ME, MA, NH, NM, ND, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT.

Get a snapshot of the health of the Boise River watershed by monitoring water quality! Citizen groups, schools, families, and individuals are invited to participate in this fun event which takes place at numerous sites along the Boise River and tributaries from Lucky Peak to Star. No experience necessary! A knowledgeable trainer will meet you at your assigned location to assist with monitoring.

Digitalkoot needs volunteers to fix mistakes in the index of old Finnish newspapers. And you do this by playing games! Your participation will greatly increase the accuracy of text-based searches of the newspaper archives.

Most of the information in the National Library of Finland's newspaper archives has already been copied into computer databases using computerized text recognition. The problem is that computers fail to recognize all the words. Especially when the quality of the source material is poor, the results need to be fixed by hand. This requires a lot of manual work.

The goal of the project is to index the National Library of Finland's enormous archives so that they are searchable on the Internet. This will enable everyone to easily access Finland's cultural heritage.

Digitalkoot is run by the National Library of Finland and Microtask.

The OPAL Water Survey needs citizen scientists in England to record what life they see in local ponds and to conduct simple tests for water clarity and pH. By contributing, you'll help scientists learn more about how polluted lakes and ponds in England actually are.

Animals living in the water can tell us a great deal about how polluted the water may be. Some species struggle to survive in polluted waters, while others are more tolerant. By telling us what life you see in your local pond you’ll discover more about the water's health and contribute to valuable scientific research.

This is one of five OPAL surveys across England to learn more about the state of the environment. Anyone can get involved. The studies are open to all ages and abilities, and your contribution will be important in helping scientists build up a picture of England's natural environment.

The Encyclopedia of Life is an online, collaborative project where you can learn about any species on Earth, as well as contribute information and submit photos. This global initiative seeks to create an "infinitely expandable" resource for all of our planet’s 1.9 million known species.

The Encyclopedia of Life draws from existing databases, such as AmphibiaWeb and Mushroom Observer, and sponsorship from a number of leading scientific organizations. The scientific community and general public can contribute to this growing body of knowledge by posting images to the Flikr group and adding tags and text comments to any species page. In addition, citizen naturalists with a demonstrated commitment to quality science can apply to become curators who are responsible for maintaining the project's vetted content.

The OPAL Soil and Earthworm Survey needs citizen scientists to collect and separate earthworms and to examine the surrounding soil properties.

Earthworms are extremely important and play a vital role in recycling plant nutrients and aerating the soil. By taking part in this survey you'll help improve our knowledge of earthworms and the soils they live in.

Everybody can take part in the soil and earthworm survey - all ages and abilities. It's simple, fun and you'll be contributing towards valuable research.

This is one of five OPAL surveys across England to learn more about the state of the environment. Anyone can get involved. The studies are open to all ages and abilities, and your contribution will be important in helping scientists build up a picture of England's natural environment.

The OPAL Biodiversity Survey needs citizen scientists in England to help uncover the diverse range of wildlife in hedges. By contributing, you'll help researchers learn more about the importance of hedges and how we can improve them.

Hedges support many animals by providing them with food and shelter. Berries and seeds are food for birds, while holes beneath the hedge are often home to small mammals. You’ll also discover caterpillars, shieldbugs and many other invertebrates living among the leaves.

By sharing your observations with the project, reseachers can instantly rate the condition of your hedge and offer suggestions on how to improve it.

This is one of five OPAL surveys across England to learn more about the state of the environment. Anyone can get involved. The studies are open to all ages and abilities, and your contribution will be important in helping scientists build up a picture of England's natural environment.

The OPAL Air Survey needs citizen scientists to record lichens on trees and look for tar spot fungus on sycamore leaves. By contributing, you'll help scientists answer important questions about local air quality and its impacts across England.

Even if you haven't fond any lichens or tar spots, your findings are still extremely useful. Each activity should take no more than 60 minutes.

This is one of five OPAL surveys across England to learn more about the state of the environment. Anyone can get involved. The studies are open to all ages and abilities, and your contribution will be important in helping scientists build up a picture of England's natural environment.

The OPAL Climate Survey consists of four ways to help researchers investigate how human activities affect the climate. These include:

Activity 1 - Contrails in the Sky: By looking for contrails (tracks left by planes) in the sky and reporting your results online, you'll help scientists test the accuracy of existing computer models that tell us where contrails should be.

Activity 2 and 3 - Measuring the Wind: In Activity 2, you'll use a mirror and compass to measure the wind direction at cloud height. In Activity 3, you'll use bubbles to calculate the wind direction and speed at our height.

Activity 4 - How the Weather Affects Us: You'll answer simple questions about how hot or cold you feel and the types of clothes you are wearing.

This is one of five OPAL surveys across England to learn more about the state of the environment. Anyone can get involved. The studies are open to all ages and abilities, and your contribution will be important in helping scientists build up a picture of England's natural environment.

The West Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas Project needs volunteer surveyors to document the breeding status of bird species. Surveyors register for atlas blocks and agree to provide adequate survey coverage either in the form of hours spent atlasing or number of species encountered – or both. Surveying a block involves documenting all bird species encountered. Their breeding status is recorded based on a series of codes which categorizes them as possible, probable or confirmed.

Anyone can participate! The success of the West Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas II depends on the active participation of a variety of outdoor enthusiasts; birders, hikers, hunters and anglers, backyard feeder watchers, farmers and the list goes on.

Please note that the most important way in which you can contribute to the atlas is by volunteering to survey atlas blocks and submitting as many observations as possible. However, there are many additional ways in which you can contribute to the success of the West Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas II.

For my Senior Thesis I am researching economic disparity in community gardens. However, I am not a expert on plants. I need some help identifying common garden plants from photos I took of gardens in Atlanta, GA. The photos are only available on Facebook unfortunately, so you need a Facebook account.

Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER) is an online, experimental reporting system for reporting and sharing the sightings of sick or dead wildlife.

Individual reports viewed together can lead to the detection and containment of wildlife disease outbreaks that may pose a health risk to people, domestic animals and other wildlife. For smart phone users, the HealthMap mobile phone application, Outbreaks Near Me, is also available. It captures the same information that the web-based WHER application collects and allows users to upload photos. WHER hopes to harness the power of the many eyes of the public to better detect wildlife disease phenomenon.

Additionally, WHER was developed by the Wildlife Data Integration Network (WDIN), a program of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in partnership with the USGS National Wildlife Health Center.

PowerSleuth meets PowerMeter invites teachers and students in Maine to examine electricity data and help homeowners monitor how much electricity they’re using while they’re using it.

You’ll engage in a series of investigations and activities using these new tools and other resources to answer questions about home electricity use. Along the way you’ll learn more about electricity - how it’s measured, how customers are charged for their use and how much electricity common household appliances use. As you engage in this work, be sure to keep a good science notebook; record your ideas, what you’re finding out, and the new questions you have. You’ll use your findings to make recommendations for conserving electricity.

Electricity is one of the few things we use first and pay for later. Throughout the month people use electricity in their homes for many different things. At the end of the month, the homeowner receives a bill for the total amount of electricity used during the previous month. The appliances in our homes aren’t marked with price tags so we don’t know as we turn them on them how much electricity they use. Another thing that makes it difficult to keep track of how much electricity our homes are using is we can’t see electricity!

Join the PowerSleuth Meets PowerMeter project and learn a few simple things you and your family can do to save energy.

Let's get started!

iSpot is a unique website where you can get the help of a friendly community to identify anything living that you have seen in nature. We are based in the UK, but observations from elsewhere are welcome.

You can add an observation to the website, suggest an identification, or see if anyone else can identify an observation for you.

Help others by adding an identification to an existing observation. Your reputation on the site will grow as others with knowledge agree with you identifications.

Ultimately, the data collected on iSpot are added to a central depository of biodiversity data held by the National Biodiversity Network

We have online keys (also available via web browsers on cell phones) that are designed to help you identify certain groups of species.

What are you waiting for? Get outside and make some observations. :)

With your help, OpenSignalMaps is creating a comprehensive database of cell phone towers, cell phone signal strength readings, and Wi-Fi access points around the world. This data is collected via an Android application and uploaded to the project's servers, taking care to use as little processing power and battery life as possible.

You can use the project website to browse the data they've collected, including heat maps that show exactly how strong signal is in any particular area, as well as all the nearby towers for your carrier. And don't worry -- the data is stripped of any identifying information and available on a graphical interface to enable you to make sense of the raw data.

I-90 Wildlife Watch is a citizen-based wildlife monitoring project that invites motorists to report wildlife sightings along Interstate 90 (I-90) in the Snoqualmie Pass region of Washington. Report wildlife that you see while driving on Interstate 90 from North Bend to Easton in Washington State's Cascade mountains.

I-90 intersects the rugged Cascade Mountains in Washington's Snoqualmie Pass region, which has been identified as a critical link in the north-south movement of wildlife. This area is also the focus of an extensive effort by the Washington State Department of Transportation to improve highway efficiency and make I-90 safer for people and wildlife. The I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition, the Western Transportation Institute, and other I-90 Wildlife Watch partner organizations are currently gathering information about wildlife between North Bend and Easton to help inform highway planning at Snoqualmie Pass. With your valuable assistance, we hope to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and enhance the safe passage of wildlife in the future.

Help scientists recover worldwide weather observations made by Royal Navy ships around the time of World War I. These transcriptions will contribute to climate model projections and improve a database of weather extremes. Historians will use your work to track past ship movements and the stories of the people on board.

Educators and non profit groups can create and manage their own citizen science class activity or projects with easy to use free online tools.

Create a citizen science project in minutes and avoid costly development costs.

iNaturalist is a place where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world.

From hikers to hunters, birders to beach-combers, the world is filled with naturalists, and many of us record what we find. What if all those observations could be shared online? You might discover someone who finds beautiful wildflowers at your favorite birding spot, or learn about the birds you see on the way to work. If enough people recorded their observations, it would be like a living record of life on Earth that scientists and land managers could use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and anyone could use to learn about nature.

That's the vision behind iNaturalist. So if you like recording your findings from the outdoors, or if you just like learning about life, join the project!

Eye on Earth brings together scientific information on air and water quality with feedback and observations from millions of ordinary people. You'll be able to view air and bathing water quality for the majority of Europe as well as provide your own feedback.

Eye on Earth represents a partnership between Microsoft and the European Environmental Agency. It includes information on the water quality for more than 22,000 bathing sites throughout Europe. It also includes information on air quality for more than 1,000 air quality monitoring stations throughout Europe.

Over five years, the site will grow to include information on many other environmental topics and turn into a global observatory for environmental change. It will broaden the thematic spectrum of environmental information by integrating prominent environmental challenges of our times, such as ground level ozone and other forms of air pollution, oil sills, biodiversity, and coastal erosion.

Join the fun!

The Rusty Blackbird project needs volunteers to help researchers study the distribution and abundance of rusty blackbirds.

The rusty blackbird is a widespread North American species that has shown chronic long-term and acute short-term population declines, based both on breeding season and wintering ground surveys. The decline, although one of the most profound for any North American species, is poorly understood. Moreover, no conservation or monitoring programs exist for this species.

There are two ways you can help:

1. Submit rusty blackbird observations, particularly information related to breeding sites
and concentrations of birds during winter (Dec-Mar).

2. Join the rusty blackbird feather and blood donor project. If you regularly band rusty blackbirds, researchers could use feathers for isotope analysis and blood for genetic research, contaminant studies, and disease screening.

Maryland Science Center's Communicating Climate Change project needs volunteers to take temperature measurements across the urban-rural gradient. The study will look at Urban Heat Islands, which provide a glimpse of what the world will look like with warmer temperatures.

The Urban Heat Island Effect describes the temperature difference between a metropolitan area and the more rural landscape nearby. The Urban Heat Effect is not an effect of climate change, but rather of human activity shaping our environment. One may ask, if we can make changes on a local scale, are we also responsible for changes globally?

The Maryland Science Center and our research partners at the Baltimore Ecosystem Study are proud to join eleven science centers across the nation in the Association of Science and Technology Center’s C3: Communicating Climate Change Citizen Science project.

You too can be a scientist and take part a long term research study!

There is no geographic or age restriction on participation.

WildObs (from "wildlife observations") participants capture memorable wildlife encounters and put them to work. Record your encounters for your own studies, or enjoyment. Use these records to develop you own wildlife calendar for the year. Maintain and grow your life-list, learn about new species and connect with nature.

Join the WildObs community via your Android or iPhone and use technology to help you connect with nature.

As a wildlife community, WilObs participants help each other find the nature (for a photograph or close encounter) and we learn about the species in our neighborhoods. WildObs is Collaborative wildlife enjoyment. It can help connect each other to wildlife.

Additionally, WildObs is a proud partner of the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Watch, and works with a number of other scientific studies to extract citizen science from recorded encounters.

Monitoring wasp colonies for invasive beetles that kill trees...WaspWatchers is a citizen scientist program which began in Maine and has now spread throughout Ontario, New England, the Eastern Seaboard and parts of the Midwest (Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan). Across this broad area, the program’s goal is to… Engage and support the general public and government agencies with discovery and monitoring of their natural Cerceris fumipennis colonies; monitoring for both native and introduced species of Buprestidae beetles including the Emerald Ash Borer. Who are WaspWatchers? They are a combination of enthusiastic government staff, students and public volunteers. An efficient alliance is to utilize professional staff/students to search for colonies and then enlist the public volunteers to ‘adopt’ and monitor the colonies.

The Dragonfly Swarm Project uses the power of the internet to allow everyone to participate in a large-scale study of dragonfly swarming behavior. Participants observe dragonfly swarms wherever they occur, make observations of the composition and behavior of the swarm, then submit a report online.

Data is compiled from the reports by an aquatic entomologist with a passion for dragonflies. Her goal is to use the data collected from participants for two purposes: 1) to publish data from a massive number of dragonfly swarms in the scientific literature, making this information available to scientists, and 2) to provide information about this behavior to the public. Many people see dragonfly swarms and are curious about what they see. The creator of this project hopes to provide answers to the curious while simultaneously collecting information from eye-witnesses to improve our overall knowledge of this fascinating behavior.

Because any given person has to be in the right place at the right time to see a dragonfly swarm, this project isn't possible for a single scientist to do alone. Collecting data from a large network of people is thus the best way to study dragonfly swarming behavior. Participation requires only curiosity and a few minutes of your time, so keep an eye out for dragonfly swarms in your area this summer and send in your reports!

Thanks in advance for your participation!

Citizen scientist report their observations of roadkill (animals killed after collision with a vehicle) with an easy-to-use form. Roadkill data can be analyzed by observers and will be used to understand where roadkill occurs and the severity of the impact to wildlife species.

Several large, non-native reptiles have been introduced in Florida and are now breeding--including Burmese Pythons. REDDy-trained observers learn where to look for these reptiles, how to identify them, and how to report sightings online. Early detection is the key to preventing new species from becoming established and stopping invaders from expanding their ranges.

Cuban Treefrogs are not native to Florida, but have become invasive throughout the peninsula and are causing the decline of native frogs--especially in urbanized areas. However, many people report that when they start to manage Cuban Treefrogs around their homes, they begin to see native species return. Participants in this project capture and remove invasive treefrogs around their homes, collect and submit data on these frogs, and monitor for native treefrogs.

EteRNA is the first-ever global laboratory where scientists, educators, students, online gamers, and any human being with a strong interest in unlocking the mystery of life will collectively help solve world's biggest scientific problems.

RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is a substance that our cells use to translate and express genetic information from our DNA. We now know that folding and shape-shifting allows RNA and its partners to control the cell in a predictable fashion. However, the full biological and medical implications of these discoveries are still being worked out.

By playing EteRNA, you will help extend and curate the first large scale library of synthetic RNA designs. You play by designing RNAs, tiny molecules at the heart of every cell. If you win the weekly competition your RNA is synthesized and scored by how well it folds. Your efforts will help us understand, dissect, and control the functional properties of real and designed RNAs from bacteria, viruses, and our own cells. Join the global laboratory!

The Colorado Spider Survey (CSS) is a means of gathering critical information about the ecology and distribution of this understudied taxonomic group. Researchers have documented the distribution and species diversity of several groups of insects in the Rocky Mountain region such as ants, grasshoppers, and butterflies. However, information about the distribution and diversity of other arthropod groups in this region is lacking. One group that is particularly understudied is the Order Araneae, or the spiders. Little is known about either the biodiversity of spiders in Colorado or the impact urbanization is having on species distribution in the state. No formal spider surveys have ever been conducted in Colorado.

The survey will be carried out through a series of Spider Identification and Collection Workshops that will be held throughout the state, but particularly in cooperation with the State Park system. These workshops, led by a team of professional and amateur arachnologists (or spider biologists), will train members of local communities in spider biology, morphology, taxonomy, and collection techniques. The specimens will be collected during the next several years by team leaders as well as workshop participants and will be sent to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for identification and storage. Data from these specimens and from Colorado specimens housed at other collections throughout the country will be compiled and published in an electronic database.

Stream Monitoring is a statewide program for Wisconsin citizens interested in learning about and improving the quality of the state's streams and rivers. As a volunteer for monitoring through Beaver Creek Reserve Citizen Science Center, you will collect information once a month May through September from one of the numerous streams in the Lower Chippewa Basin.

This project is designed to monitor and prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species in West-central Wisconsin through heightened awareness and education. Volunteers participate in a variety of ways, including collecting samples of aquatic invasive species, talking to boaters at area boat landings, and conducting water quality monitoring.

A BioBlitz is a rapid biological survey of a property in which as many species from as many taxonomic groups as possible are counted during a 24-hour period. It is used to provide a snapshot of wildlife in an area, and to identify any rare or endangered species there. As a volunteer, you would participate in training to learn how to collect data during the BioBlitz, and on the day of the event you work with experts to identify species. By participating in the BioBlitz, you get the opportunity to meet and spend time with people who are interested in the environment, and learn about critters in Wisconsin!

Citizen Science Center volunteers assist the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources with their Acoustic Bat Monitoring Program. Volunteers attend a training workshop during the spring where they learn how to use an AnaBat detector, which records bat calls using a personal digital assistant that has a global positioning system to record the location and time. The bat detector translates the bat's call "on the fly" to a frequency that humans can hear. In this way, volunteers can actually hear what a bat call sounds like, while making sure the device is working correctly.

After training, bat volunteers borrow the AnaBat detection system, dubbed the “Bat Monitoring Kit,” for one to three nights to conduct bat surveys of local parks, neighborhoods, lakes and trails. Sometimes volunteers survey areas of their choice and sometimes they are asked to survey specific sites.

Once a volunteer selects a site to survey, they agree to survey that site three times during the season, once in April/May, once in June/July, and once in August/September. Each survey is between one to three hours (a minimum of 1 hour). Surveys begin a half-hour after sunset. Bat monitoring volunteers of all ages are welcome to participate. Volunteers younger than 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

RiverWatch is the only Illinois-wide biological monitoring program that educates and trains volunteers to collect high quality data on streams. Since the program was established in 1995, more than 1,500 individuals have received RiverWatch certification in stream monitoring and have collected an unprecedented amount of information for evaluating Illinois streams. Data collected by volunteers over multiple years allows us to gauge the health and integrity of our streams and helps professionals make informed decisions about water resources, in general.

The program is available to all citizens throughout the state, regardless of level of experience. New volunteers receive training during one of several workshops offered in the spring, while previously trained volunteers are encouraged to attend a review workshop prior to the monitoring season. RiverWatch certification workshops typically last 6-8 hours and consist of a laboratory and field component. During the lab session, a certified RiverWatch Trainer provides an overview of the program and teaches identification of benthic macroinvertebrates. During the field training session, participants visit a local stream where the Trainer demonstrates proper monitoring techniques and explains how to complete the data sheets.

Once training is completed, volunteers may monitor a stream site that they select or that is assigned to them. Citizen Scientists monitor their adopted stream site (a 200-foot stretch of stream) once annually between May 1 and June 30. The final step is to attend a RiverWatch open lab to identify the preserved organisms with a microscope. Labs are hosted throughout the state in July and August, and a Trainer is always present to assist volunteers with identification.

Operation Spider is a large-scale, community-based study of spiders in South Australia. We are collecting data about spider species, how people manage spiders, and participants’ attitudes towards spiders. The aims of Operation Spider are to: engage the public with local wildlife; increase awareness of the ecological roles and economic importance of spiders; collect data on spider distributions; collect data on people’s attitudes towards spiders; and to feed knowledge back to the community. South Australians can participate in a number of ways:

1. Community survey and questionnaire: From September 1st until October 13th (2010), participants can send in information about spiders they have seen and their attitudes towards spiders via an online survey.

2. School projects: A broad range of educational materials are available for primary and middle school classes, including an Interactive Teaching Sequence and support materials to make it easy and interesting for classes to be involved.

3. Poetry competition: The poetry competition is for eight-lined poems about spiders.

4. Join the Operation Spider Facebook page.

5. Watch Operation Spider on YouTube.

Operation Spider was preceded by Operation Bluetongue (2007), Operation Possum (2008), and Operation Magpie (2009).

Watershed Watch increases the understanding of New Mexico's water quality, river ecology and fisheries health through hands-on science in a real-world context. Students gather data on biological, chemical and physical indicators and make presentations to local data users including acequias (irrigation canals), school boards, federal agencies and watershed groups. Students become engaged in environmental studies of issues beyond the classroom to that address critical water issues in local regions.

The International Sea Turtle Observation Registry is a database of sea turtle sightings to help sea turtle biologists and conservations track and understand the distribution of sea turtles around the world. You can help!

When you see a live turtle, please report it to the registry. Data will be made available to scientists and managers to improve the understanding of our marine environment.

Arizona residents are needed to contribute to a photographic guide to dragonflies and damselflies in their state.

Interest in dragonfly watching and photography is growing across the country. Arizona is no exception, especially since dragonflies are an important indicator of water quality, a natural concern in the growing southwest. Although there are a number of Mexican species which reach the United States borders in Arizona, there remains a great deal of work to do in inventorying the species found in the state as well as better defining their ranges and flight seasons.

A number of people have studied the odonates of Arizona over the years, but readily available information has been sparse. This project provides a collection of odonate photos, many not well known within the United States.

This is your chance to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on Arizona dragonflies and damselflies.

The Ohio Odonata Society needs you to send in photos and specimens of dragonflies and damselflies in Ohio to help advance our understanding of these beautiful creatures.

Volunteers can submit photographs documenting new county or state records of dragonflies and damselflies in Ohio. Once accepted, the photographs will be listed in the project database of nearly 28,000 specimens, published literature citations, and photos.

Many dragonfly and damselfly species simply cannot be identified without placing them under a microscope where detailed examinations can be performed. You can help by collecting and sending in your specimens. The physical collection of living insects is not for everyone, but it is a viable and biologically sound practice if done according to sound scientific principles. Furthermore, some species are very, very, hard to confidently identify from a photo and thus require microscopic examinations. Finally, genetic review in some cases is teaching us that some species are actually two different species!

This is your chance to help promote knowledge and appreciation of dragonflies and damselflies in Ohio!

By participating in Mountain Watch's Visibility Reporting, you become an important part of understanding how haze pollution affects mountain views and the recreational experience. Volunteers provide their opinion of whether visibility on a hike through the Appalachian Mountains, from Maine to Virginia, was "acceptable" or "unacceptable." These observations provide resource managers with information on the value of clear views to the hiking public.

Poor air quality in the eastern United States directly affects hikers and others who recreate outdoors. Haze pollution diminishes scenic views and can negatively affect respiratory and cardiovascular health.

Here is how you can help: Simply hike to your favorite vista along a trail in the Appalachian Mountains, take a photo from your viewpoint, and record your opinion of the view. Email your photo, and send in the data sheet.

It's that easy to contribute to real science that will help us understand how haze pollution affects mountain views.

The WildLab engages citizen scientists in bird and other wildlife identification, using mobile phones as tools of scientific discovery. Along with associated curricula and educational activities found on its website, the WildLab is a powerful new way to see the environment.

The WildLab Bird iPhone app includes photographs, audio, and range maps for more than 200 common bird species. The app helps users make correct identifications by leading them through a process of elimination. The application saves each sighting with location and other data, and sightings are logged in the user’s online WildLab account. Files based on a user's sightings can be easily loaded into Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird database.

In a pilot program developed with funding from the MacArthur Foundation, more than 500 New York City 5th- through 12th-grade students used iPhones to log thousands of bird sightings from nearby parks and green spaces. Participants in the project increased their knowledge as well as their interest in science careers. All educators involved in the project said they would participate again if it was offered in the future.

The WildLab has also piloted a program with the Cornell Cooperative Extension for horseshoe crab monitoring; this app will be available soon in the app store. Through collaborations with science education institutions around the country, the WildLab continues to develop new apps and will run its in-school bird program this fall.

This annual contest, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society, is for 6-12th graders (11-18 years old) from anywhere in the world. Individuals, small teams of two to six, and large teams of seven or more (often whole classrooms with teacher leadership) may enter their design for and description of a human colony in outer space.

Submissions must relate to orbital settlements; they may not be on a planet or moon. Settlements must be permanent, relatively self-sufficient homes, not temporary work camps. Designs, original research, essays, stories, models, artwork or any other orbital space settlement
related materials may be submitted.

Grades 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12 are judged separately, except for the grand prize. The single highest scoring team or individual attending will receive the NSS Bruce M. Clark, Jr. Memorial Space Settlement Award for $3,000.

Submissions must be received by March 15.

Participants throughout Wisconsin are asked to collect freshwater mussel shells or to take photos of live mussels from rivers, lakes, or streams. Over half of Wisconsin's 51 native mussel species (also known as clams) are listed as species in greatest need of conservation, or we need information on where they currently occur. Threats like habitat alteration (dams, silt) and the presence of invasive mussels (zebra mussels) pose major threats to the existence of our native mussels. The Mussel Monitoring Program of Wisconsin would like your help in finding out what mussels occur in your area!

CitSci.org is a platform that supports a variety of citizen science programs using a centralized database to store and deliver science data, with a focus on community based monitoring programs. This platform allows program coordinators to create their own projects and datasheets, manage members, define measurements, create analyses, and even write feedback forms.

World Birds is a volunteer network that collects and makes available bird observations from around the world.

Developed as a global "family" of databases, each country has its own system linked to the map portal. This portal allows you to choose a country and submit your bird observations, thus making a valuable contribution to bird conservation on a local, national, and international scale.

Broadly accessible and with a strong community structure, this global initiative will establish a vast source of bird and environmental information generated by general birdwatchers and professionals alike.

Over time, more countries will be brought online as BirdLife partners implement new systems, leading to better coverage. Some of these databases will be developed independently, but many will be based on a core system, developed with the intention of bringing online as many countries as possible quickly and with minimal expense.

MigrantWatch needs volunteers in India to watch for one or more migratory bird species in places where the volunteers live, work, or visit regularly, and to note the dates of first and last sighting during the migration season. Information collected in MigrantWatch will add to the global understanding of the effects of climate change on phenology (the timing of natural events).

Long distance migration of birds, like other natural seasonal phenomena, is affected by environmental factors such as temperature and length of day. Significant changes in migratory patterns have been documented for many bird species in various parts of the world and these have often been attributed to climate change. Documenting and understanding such changes is important because these may have implications for the survival of migratory species. Unfortunately, hardly any detailed information is available on the timing of bird migration in India and how this might be changing.

When do these birds come to India and how do they spread across the country? As the global climate changes, is the timing of migration changing too? Information is scarce and your help is needed to answer these questions.

Join by contributing your sightings of migrants!

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) is seeking individuals to submit their sightings of butterflies and moths. BAMONA is a user-friendly web site and database that shares butterfly and moth species information with the public via dynamic maps, checklists, and species pages. Data are updated regularly and come from a variety of sources, including citizen scientists. Individuals can get involved by documenting butterflies and moths in their neighborhoods and submitting photographs for review. Collaborating lepidopterists serve as coordinators and oversee quality control. Submitted data are verified, added to the database, and then made available through the web site.

Audubon of Florida's EagleWatch Program seeks volunteers to monitor active Bald Eagle nest sites and help identify potential threats to nesting success.

As a result of Florida’s rapidly changing environment, Bald Eagles currently nest successfully in urban areas. This increased exposure to human activity and the pressure that exposure can put on the eagle population prompted the EagleWatch Program.

EagleWatch seeks information about Bald Eagles, active nest locations, and possible disturbances or threats to nesting activities. The program is designed to educate volunteers in general eagle nesting biology, applicable laws, the identification of nest threats, monitoring techniques, and the verification of previously unrecorded active eagle nests.

This data is compiled and used to assist Florida's Mid-winter Annual Bald Eagle Nesting Survey by documenting both urban and rural eagle nesting activity, successes, and failures. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service also utilizes EagleWatch data to enhance their conservation and law enforcement efforts.

Texas Turtle Watch is a citizen science program developed to study three native turtle species whose population numbers are poorly understood. After volunteers collect numbers and trends over time, the data will directly contribute to an understanding of these native Texas turtle species.

The data collected by citizens plays a critical role in learning more about turtles. By counting the number of turtles they see basking in the sun, trained citizen watch groups of all ages and interests will help scientists create a knowledge base about turtles populations in Texas, which will lead to better conservation efforts and strategies. Additionally, citizens involved in monitoring turtles are provided a unique opportunity to get outside while contributing to science and conservation research.

The three turtle groups of focus are sliders (genus Trachemys), cooters (genus Pseudemys) and softshells (genus Apalone) because these species are frequent baskers. Their basking and nesting behaviors make them more visible than other turtle species.

Through the Texas Turtle Watch program, local citizens of all ages are provided an unique opportunity to explore the world around them while contributing to local conservation efforts. Become a Texas Turtle Watcher today!

Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey volunteers collect data and support studies on the abundance of butterfly species in the United Kingdom countryside.

Butterflies are unique indicators of the state of the environment because of their rapid lifecycles and high sensitivity to environmental conditions. The volunteer networks and datasets created by this project enable accurate assessment of butterfly trends, allowing researchers to assess the impacts of climate change.

This pioneering study aims to get a representative picture of the status of butterflies in widespread
habitats such as lowland intensive farmland and upland grassland and moorland. Strong emphasis has been placed on making sure that the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey is both scientifically sound (by using random sampling) and efficient (a scheme with fewer visits to account for the fact that butterfly species are now uncommon across much of the general countryside).

This new scheme runs in parallel with United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, which is very effective at monitoring habitat-specialist butterflies and lowland semi-natural habitats, and the Butterflies for the New Millennium project, which acts as the main source of information on where butterflies live.

Volunteers with the Birds in Forested Landscapes project observe and record forest-dwelling birds in North America to help scientists better understand the birds' habitat and conservation needs. As a volunteer, you will help answer the following questions:

1. How much habitat do different forest-dwelling bird species require for successful breeding?

2. How are habitat requirements affected by land uses, such as human development, forestry, and agriculture?

3. How do the habitat requirements of a species vary across its range?

Anyone who can or would like to learn to identify forest birds by sight and sound can become a volunteer. Birds in Forested Landscapes is an excellent project for birding groups, such as bird clubs and Audubon chapters, and works well with high school or college curricula.

After identifying a target species and an appropriate forest area to survey, you will conduct two visits, two weeks apart, to determine if the target species is present and to record any signs of breeding activity by playing recordings of bird songs and listening for responses from birds in your survey area.

The project runs from January to September every year.

Map habitat in backyards, parks, and schools. Work towards more sustainable landscapes. The YardMap network lets you draw your landscapes with a beautiful online mapping tool and helps you learn about how to use your outdoor spaces (big or small) to aid birds and other wildlife. Connect to other citizen scientists, solve problems, share your maps and good ideas all while helping to build an invaluable database of habitat data for Cornell Lab of Ornithology Scientists.

Tree Tracker participants will take part in an exciting training session and then visit specific trees in their neighborhoods to observe and record the life cycle changes in trees. This information can then be used to learn more about changes in climate. Participants upload their observations to the Project Budburst website, which professional scientists then use. Citizen scientists can see recently uploaded observations as well as year-end reports from the professional scientists.

The trainings will happen during the fall and spring of each year and participants will then collect data throughout the year. We encourage anyone interested in the project to get in touch with us so that we can register them for the next available training. Even if you can't make the training, you can still make observations!

Urban Tree Survey volunteers locate, identify, and count trees in United Kingdom streets, parks, and gardens. The general public plays a critical role in the project for two important reasons:

1. A project of this size needs many people to contribute for the data to be useful.
2. Only you can provide information about the trees in your gardens and neighborhoods.

Scientists know a lot about trees growing in rural parts of the United Kingdom but less about the trees in urban areas. Information collected in this project will allow London's Natural History Museum and other research organizations to gain a better insight into:

- the make-up of the United Kingdom’s urban forest and what tree species it contains
- which urban species are native to the United Kingdom and which have been introduced from other countries
- regional differences in what trees grow where
- the biodiversity of the wildlife in urban areas living on or supported by trees
- how tree populations have changed over time as a result of urban planning or garden fashions
- how changes in the climate might affect what trees grow where and when they flower and produce fruit

The Urban Tree Survey launched during the cherry blossom season of spring 2010. In the first year, project organizers want to get as much information on the number, species, and location of urban trees as possible. In the second and third years, project coordinators will refine and expand the survey based on the information gathered in the previous years.

The Frog Listening Network trains community volunteers of all ages and backgrounds to collect data about frog and toad populations in west-central Florida. Volunteers learn how to identify amphibians both by sound and by sight.

Volunteers receive free trainings complete with educational materials such as audiotapes and compact discs, CD-ROMs, and full-color field identification cards to help learn each amphibian species and their individual calls. Volunteers also learn how to collect and record frog population data in a way that's fun and easy.

Amphibians are considered "sentinels" of environmental health because of their sensitive skin. Their populations are declining worldwide, so frog and toad populations need to be monitored in Florida. By watching them and keeping track of their populations, we can begin to understand the health of the environment. It is difficult to assemble a professional team to do this, which is why the project relies on the help of volunteers. Although similar to other amphibian monitoring groups across the country, the Frog Listening Network is the only group of its kind in west-central Florida.

Along with additional environmentally important data collected by others, the frog data are compiled into an annual report that is made available for use by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the National Amphibian Monitoring Program. These data help to paint a picture of the health of the environment.

Volunteers for Operation RubyThroat observe hummingbird migration and/or nesting behavior and share information with peers across North and Central America. The resulting data on hummingbird behavior and distribution are submitted to a central clearing house, analyzed, and then disseminated to scientists through the Operation RubyThroat website.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) are the most widely distributed of the 339 species of hummingbirds, occurring in all ten countries of North and Central America. They come frequently to nectar plants and backyard sugar water feeders and are easily observed. Nonetheless, many aspects of the birds’ natural history are not well understood.

Through EarthTrek, Operation RubyThroat seeks data about two aspects of Ruby-throated Hummingbird behavior: 1) timing of migration; and 2) nesting. In addition to providing much-needed baseline information, your data may help show whether these birds’ behaviors are changing, perhaps due to external factors such as climate change, alteration of habitat, and other factors.

Bee Hunt participants use digital photography to record and study the interactions between plants and pollinators, following rigorous protocols to ensure high-quality data. The data collected will help provide a better understanding of pollinators' importance in growing food and maintaining healthy natural ecosystems. Bee Hunt is open to anyone, anywhere, whenever pollinators are flying. In North America, depending upon your location, you can start as early as March and go as late as November.

There are four ways to participate in Bee Hunt:

1. Inventory pollinators at your site with photographs
2. Compare species in two patches
3. Provide nesting sites for mason bees and study when they are active
4. Use bowls and soapy water to collect insects for a more complete inventory of species

Bee Hunt is a great way to teach and learn about pollination ecology and other aspects of natural history. Bee Hunt is a participatory science project. It's your research. You are the scientists. By following the project’s methods, you will collect and contribute high-quality data.

This is a local, month-long extension of World Water Monitoring Day, during which volunteers in New Jersey's Morris and Somerset Counties will collect basic water quality data from the streams and lakes in the Great Swamp Watershed. The project runs from September 18, the official date of the international water monitoring day, through October 18. The organizers plan to repeat it in the same time frame every year.

World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) is a worldwide education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies.

TreeWatch volunteers "adopt" a tree in Europe, and observe and record changes in the the tree's visible health through regular surveys. TreeWatch's pilot project is on horse chestnuts.

Europe's trees are facing unprecedented environmental threats, including pollution and land use change. A number of new tree diseases and pests have affected trees in recent years; the horse chestnut leaf miner, acute oak decline, and red band needle blight to name a few. Scientists are working hard to monitor and understand these and other pests and diseases. However, they are small teams and increasingly stretched, both in terms of the growing demand for their expertise, and by tightening budgets. This is where you can help and make a difference.

TreeWatch aims to:

- Create and maintain a registry of tree health.
- Contribute to a scientific understanding of the impacts of environmental stress on tree health.
- Develop a national volunteer network that could function as an early warning system in the face of new threats.
- Promote public engagement with environmental science in general, and specifically with the health and vitality of our trees.

TreeWatch is open to anyone, and getting involved is completely free. Are you up to the challenge?

Florida LAKEWATCH is a volunteer water-monitoring program that facilitates "hands-on" participation in the management of lakes, rivers, and coastal sites through monthly sampling activities. Participants work with researchers at the University of Florida to collect samples that, when analyzed, will contribute to the understanding of Florida’s water bodies.

All volunteers attend a two-hour training session on how to collect water samples and monitor lakes. As a trained LAKEWATCH volunteer, you will help develop a database of water chemistry for your particular lake, river, or coastal site. These data can then be used to establish trends and develop an overview of how your site fits into the overall picture of Florida water bodies.

Volunteers receive a free newsletter subscription and invitations to free Florida LAKEWATCH volunteer appreciation meetings. Don't miss out!

Explore, share, and contribute photos of animals around the world. Animals and Earth is a resource for photos of all species, their behavior, habitats, and conservation efforts.

There are several ways you can participate.

Option A: Find photos or issues you care about by browsing our photo collection of animals and earth photos. Gather a photo collection, create a blog, and start your own conservation effort using our content

Option B: Grab your camera and help document the flora and fauna of your place on earth.

Option C: Help identify animals and places on our site by adding photo locations and Latin names for animals photos that are not identified yet. Post photos to websites, blogs and social networks promotes awareness and conservation.

Imagine an expedition with a field staff of 10,000. How about 100,000? It's possible. Supported by National Geographic Digital Media, "Field Expedition: Mongolia — Valley of the Khans Project" is an innovative, noninvasive archaeological survey of Mongolia’s sacred lands that allows web users around the world to actively participate in an ongoing, real-time scientific exploration. Valley of the Khans is the ultimate citizen science project.

Because of the extensive size of the region of Mongolia being explored, detailed analysis of the terrain is beyond the capability that any single individual can handle. By providing real-time data, satellite imagery, maps and other information from the field directly to web users at home, the Valley of the Khans Project harnesses the analytic power of the collective public to crowdsource the identification of on-the-ground anomalies — anomalies that could indicate sites of cultural heritage. Once candidate locations are pinpointed they will be ground-truthed in real time by the expedition team concurrently working in the field.

Field Expedition: Mongolia also serves a greater technology purpose as well. In addition to guiding potential discoveries and supplementing the limitations of computer-based computational search alone, the data generated by sourcing a massive human demographic could be used to develop human computation concepts that will train computer-vision algorithms and facilitate active machine learning. This is especially relevant in the case of visual analytics where human intuition remains beyond the scope of existing computer object recognition algorithms.

RNA World is a distributed supercomputer that uses Internet-connected computers to advance RNA research. This system is dedicated to identify, analyze, structurally predict, and design RNA molecules on the basis of established bioinformatics software in a high-performance, high-throughput fashion.

The RNA World project is based at the Rechenkraft research facility located in Germany.

The Great Lakes Worm Watch needs citizen scientists to conduct earthworm surveys in forests and other habitats anywhere in North America.

Earthworms are not native to the Great Lakes Region; they were all wiped out after the last glaciation. The current population, brought here by early Europeans, is slowly changing the face of our native forests, but very little is known about the distributions of earthworm and earthworm species across the region. While valuable, this type of information is labor-intensive, and it is difficult for researchers to get funding to do this kind of work. Citizen scientists can help.

There are several ways to get involved:

1. Document earthworm occurrences: This involves collecting and sending earthworm specimens with location information to Great Lakes Worm Watch. These specimens will be archived at the University of Minnesota, and the species and location information will be added to the project database.

2. Collect habitat data: Great Lakes Worm Watch would like data from all habitat types, especially natural ecosystems like forests, woodlands, and prairies. In addition, data from habitats dominated by human activity are also of value, such as farm fields, pastures, and parks. Depending on your level of interest and expertise, you can choose to conduct a general or detailed habitat survey. You can use the instructions and data sheets developed by the project coordinators to make the data easily transferable to the database.

3. Conduct soil surveys: In addition to earthworm and habitat data, Great Lakes Worm Watch is also interested in getting data about the soil conditions at sites in which you sampled for earthworms. You can use the instructions and data sheet developed by project coordinators to make the data easily transferable to the database.

Get started! Anyone can make a BIG difference when it comes to containing the spread of exotic earthworms!

Plants of Concern engages citizen scientists to monitor the Chicago Wilderness region's rarest plants, assess trends in their populations, and provide important data used to conserve our rapidly declining floral heritage.

The program aims to:

- Monitor endangered, threatened, and locally rare plant species using standardized protocols

- Assess long-term trends in rare plant populations in response to management activities and/or threats to populations

- Train volunteers as citizen scientists to monitor rare plant populations and become conservation advocates

- Provide information on population trends and potential threats to the populations to public and private landowners, land managers, and agencies as feedback to help determine future management practices

Since its ambitious inception in 2000, Plants of Concern has grown and continues to expand. New sites, plant species, and volunteers have been added every year. The importance of volunteer participation cannot be stressed enough, for it is literally the backbone of the program. Plants of Concern has thrived because of the dedication and perseverance of volunteers and the collaboration of regional partners.

You can help! The project needs volunteers of all skill levels to help with monitoring rare species in the Chicago area.

The Bird Conservation Network Census needs citizen scientists to record bird distribution and abundance information for birds in the Chicago region.

Bird monitors can participate at different levels:

- If you have a special interest in a particular site, you can become a regular monitor at that site and keep a year-round watch on the birds that nest, winter, or migrate through that site.

- You may help track changes in nesting populations by conducting point count surveys during the breeding season.

- You may visit a site during the nesting season and record numbers and species of birds just as you would on a Christmas Count.

- If you do not have the time to become a regular site monitor, you can still contribute your sightings.

The Bird Conservation Network has created a set of standardized methods for studying the birds of the Chicago Wilderness region. These methods can serve a variety of research purposes while also allowing birders to participate at different levels of intensity. Participants commit to making five or more visits to the site each year with at least two of those visits coming during breeding season (June). Also, participants should be able to recognize Illinois birds by sight and sound. By general rule, a birder should have about at least three years of experience with field identification of birds in the Illinois area.

The goals of this study are to generate a general picture of bird distribution in the region, to collect data to assist land managers and conservation planners in decision making, and to create a database compatible with other types of habitat data being gathered in the region which can be used by researchers investigating specific ecosystem questions. If you are an avid birder at a Chicago Park District nature area, you are encouraged to become a bird monitor.

Wisconsin NatureMapping is the place for citizens, students, and professionals to map their observations of Wisconsin wildlife.

As you know, wildlife knows no property boundaries. A robin will flit from tree to tree with no regard to whether that tree is in a state park or in your backyard. But what if that robin builds a nest in the tree outside your window? Who monitors that nest? What about the deer that come into your yard and eat your vegetables? Who is monitoring them?

The answer is: YOU are! You know your backyard and your neighborhood better than most natural resource professionals do simply because YOU live there and YOU see the critters that live there every day!

To best manage wildlife populations, Wisconsin state biologists need to have as much information as possible about where a species lives. That means they need to know just as much about where species are when they are NOT on public land as when they are. And YOU are the critical link to making sure they get that information.

Another very important reason you should NatureMap is because the wildlife observations you submit to Wisconsin NatureMapping are used to better inform the Wisconsin State Wildlife Action Plan. This is a federally mandated plan in which the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources must describe how they will manage all of the species of Wisconsin wildlife. Map your wildlife observations today!

The United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme needs citizen scientists to monitor and record data about butterflies at specific sites in the United Kingdom. The project's mission is to assess the status and trends of United Kingdom butterfly populations for conservation, research, and quality of life.

Butterflies are unique indicators of the state of the environment because of their rapid lifecycles and high sensitivity to environmental conditions. The volunteer networks and datasets created by this project enable accurate assessment of butterfly trends, allowing researchers to assess the impacts of climate change.

The project is based on a well-established and enjoyable recording scheme. Participants walk a fixed route at a specific site, and record the butterflies they see along the route on a weekly basis under reasonable weather conditions. For data to be most useful, participants will need to walk their routes regularly with very few missed weeks each year and continue this for at least five consecutive years. This effective methodology has produced important insights into almost all aspects of butterfly ecology.

The United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme has monitored changes in the abundance of butterflies throughout the United Kingdom since 1976. Over the 32 years of the scheme, recorders have made more than 170,000 weekly visits to 1500 separate sites, walking more than 375,000 km (225,000 miles) and counting more than 12.5 million butterflies! Join the fun!

The Dragonfly Monitoring Network is a citizen-scientist program that monitors the health of dragonfly populations throughout the Chicago area. This program represents an important step in collecting data on insect populations and their response to land management techniques.

Volunteers will be trained to collect and submit data each summer from an assigned site. They commit to:

- attendance of one Spring Workshop a year

- learning to identify key dragonfly and damselfly species

- conducting at least six site visits between late May and late September

- spending one to two hours walking the route during each visit

- submitting data sheets at the end of the season, which are then added to the project database

With your help, the Dragonfly Monitoring Network hopes to gain a greater knowledge of the distribution and abundance of dragonfly and damselfly species in the Chicago region and eventually to expand the network across Illinois and beyond.

The Chicago Park District Butterfly Monitoring Program is a citizen-scientist project that monitors the health of butterfly populations in Chicago Park District nature areas.

Volunteers will:

- learn to identify common butterflies likely to be found in our park system

- conduct at least six site visits between June and early August

- spend 20 to 30 minutes walking the route during each visit

- submit data sheets at the end of the season, which are then added to the butterfly database

- attend a butterfly monitoring workshop held in the spring

Through analysis of the extensive database generated by citizen scientists, researchers are able to gain a greater knowledge of the butterfly species present in the Chicago park system. These results will assist land managers in more effective conservation of the city's butterflies.

The Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network is a citizen-scientist program that monitors the health of butterfly populations throughout northeastern and central Illinois.

Each summer, trained volunteers collect and submit butterfly data from an assigned site. Volunteers commit to conducting at least six site visits between June 1 and August 7, completing four of them before July 20. During the first year they volunteers, participants learn to identify 25 different butterfly species, and they learn another 25 species the second year.

Through analysis of the extensive database generated by citizen scientists, populations trends of species throughout the Chicagoland area are starting to emerge. These results will assist land managers in more effective conservation of the state's butterflies.

Many important sites do not yet have butterfly monitors, and project coordinators continue to look for more volunteers. Join the fun!

ClimatePrediction is a distributed computing project that aims to produce predictions of the Earth's climate up to the year 2300 and to test the accuracy of climate models. To do this, the project needs people around the world to volunteer time on their computers - time when their computers are on but not being used at full capacity.

The project needs you to run a climate model program on your computer. The model will run automatically in the background whenever you switch your computer on, and it should not affect any other tasks for which you use your computer. As the model runs, you can watch the weather patterns evolve on your unique version of the world. The results are sent back to project coordinators via the Internet, and you will be able to see a summary of your results on the website. ClimatePrediction uses the same underlying software, BOINC, as many other distributed computing projects and, if you like, you can participate in more than one project at a time.

Climate change, and our response to it, are issues of global importance, affecting food production, water resources, ecosystems, energy demand, insurance costs, and much else. Current research suggests that the Earth will probably warm over the coming century; Climateprediction should, for the first time, tell us what is most likely to happen.

Massachusetts Audubon's American Kestrel Monitoring Project needs citizen scientists to record kestral sightings and breeding data in Massachusetts.

There are two ways to get involved:

1. Reporting: Seen a kestrel? You can report it online using the project's map tool. American Kestrels in Massachusetts breed between roughly May 10 to July 20. Simply record when and where you saw the bird, along with a brief note as to what it was doing. This information will help us choose good sites for new nest boxes!

2. Monitoring: If you've got a lot of time and enthusiasm, the project might be able to use your help as a volunteer Kestrel Box Monitor. Monitors will be assigned to check boxes frequently during the breeding season and to record important breeding data for use in evaluating the effectiveness of the program.

The American Kestrel is facing some serious challenges. Massachusetts Audubon would like to be prepared to meet those challenges for years to come, but they can't do it without your help!

Massachusetts Audubon's Whip-poor-will Project is an opportunity for state residents to contribute their observations to a database that will track Whip-poor-wills.

Once common and widespread, Whip-poor-wills have undergone a steady decline that has seemed especially steep to many observers during the last 30 years. In Massachusetts, these birds continue to be common in undisturbed pine-oak barrens on the South Shore, Cape Cod, and the Islands, but are few and far between elsewhere. Like many aspects of Whip-poor-will life, there is little certainty about the causes.

Participants use an online map tool to pinpoint where they have heard a Whip-poor-will. The project has also established a number of "listening routes" statewide. Participants drive these routes under certain prescribed conditions, stopping at regular intervals to listen for three minutes and record any Whip-poor-wills they hear.

The purpose of the Whip-poor-will project is to study the distribution, populations, and breeding activities of Whip-poor-wills in Massachusetts. The data we collect will be the basis for future conservation efforts to ensure that this remarkable night bird will continue to be a part of the Commonwealth's natural heritage.

The Oriole Project is an opportunity for Massachusetts residents to observe and help track the health of Baltimore Oriole populations.

While Baltimore Orioles are still relatively common in Massachusetts, scientists have detected local population declines and have proposed that the species be monitored. This on-going pilot project aims to study the distribution, populations, and breeding activities of Baltimore Orioles in the Massachusetts area.

The project's new online mapping tool allows participants to enter as many oriole sightings as they want with only a single sign-on. The tool also allows volunteers to pinpoint the exact locality of a bird without having to give an address or written description.

The goal of the Massachusetts Audubon Oriole Project is to enlist as many citizen scientists as possible in building a database about the breeding status of these magnificent birds. The data collected now will form the foundation for future conservation efforts to ensure that this beautiful vocalist will be a permanent part of the New England landscape.

This project needs citizen scientists to report any owls they see or hear in Massachusetts.

Participants can easily report their discoveries on the project's online Owl Reporter form. This online mapping tool allows volunteers to enter as many owl sightings as they want through a single sign-in. The tool also allows citizen scientists to pinpoint the exact locality of an owl without having to give an address or written description.

These reports provide valuable information about the owl population in Massachusetts. Your contributions will even help out other citizen science projects, such as the Breeding Bird Atlas project and Snowy owl research.

Whoooo knew citizen science could be so awesome!?

Massachusetts Vernal Pool Salamander Migrations Study needs the public to document, through an online mapping interface, large migrations across roads of amphibians that breed in the state's vernal pools.

The project aims to minimize the impact of roads and traffic on rare and non-game wildlife, while improving highway safety, through cost-effective research, planning, and implementation of partnerships with citizens and communities of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Help contribute data and learn more about proactive efforts to protect rare wildlife in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Statewide Roadkill Database needs the public to document any roadkill observations in the state through an online mapping interface.

The project aims to minimize the impact of roads and traffic on rare and non-game wildlife, while improving highway safety, through cost-effective research, planning, and implementation of partnerships with citizens and communities of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Help contribute data and learn more about proactive efforts to protect wildlife in Massachusetts.

This project allows the public to document turtle roadkill observations in Massachusetts through an online mapping interface.

The project aims to minimize the impact of roads and traffic on rare and non-game wildlife, while improving highway safety, through cost-effective research, planning, and implementation of partnerships with citizens and communities of Massachusetts.

Help contribute data and learn more about proactive efforts to protect turtles and other wildlife in Massachusetts.

The Camas Citizen Science Monitoring Program seeks to engage high school volunteers in the long-term scientific monitoring of camas lily populations in the Weippe Prairie site of Nez Perce National Historical Park. Students are trained in the classroom and then spend time in the field using data collection techniques specifically designed for this program. Results of the monitoring effort are available to National Park Service managers so that they can make better management decisions based on sound, scientific information.

Camas is an important cultural and natural resource. For the last 7,000 years, camas has been an important part of the Nez Perce history, life and culture, as well as those of many other tribes of the Pacific Northwest. In addition, camas is one of a suite of wetland species associated with seasonal wet prairie ecosystems. However, as a result of recent agricultural conversion, irrigation, flood control, and other land use practices, remaining wet prairies in this region have been drastically reduced. Projected climate change will also impact these wet prairie ecosystems and monitoring camas populations will provide the National Park Service an opportunity to track climate change impacts on park natural resources.

Monitoring of camas and invasive weeds is a unique opportunity to integrate natural resource monitoring with the cultural history of the Nez Perce people. Citizen scientists will use carefully designed scientific procedures and modern technology to collect data, such as the number of camas plants and flowering plants and the presence of invasive species. Components of the program are tied to state science standards, and high school students will work alongside ecologists, statisticians, natural resource managers, and interpretive rangers.

Three local high schools are currently participating each year. This is a unique learning opportunity that students are sure to remember.

Bird Atlas 2007-11 needs volunteers in the United Kingdom to help produce maps of distribution and relative abundance for all bird species that breed and winter in the area.

Bird atlases provide a fascinating periodic insight into the status of all of the bird species of an area. This project will allow researchers to assess changes in bird distributions since previous breeding atlases in 1970 and 1990, and since the last winter atlas of the early 1980s. Atlases have been immensely important for furthering bird knowledge and conservation, and Bird Atlas 2007-11 is destined to set the agenda for the next decades of ornithology in Britain and Ireland.

Fieldwork will span four winters and four breeding seasons, starting November 1, 2007, and concluding in 2011. There are two ways in which you can help:

1. Timed Tetrad Visits - record all the birds you see and hear in a 2km x 2km square. Visit for an hour or more in the winter and breeding season.

2. Roving Records - any bird, anytime, anywhere. If you see it, record it, and, the project coordinators will map it.

The Bird Atlas is a huge project that will synthesize millions of individual bird records. Don't miss this chance to make an important contribution.

Bird Ringing at the British Trust for Ornithology is a network of more than 2,500 trained and licensed volunteers in the United Kingdom that ring--or tag--more than 900,000 birds every year.

Bird ringing involves the fitting of small, uniquely numbered metal rings on the legs of birds. By identifying these birds as individuals, researchers can start to understand changes in the survival and movements of bird populations.

Bird ringers come in many types, from individuals working in urban areas to large groups working in a wide geographic area, and can start at any age. Though you definitely don’t need to be a bird expert to ring, it does help if you have some prior bird knowledge. Anyone who wants to participate in the project will need to gain field experience with a qualified trainer.

You’ll no doubt find that ringing is a very satisfying activity. Not only will you be adding to 100 years of data used directly by conservationists, but you will also enjoy the experience of seeing birds close up. Whether you want to train to ring birds in nest boxes, gardens, or a local gravel pit, your contribution is vital to the project's success.

Nest Box Challenge gives anyone in the United Kingdom the opportunity to monitor the breeding success of birds in Britain's green spaces. Participants register the nest boxes in their gardens or local areas and record what's inside at regular intervals during the breeding season.

Britain's gardens play an increasingly important role in supporting British bird populations and providing food, shelter, and nesting sites. It is therefore vital to keep a close eye on bird populations in rural, suburban, and urban areas.

The information collected can be used to understand more about why some species are increasing while others are declining, and to help researchers find out whether warmer weather and the provision of food can make a difference in the number of chicks that birds are able to raise.

Just a few well-planned visits to the nest can provide useful information. Are you up to the challenge?

Nest Record Scheme volunteers gather vital information on the productivity of the United Kingdom's birds, using simple, standardized techniques. Participants provide the evidence needed to confirm whether a species in decline is encountering problems at the nesting stage.

Nest recording is one of the simplest citizen science projects at the British Trust for Ornithology in which to participate. Data are analyzed annually, and the results are published in the
"Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside" report along with information on species’ abundance obtained through other British Trust for Ornithology monitoring schemes. Nest record data are also used to investigate the causes of species-specific trends in breeding success.

The project provides an ideal opportunity to participate in the conservation of Britain’s birds. Whether you can monitor a single garden nestbox or carry out a larger study, your records make a valuable contribution to the project.

Wetland Bird Survey needs volunteer birdwatchers to monitor non-breeding waterbirds in the United Kingdom. The principal aims of the project are to measure population sizes, determine trends in numbers and distribution, and to identify important sites for waterbirds.

Counts are made annually at around 2,000 wetland sites, mostly estuaries and large still waters. Volunteers make monthly coordinated counts. The principal months of data collection are from September to March, though observations are increasingly submitted from the summer months.

Volunteers use the so-called "look-see" methodology, whereby the observer, familiar with the species involved, surveys the whole of a predefined area. Data are widely used for a variety of purposes and can be accessed via the British Trust for Ornithology website.

Wetland Bird Survey is dependent on the enthusiasm and dedication of the several thousand volunteer counters throughout the United Kingdom. New counters are always needed to cover new sites, particularly habitats such as rivers which are monitored less comprehensively, as well as to replace counters who retire.

This project needs volunteers to survey breeding bird populations in the United Kingdom. Join more than 3,000 participants who now survey more than 3,200 sites across the region and monitor the population changes of more than 100 bird species!

Breeding Bird Survey is the main source of population trend information about the United Kingdom’s common and widespread birds. Knowing to what extent bird populations are increasing or decreasing is fundamental to bird conservation, and the status of these populations is an important indicator of the health of the countryside.

Breeding Bird Survey is designed to be a quick, simple, and enjoyable birdwatching experience. Survey sites are randomly selected, 1-km (.6-mile) squares of land. Participants make just three visits to specially selected squares, the first to record habitat and to set up a suitable survey route and the second and third to record birds that are seen or heard while walking along the route. Participants do not need to be world-class birders to take part, but they should be able to identify common birds by sight and sound.

Join today -- all new volunteers receive a free CD of the songs and calls of more than 70 British bird species.

BirdTrack is a free, online bird recording system for birdwatchers to store and manage their own records from anywhere in Britain and Ireland. Everyone with an interest in birds can get involved by recording when and where they watched birds then completing a list of the species seen and heard during the trip.

Exciting real-time outputs are generated by BirdTrack, including species reporting rate graphs and animated maps of sightings, all freely-available online. The data collected are used by researchers to investigate migration movements and distributions of birds and to support species conservation at local, national and international scales.

BirdTrack is year-round and ongoing, making it an ideal project for getting children enthused about birds and migration. Teachers are encouraged to add their school grounds as a BirdTrack site then help their students to record the birds they see and hear.

The success of BirdTrack relies on YOU. Get started today!

Garden BirdWatch needs citizen scientists in the United Kingdom to gather information on how different species of birds use gardens and how this use changes over time. Gardens are an important habitat for many wild birds and provide a useful refuge for those affected by changes in the management of the countryside. The data gathered in this project enables researchers at the British Trust for Ornithology to monitor the changing fortunes of garden birds.

Some 16,000 participants currently take part in Garden BirdWatch. Participants send in simple, weekly records of bird species that they see in their gardens. This information is either submitted on paper count forms or by using Garden BirdWatch Online. Each participant also supports the project financially through an annual contribution of £15 (approximately $22). In return, participants receive the quarterly color magazine, Bird Table, count forms, and access to advice on feeding and attracting garden birds.

All new joiners will receive a free copy of an exclusive paperback version of the acclaimed "Garden Birds and Wildlife" (normally £14.99).

Orca Project volunteers in Port Townsend, Washington document orca bones for an online bone atlas, assist in orca education with children's groups, take part in assembling a full-size skeleton for display, participate in the design of a new orca exhibit and conduct research on underwater sounds using a hydrophone.

The project’s goals are to improve public awareness of the challenges faced by killer whales--toxic contamination, underwater noise pollution, and diminishing food supplies in the Puget Sound--as well as develop an appreciation for the whales’ remarkable social bonds and communication abilities.

Funded by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, other organizations, and matching funds, the Orca Project will focus on both the transient and resident killer whales seen in the Northwest United States.

The Orca Project will also offer public lectures, free science classes for Olympic Peninsula students, tours of articulated whale skeletons for school classes, hands-on activities for after-school groups, Bring Your Bones Day (a community event with resident experts helping identify and reveal the mysteries of bones), and focused outreach to the maritime and marine community of Port Townsend, Washington.

Volunteers for the East Jefferson County Marine Mammal Stranding Network collect data on dead, stranded, or abandoned marine mammals at selected Washington State beaches. Participants also "pup sit" seal pups while they are being weaned onshore in order to keep curious dogs and humans at a safe distance while the mother seal hunts.

Volunteers sign up to cover particular beaches and are trained to respond and collect vital data that can be used to establish baseline information on marine mammal communities. The data will be used by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other organizations.

Participants in this project monitor gardens, parks, or school yards throughout the spring and summer to identify viburnum leaf beetles. As a citizen scientist, you gather data that researchers can use to help stop the spread of this pest, reduce the damage it causes, and help us all be better prepared for future invasions by exotic pests.

The viburnum leaf beetle is an invasive, non-native beetle that first appeared in New York State along Lake Ontario in 1996, and has steadily spread. It has been reported in Maine, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and parts of Ohio, as well as Ontario, the Canadian Maritime Provinces, and British Columbia. It is a voracious eater that can defoliate viburnum shrubs entirely. Plants may die after two or three years of heavy infestation.

The Viburnum Leaf Beetle Project teams gardeners, landscapers, 4-H groups, school classes, and others with researchers at Cornell University. With your help, researchers can learn more about the viburnum leaf beetle by tracking its expanding range, learning which viburnum species it likes or dislikes, assessing how much damage the beetle causes, determining how weather and other factors affect its lifecycle, and identifying which management tactics effectively limit pest populations.

Volunteers for the Smithsonian Institution's Neighborhood Nestwatch in the Washington, DC, area team with scientists to find and monitor bird nests and to record and report their observations.

Participants help capture, measure, and band backyard birds as well as track their presence from year to year. Through annual summer visits to urban, suburban, and rural backyards, participants and their families receive coaching on how to monitor and report data on nests of common backyard birds.

Volunteers also become an important part of a study seeking to determine the effectiveness of informal education experiences.

If you live within 60 miles of Washington, DC, take a naturalist’s journey into the mysterious lives of neighborhood birds, and join more than 200 citizen scientists making significant contributions to our knowledge of backyard wildlife.

Using small telescopes around the world, Global Telescope Network members observe and analyze astronomical objects related to the NASA Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST), Swift, and XMM-Newton missions.

These missions are designed to study astronomical objects through their emission of x-rays and gamma rays. But much can be learned by combining observations over a broad range in the electromagnetic spectrum. So, the Global Telescope Network has been assembled to make observations in the optical range to complement the observations by space-borne observatories.

Members can participate in a number of activities, including gamma-ray burst photometry analysis, surveillance data analysis, and galaxy monitoring, and by donating telescope time. The Global Telescope Network in turn provides involvement for students, teachers, and amateur astronomers in cutting-edge astronomical research. It also offers mentoring in research practices, telescope use, data analysis, and educational resources.

Lost Lizards of Los Angeles needs community volunteers to gather data on lizards in the Los Angeles area. We (the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) have noticed that in our own backyard, Exposition Park, lizards had not been documented since 1988. This seemed strange, as lizards are common in other parts of Los Angeles, and it led to the question, "Why are there no lizards here?" We hope to answer this question with the Lost Lizards of Los Angeles project.

Because lizards are mainly ground dwellers, they are particularly susceptible to the impact of urban development. But there are some very simple ways you can help! All you need to do is follow a few steps to find, take pictures of, and then submit your information about lizards in Los Angeles.

Herpetologists and Los Angeles County Natural History Museum staff will use your data to accomplish three goals:

1. Confirm the presence or absence of lizards in Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

2. Find out where lizards DO occur in the Los Angeles Basin.

3. Hypothesize why lizards can survive there.

Now, let's go find some lizards!

On the evening of May 18, NASA all-sky meteor cameras located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and at the Walker County Science Center near Chickamauga, Ga. tracked the entry of a large meteor estimated to weigh some 60 pounds over northeastern Alabama. This meteor was first picked up at an altitude of 47 miles over northwest Huntsville, moving at a speed of 8 miles per second toward the southeast. It was last visible northeast of Gurley at an altitude of 23 miles. The meteor was quite bright, with an intensity rivaling that of the waxing crescent moon (in astronomical terms, it was about visual magnitude -8.3).

Residents who saw the meteor on the night of the 18th, or those who may have noticed or picked up an unusual rock in the vicinity are requested to contact the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Eyewitnesses are asked to give a detailed description, including the time of the sighting, and those who suspect they have a meteorite are requested to give the location of the find and provide a digital photo of the object.

Volunteers are needed to help the South Yuba River Citizens League, based in Nevada City, California, collect monthly water quality data at 45 different sites in the Yuba Watershed.

We are the leading regional advocates for creating resilient human and natural communities throughout the greater Yuba River basin by restoring creeks and rivers, regenerating wild salmon populations, and inspiring and organizing people—from the Yuba’s source to the sea—to join in our movement for a more wild and scenic Yuba River.

We train participants to use pH and conductivity meters and to conduct dissolved oxygen titrations in the field in order to collect information on the health of their rivers and streams. We also offer volunteers the opportunity to be involved in other monitoring activities, including health assessments of meadows, sampling of benthic macroinvertebrate and algae, surveys of river vegetation, and temperature logging.

The Coral Reef Monitoring Data Portal is a new tool designed to support, enhance, and widen the scope of existing monitoring efforts in Hawaii. The data portal was developed and is managed by the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL). It was created in partnership with and in support of community-based monitoring programs coordinated by the State of Hawaii DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Aquanimity Now, the Digital Bus, Project S.E.A.-Link, and other local organizations and agencies, through funding obtained from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to CORAL’s Hawaii Field Manager Liz Foote, “We wanted to develop a 'one-stop-shop' for community based coral reef 
monitoring in Hawaii. This site was developed in support of current efforts such 
as the University of Hawaii Botany Department and Division of Aquatic Resources' herbivore grazing protocols, and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National 
Marine Sanctuary's water quality monitoring program. This online data entry and 
reporting system will greatly expand the scope and impact of these monitoring 
efforts, and the associated resources provided on the site will empower and equip 
many more community members to get involved.”

State of the Oyster Study volunteers help monitor bacterial contamination levels in edible shellfish collected from privately owned Washington state beaches in Hood Canal and throughout Puget Sound

Volunteers collect oyster and clam samples from their beaches at specific times during summer months. Washington Sea Grant arranges for laboratory testing of these samples, which are analyzed for the presence of harmful bacteria or for bacterial indicators of fecal contamination. (Volunteers must cover the lab fees.) Washington Sea Grant then helps participants interpret their test results and, if needed, works closely with them to identify and remedy the sources of observed contamination.

Through the years, State of the Oyster has has helped waterfront residents on more than 300 Washington state beaches learn what makes for safer oysters and clams and how to minimize fecal contamination in their waters.

Bald Eagle Watch volunteers monitor various eagle nests across the Colorado Front Range to provide information to biologists on the nesting success of the Colorado Bald Eagle population.

From January to July, Bald Eagle Watch volunteers collect nesting data and record many aspects of the breeding cycle, including courtship, incubation, feeding of nestlings, and fledging of the juveniles.

Colorado is home to many resident and migrant Bald Eagles. This is a fantastic opportunity to continue monitoring the eagle population to ensure it remains viable.

ColonyWatch volunteers monitor colonial waterbirds in Colorado, and resource managers use this information to effect long-term conservation. Anyone who enjoys birds and is concerned with their conservation can be an effective ColonyWatcher.

ColonyWatchers devote anywhere from an hour to several days monitoring a colony. A large colony containing several species may require a number of visits, each of several hours duration. Most of the colonies are small and many can be surveyed in a single visit. Most ColonyWatchers take responsibility for a single colony, but some have adopted up to a dozen.

Anyone who has an interest can acquire the necessary skills, and technical support is always available from the project coordinator and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory. Become a ColonyWatcher today!

Since 2000, volunteers with Vermont's Black River Action Team have helped to clean up and take care of the Black River and its tributaries.

Among our activities are the WaterWorx Bug Hunts: Throughout the year, as a way of assessing the overall health and condition of the water, we explore what lives beneath the surface of the river. Larvae of caddisflies, stoneflies, and mayflies are the most commonly used critters for this purpose. We’ll gather aquatic insects from the bottom of the river, sort them by body type, then identify and count them. Over time, we’ll start to get a good picture of the quality of the river.

So all you folks near Windsor County, Vermont, grab some simple equipment and your sense of adventure: We're going on a Bug Hunt!

OdonataCentral is a website designed to make available what we know about the distribution, biogeography, biodiversity, and identification of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) worldwide. The photographic records submitted by amateur natural historians and citizen scientists help generate a large database of distributional records. OdonataCentral makes its database available to researchers to dynamically generate maps, checklists, and accompanying data.

Seward Park is using Twitter and citizen scientists to monitor coyote populations in Seattle, Washington, and surrounding areas.

Volunteer contributors can tweet or e-mail coyote sightings, and project organizers will include these sightings in the official Coyote Map. This data will give researchers a better picture of where the coyotes are located, how often people see them, and maybe even what they're doing.

The Salish Sea Hydrophone Network needs volunteers to help monitor the critical habitat of endangered Pacific Northwest killer whales by detecting orca sounds and measuring ambient noise levels. Volunteers are especially needed to help notify researchers when orcas are in the Salish Sea, which encompasses the waters of Puget Sound and the surrounding area.

Sponsored by a coalition of organizations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Whale Museum in Olympia, Washington, the network consists of five hydrophones, each hooked up to a computer to analyze the signal and stream it via the internet.

Even though software is used to distinguish animal from other underwater sound, human ears do a better job. So volunteers monitor the network from their home computers anywhere in the world, and alert the rest of the network when they hear whale sounds. Sometimes boats or onshore monitors are deployed to observe the whales while they are making sounds. Researchers hope to learn more about the uses of orca communications and whale migration patterns.

SoundCitizen is a community-based water sampling network in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. We’d love your help.

SoundCitizen focuses on scientific investigation and knowledge discovery of the chemical links between urban settings and aquatic systems. We study fun compounds (cooking spices) and serious ones (emerging pollutants).

We are staffed by undergraduate students at the University of Washington, whose individual research topics help define the overall scientific aims of the program.

SoundCitizen encourages involvement with citizen volunteers and school groups, who voluntarily collect water samples from aquatic systems, perform a series of simple chemical tests, and then mail samples to the lab to be analyzed for cooking spices and emerging pollutants. Our scientific findings illustrate strong seasonal links between household activities (cooking, cleaning etc.) and the subsequent release of chemical “fingerprints” of these activities in aquatic and marine environments.

Seward Park needs volunteers to monitor the plankton of Lake Washington in King County, Washington, over time to assess the health of the lake.

The research is based on the premise that plankton exhibit the effects of environmental change better than chemical or other physical data. Also, long-term monitoring of changes in species composition have signaled the beginning of a decline in European lakes and in Lake Washington in the past.

Volunteers take water samples from a few sites around the lake and count the different types of plankton under the microscope in a Seward Park laboratory. The project needs contributions in a variety of areas, including collecting, counting, and recording plankton.

Seward Park in Seattle, Washington, needs volunteers to record the plants and animals that they see during visits to the park.

Phenology is the study of the natural events of plants and animals. By recording the days, times, and locations of plants and animal sightings, researchers can learn about the various Seward Park ecosystems.

It's easy to participate -- just post any of your observations at the park to the online guest book.

Seward Park in Seattle, Washington, needs volunteers to create a library of the DNA fingerprints of all the eagles who live in or visit the park.

You can help with this project in two ways:

1. Collect the eagle feathers you find at Seward Park.

2. Spool the DNA (prepare samples for testing) from eagle feathers and run the gel electrophoresis. Gels are run on Saturdays every 6 to 8 weeks or whenever project organizers get enough feathers.

Join in! It's like CSI for animals!

INSPIRE volunteers use build-it-yourself kits to measure and record very low frequency radio emissions. These include naturally occurring "sferics" (short for "atmospherics") often generated by lightning and known as "tweeks," "whistlers," and "chorus" as well as man-made emissions.

There is a great deal of scientific curiosity about the nature and generation mechanisms of natural very low frequency radio emissions and how they interact with the Earth's ionosphere and magnetic fields. INSPIRE is taking an active role in furthering the investigation of very low frequency emissions by involving citizen volunteers in its research.

INSPIRE represents a rare opportunity to work with real NASA space scientists on real scientific problems.

COASST is a network of citizen scientists that monitor marine resources and ecosystem health at 300 beaches across northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.

Team volunteers pledge to survey their beach every month. In return, the COASST office pledges to put all of the data together, decipher the patterns across the entire survey range, and give that information back out to volunteers and the communities.

COASST believes that the citizens of coastal communities are essential scientific partners in monitoring marine ecosystem health. By collaborating with citizens, natural resource management agencies, and environmental organizations, COASST works to translate long-term monitoring into effective marine conservation solutions.

BeakGeek allows citizen scientists to share information about birds and bird sightings using freely available and simple social networking tools such as Twitter. BeakGeek adds value to the data created with these tools by providing map based visualizations and monitoring for terms such as "Rare Bird Alert".

The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project enlists citizen scientists to collect long-term data on larval monarch populations and milkweed habitat.

Developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota, the project aims to better understand how and why monarch populations vary in time and space, with a focus on monarch distribution and abundance during the breeding season in North America.

As a volunteer, you can participate in two ways: You can commit to regularly monitoring a specific patch of milkweed or you can submit anecdotal observations. If you commit to regular monitoring, you'll conduct weekly monarch and milkweed surveys, measuring per plant densities of monarch eggs and larvae. You'll also be able to participate in more detailed optional activities, such as measuring parasitism rates and milkweed quality. Your contributions will aid in conserving monarchs and their threatened migratory phenomenon, and will advance our understanding of butterfly ecology in general.

In addition to contributing to an understanding of monarch biology, you'll gain hands-on experience in scientific research. Through this experience, we hope that your appreciation and understanding of monarchs, monarch habitat, and the scientific process are enhanced.

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream needs citizens to monitor and improve the state's streams, wetlands, lakes, and estuaries.

The project goals are to increase public awareness of Georgia's water pollution and water quality issues, provide citizens with the tools and training to evaluate and protect their local waterways, encourage partnerships between citizens and their local government, and collect baseline water quality data.

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream has teamed up with government and non-government groups to provide access to technical information and assistance for citizens interested in preserving and restoring the banks and vegetation along their waterways. This network will help local governments, educate citizens about the importance of protecting riparian corridors, and provide landowners with the information they need to reduce erosion, improve water quality, and provide wildlife habitat with native plantings.

Tracking Climate in Your Backyard seeks to engage youth in real science through the collection, recording, and understanding of precipitation data in the forms of rain, hail, and snow.

The purpose of this project is to encourage youth, specifically ages 8-12, to better understand the scientific process by engaging them in the collection of meaningful meteorological data in their community. In this way, youth develop an understanding of scientific methods and standardization, and by recording and sharing their data through a citizen science project, they recognize the importance of accurate data collection. The citizen science portion of the project, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, collects precipitation data for scientific analysis and for issuance of severe storm warnings and flash flooding events. We believe that when youth know they are contributing data to a real, scientific cause, their engagement levels rise.

This National Science Foundation-funded project is a collaboration between the Paleontological Research Institution and Museum of the Earth, which have experience in professional development and informal education, New York State 4-H, which provides an excellent outreach base and fosters hands-on, experiential learning for youth, and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, which runs a citizen science project to record precipitation measurements in an online database.

The Center for Birds of Prey needs your help identifying Swallow-tailed Kites.

You can help researchers determine the birds' distribution, monitor population trends, and locate important nesting and foraging sites.

Swallow-tailed Kites have striking black and white plumage with a long, scissor-like tail. They are primarily located in bottomland forests and open habitat.

If you see one, all you need to do is report when and where you saw the bird, as well as any other observation details.

The Cherry Bloomsday Project is your chance to find the oldest and most magnificent cherry trees in the United Kingdom.

Until 2008, Yorkshire boasted the United Kingdom’s largest wild cherry tree--18.8 feet (5.7 meters) in girth--but a freak storm snapped off the tree’s crown. Now, you can help find which cherry tree should claim the throne.

Even if you don’t find the next champion cherry tree, the project is collecting records of all types of Britain’s cherry trees in its database. All you have to do is give the tree trunk a hug at chest height. If it’s larger than one human hug, record the information and post it in the project database.

Hug a cherry tree and put it on the map! It couldn't be easier to save the British cherry tree and help find the country’s undiscovered gems.

The Mastodon Matrix Project needs citizen volunteers to analyze actual samples of matrix (the dirt) from a 14,000 year old mastodon excavated in New York! Learn the process of science and work like a paleontologist on real research material!

Volunteers sort through the matrix to find shells, bones, hair, pieces of plants, and rocks from the time when the mastodons lived and roamed the Earth. The matrix and discoveries are then sent back to the Paleontological Research Institution, where they will be cataloged and further analyzed by paleontologists to help scientists form a true picture of the ecology and environment of the late Pleistocene.

Mastodons are extinct relatives of modern elephants. Mastodons were numerous and widespread in North America up until around 10,000 years ago, when they became extinct--with many other species--at the end of the last glacial period.

The Loudoun Butterfly Count is a one-day event that pairs citizen volunteers with experts to learn about, identify, and count as many butterflies as possible.

In the weeks following the count, the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy posts the results on its website and sends it to the North American Butterfly Association to be analyzed at regional and national levels.

Butterflies are good indicators of habitat and the health of our environment because they need such a diversity of plants to develop and survive. Areas that are weedy and wild one year will show an abundance of species while a newly planted lawn (a monoculture) or an area sprayed with pesticides will be a wasteland. By participating in the Loudoun Butterfly Count, volunteers not only get to explore the fantastic world of butterflies up close, but they also learn about this amazing web of life in nature.

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy needs citizen volunteers to set up and monitor bluebird nest box trails across Loudoun County, Virginia.

Participants can monitor at one of the Loudoun County public trails or at their own home trail. In addition, participants can help build new trails and repair existing ones.

By monitoring the boxes, the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy can collect information on its native cavity nesters, learn about their lives first hand, and track population trends.

Virginia's Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy needs citizen volunteers to identify aquatic insects in local streams. The type and quantity of these insects, called benthic macroinvertebrates, tell a good story about the quality of water in the stream and its surrounding habitat.

Monitoring is done in teams of three or four experienced and novice monitors who follow the Virginia Save Our Streams monitoring protocol. Team members wade into the stream and use collecting nets to capture live aquatic insects in the riffle and pool portions of the stream.

The data are transcribed to a computer database maintained by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and are used to prepare water quality reports. Because the same stream sites are sampled year after year, project coordinators are able to report on trends in the health of the streams and aquatic life.

The Fossil Finders Investigation is a unique opportunity for students to assist paleontologists in answering the scientific research question: "Do the organisms in the shallow Devonian sea stay the same during environmental changes?"

Students involved in the project will identify and measure fossils in rock samples, enter their data into an online database, and compare their data with the data of other schools. Processing this data will provide students an opportunity to engage in authentic research. Further, students will help scientists at the Paleontological Research Institution reconstruct the geologic past of central New York. Education researchers from Cornell Department of Education and scientists from the research institution will provide teachers and students with resources and online support for fossil identification.

The Fossil Finders project staff and scientists will help in answering questions via the project website and fielding digital photographs of samples difficult to identify. This collaborative effort will involve students in learning about how science is done in the process of learning science content-matter.

Learning about geological concepts, environmental change, and nature of science will occur concurrently with students’ involvement in the Fossil Finders scientific investigation. The Fossil Finders curriculum also encourages classroom field trips to outcrop sites or local natural history museums to supplement the curriculum; however, virtual visits will be made possible through the project website.

The Hudson River Estuary Program and Scenic Hudson are working with citizen scientists to monitor herring and American eel in Ulster County's Black Creek Preserve.

Herring volunteers will observe the creek to see if, where, and when spawning runs occur. Those interested in eels will use nets and trap devices to catch juvenile glass eels, which are counted, weighed, and released unharmed.

Data may help biologists discover why populations of these important fish are declining.

ClimateWatch aims to create a leading online database for environmental scientists studying the effects of climate change in Australia. It will be created from data entered by citizen scientists and other volunteer observers all around the country who will record their observations and then enter them into the ClimateWatch website.

Climate change is affecting rainfall and temperature across Australia. As a consequence, flowering times, breeding cycles and migration movements are also changing. Scientists have very little data available to understand the impacts of this. You can help.

By observing the timing of natural events (the study of phenology), such as the budding of flowers, falling of leaves and the appearance of migratory birds, the data you collect and record will help shape the country's scientific response to climate change.

The Quake-Catcher Network provides software so that individuals can join together to improve earthquake monitoring, earthquake awareness, and the science of earthquakes.

The Quake-Catcher Network links existing networked laptops and desktops in hopes to form the world’s largest and densest earthquake monitoring system. With your help, the Quake-Catcher Network can provide better understanding of earthquakes, give early warning to schools, emergency response systems, and others.

The Quake-Catcher Network also provides a natural way to engage students and the public in earthquake detection and research. This project places USB-connectable sensors in K-12 classrooms as an educational tool for teaching science and a scientific tool for studying and monitoring earthquakes. Through a variety of interactive experiments students can learn about earthquakes and the hazards that earthquakes pose.

Earthquake safety is a responsibility shared by billions worldwide. Let's get to work!

Celebrate Urban Birds provides an opportunity for everyone across the country to watch birds and participate in activities focused on birds and neighborhood habitat improvement.

Participants learn about 16 species of birds and watch an area about the size of half a basketball court for 10 minutes to see if they can find any of those birds. Urban Bird Celebration provides all of the necessary materials to get you started.

An important part of the celebration is to help scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology collect information about the 16 key species of urban birds. The scientists have created a project that will use data collected from participants in the celebration to study these resident and migratory birds - their numbers, their behavior, their interaction with the urban habitat.

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. Counts can be submitted online or on paper forms.

Anyone with an interest in birds can participate! FeederWatch is conducted by people of all skill levels and backgrounds, including children, families, individuals, classrooms, retired persons, youth groups, nature centers, and bird clubs.

FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. FeederWatch results are regularly published in scientific journals and are shared with ornithologists and bird lovers nationwide. The counts you submit will make sure that your birds (or lack of birds) are represented in papers and in the results found in the Explore Data section of the FeederWatch website.

In addition to instructional materials, registered participants receive a subscription to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's quarterly newsletter, BirdScope as well as a summary of results from the prior season each fall.

eBird is a free, real-time, online program that enlists birdwatchers to record the presence or absence of different bird species.

Participants record when, where, and how they went birding, then fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. eBird shares the observations of birders with a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists.

eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Importantly, it helps to increase our understanding of birds and our appreciation for the uniqueness of our planet's biodiversity.

Evolution Megalab asks volunteers to survey banded snail populations in Europe to help map climate change effects.

Did you know that thanks to a common little snail you can find in your garden, in the park or under a hedge, you can see evolution in your own back yard?

Evolution is a very slow process. Life on Earth started about three-and-a-half billion years ago! It's the tiny changes accumulating over a long, long time that got us here. And you can see some of those tiny steps by joining the Evolution MegaLab.

It may look like banded snails are dressed-to-kill, but really they are dressed not to be killed. Banded snails are a favorite food of the song thrush, and their various shell colors and patterns camouflage them against different backgrounds. But, in some places there are fewer thrushes than there used to be.

Help us find out

* Have shell colors and bands changed where there are fewer thrushes?

Shell color also affects how sensitive a snail is to temperature.

* Have shell colors changed with our warming climate?

The Urban Forest Map is a collaborative effort to map every tree in the city of San Francisco. As a citizen forester, you can get involved by searching for trees, verifying records, and by adding the trees in your neighborhood!

Along the way, researchers will use this data to calculate the environmental benefits that the trees are providing -- how many gallons of storm water they are helping to filter, how many pounds of air pollutants they are capturing, how many kilowatt-hours of energy they are conserving, and how many tons of carbon dioxide they are removing from the atmosphere. The information we gather will help urban foresters and city planners to better manage trees in specific areas, track and combat tree pests and diseases, and plan future tree plantings. Climatologists can use it to better understand the effects of urban forests on climates, and students and citizen scientists can use it to learn about the role trees play in the urban ecosystem.

The goal of Urban Forest Map is to provide a one-stop repository for tree data, welcoming information from any agency or group and enabling and celebrating citizen participation. Together, we'll work toward building a complete, dynamic picture of the urban forest.

Traverse Creek Stewardship (TraCkS) is a group of volunteers who monitor water quality in the Traverse Creek Watershed, which is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in El Dorado County, California.

We are focused on establishing baseline data for water quality conditions in our watershed, to create educational opportunities, to increase stewardship awareness, and to determine if our watershed is healthy. Every year during June, we take "bug" samples at three locations in Traverse Creek. The rest of the year, we meet two nights a month to identify the insects and other small organisms.

No experience is required to participate in TraCkS activities. Our experienced volunteer leaders provide on-the-job training. The water quality of a stream is a combination of its physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. As volunteer citizen monitors, we visit five locations in the Traverse Creek watershed monthly to check on the health of our streams. We take samples of the water and check the temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, and turbidity. We also take photos of the stream and sites to monitor changes in the riparian zone. Once a year we do a complete physical and biological assessment.

Vital Signs brings scientists and novices together to investigate species - particularly invasive species - in Maine.

People can participate in many ways: going outside to look for and document invasive and native species with digital images, location and habitat observations; then entering their observations into our online application; and commenting on shared observations from the comfort of their own homes.

Join us 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. They are the first such pristine particles ever collected in space, and scientists are eagerly waiting for their chance to "get their hands" on them.

Before they can be studied, though, these tiny interstellar grains will have to be found. This will not be easy. Unlike the thousand of particles of varying sizes collected from the comet, scientists estimate that Stardust collected only around 45 interstellar dust particles. They are tiny - only about a micron (a millionth of a meter) in size! These miniscule particles are embedded in an aerogel collector 1,000 square centimeters in size. To make things worse, the collector plates are interspersed with flaws, cracks, and an uneven surface. All this makes the interstellar dust particles extremely difficult to locate.

This is where you come in!

By asking for help from talented volunteers like you from all over the world, we can do this project in months instead of years. Of course, we can't invite hundreds of people to our lab to do this search-we only have two microscopes! To find the elusive particles , therefore, we are using an automated scanning microscope to automatically collect images of the entire Stardust interstellar collector at the Curatorial Facility at Johnson Space Center in Houston. We call these stacks of images focus movies. All in all there will be nearly a million such focus movies. These are available to Stardust@home users like you around the world. You can then view them with the aid of a special Virtual Microscope (VM) that works in your web browser.

Together, you and thousands of other Stardust@home participants will find the first pristine interstellar dust particles ever brought to Earth!

In recognition of the critical importance of the Stardust@home volunteers, the discoverer of an interstellar dust particle will appear as a co-author on any scientific paper by the Stardust@home team announcing the discovery of the particle. The discoverer will also have the privilege of naming the particle!

Archeology Dig started by Louis Leakey to study the origins of Early Man in the Americas. Volunteer on site in the California high desert or process artifacts in the San Bernardino County Museum under the direction of Dr. Dee Schroth, SBCM Curator of Anthropology, and Calico Project Archaeologist.

Students from five diverse New Jersey high schools use kits purchased with funding from the EPA , the CMX Community Foundation and the RBC Blue Water Project of the Royal Bank of Canada Foundation to measure water quality variables such as dissolved oxygen, water clarity and phosphorus. They are also collecting and identifying macroinvertebrates such as dragonfly nymphs, blackfly larvae and snails that indicate pollution levels in a waterbody.

Students are entering their collected data into a Web-based program created by NJDEP that allows them to analyze data and compare it with data collected at other sites.

The Passaic River Institute PREEMO web site provides links to relevant educational materials and links to other data sets about the river. It will provide a forum where students can post their impressions and questions about ecology and environmental science.

At the end of the school year, the students come together at Montclair State University for a student conference where they present a study they have conducted involving their work on the Passaic River.

Have you seen a jellyfish on the beach? Report it to Jellywatch -- a public database documenting ocean conditions. We are especially interested in jellyfish washing up, but we also track red tides, squid and mammal strandings, and other indicators of ocean health.

All the data and images that are submitted are freely and instantly available for bulk download, so students, teachers, and scientists can conduct their own research using information gathered from around the globe.

Monarch butterflies need our help. You can aid them by creating "Monarch Waystations" (monarch habitats) in home gardens, at schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides, and on other unused plots of land.

You can certify your new or existing monarch habitat to show that you are contributing to monarch conservation. Upon certification your site will be included in the International Monarch Waystation Registry, an online listing of Monarch Waystations.

Without a major effort to restore milkweeds to as many locations as possible, the monarch population is certain to decline to extremely low levels. By creating and maintaining a Monarch Waystation you are contributing to monarch conservation, an effort that will help assure the preservation of the species and the continuation of the spectacular monarch migration phenomenon.

Volunteers are provided with equipment and training to collect and process lake water quality samples 8 times each season. Volunteers also take temperature and water clarity measurements in the field at each sampling event. The sampling and processing takes about an hour.

Processed samples are stored by the volunteer until LMVP staff collect them for analysis at the University of Missouri's Limnology Laboratory. At the lab, samples are analyzed for total phosphorus, total nitrogen (plant nutrients), chlorophyll concentration (an estimate of algal biomass) and inorganic suspended solids (sediments).

Klamath Riverkeeper is excited to bring citizen monitoring to the Shasta watershed in 2010 with our first citizen water quality monitoring initiative. We’ll start by training citizens to collect water quality data at points on Yreka Creek and the Shasta River this spring & summer.

The goals of the program are to:
1) Fill a recognized scientific monitoring gap in the Klamath and Shasta River watersheds,
2) Add monitoring capacity to existing and future restoration and stream assessment projects,
3) Provide an educational outreach opportunity to the public in the City of Yreka.

WV Save Our Streams trains citizen scientists in West Virginia how to monitor and become watchdogs over their local wadeable streams and rivers. The program focuses on a biological approach to stream study, which includes the collection and evaluation of the benthic macroinvertebrate community and an assessment of the stream’s basic physiochemical conditions.

We know that owls live in nature preserves, but do they live in residential areas (like your backyard) in-between? Join researchers from the Mianus River Gorge Preserve (Bedford, N.Y.), in a study to map owl habitat in our suburban environment.

We are enlisting residents from New York's Westchester, Putnam, and Fairfield Counties as “citizen scientists” to collect data on screech and barred owls in their backyard using “call playback surveys.” This data will be used to find out where these owls live, if they co-occur, and what habitats and areas they tend to live in or avoid.

Whether in a shrub, a tree, or a nest box, bird nests are everywhere. Find one, and you can help scientists study the biology and monitor populations of North America’s birds by joining the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch program. Every year, volunteers from across the country visit nests once or twice each week and monitor their progression from incubating eggs to fuzzy chicks to fully feathered adults. They then submit this data to NestWatch where it is compiled and analyzed.

NestWatch helps people of all ages and backgrounds connect with nature. The information that NestWatchers collect allows us to understand the impact that various threats, such as environmental change and habitat destruction, have on breeding birds. Armed with this knowledge, we can take the necessary steps to help birds survive in this changing world.

Texas Bee Watchers aims to increase awareness and knowledge of native bees in Texas. This year, the Bee Watchers are challenging Texans to plant 52 Bee Gardens in 52 Weeks.

Physics Songs aims to be the world's premier website devoted to collecting and organizing all songs about physics. It is managed by Walter F. Smith, Professor of Physics at Haverford College.

Songs about physics can help students to remember critical concepts and formulas, but perhaps more importantly they communicate the lesson that physics can be fun. They certainly help to establish an informal classroom atmosphere, in which even shy students are willing to ask questions.

The songs may also activate a different part of the students' brains.

All Missourians rely on streams in one way or another and many of our streams could use a little help. They need teams of people who love clean water, good fishing and health habitat to take care of them, year after year. That's why the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Department of Natural Resources and the Conservation Federation of Missouri joined to develop the Stream Team Program in 1989.

Promoting citizen awareness and involvement, Stream Teams is a fun, hands-on program for people who want to learn about, care for and protect local waterways. If you are ready to tackle the fun of protecting Missouri's streams start a Stream Team.

Anyone can start a Stream Team:

Individuals and Families: If there is a stream in your community that you and your neighbors are concerned about, you can form a Stream Team to adopt it.

Schools and youth groups: Stream Team is a great way for schools, colleges and universities to teach students about stream ecology while restoring and protecting a local stream.

Community, church of service groups: What better way to serve your community than by adopting, cleaning up and maintaining the health and beauty of a neighborhood waterway?

RiverSweep is an annual event. Fish for shopping carts or gather trash from shore: Do your part to keep Vermont's Black River clean!

You can help in Springfield, Ludlow, Plymouth, Cavendish or any other point on the Black River in Windsor County, Vermont. Work can be done from a kayak or canoe if you have one or from shore (watch for poison ivy!). Stay for an hour, or the whole morning! We'll provide trash bags, snacks, work gloves, a free lunch and a complimentary "thank you" tee shirt.

Six out of 10 people in the US have never seen our Milky Way Galaxy arch across their night sky from where they live. And the problem of light pollution is quickly getting worse. Within a couple of generations in the U.S., only the national parks will have dark enough skies to see the Milky Way.

Too much outdoor lighting not only affects being able to see the stars, but also wastes energy and money, about 2 to 10 billion dollars a year. And it has been shown to cause sleep disorders in people and to disrupt the habits of animals like newly hatched sea turtles that try to find their way back into the ocean but are disoriented by streetlights.

Light pollution may be a global problem, but the solutions are local. To help people “see the light”, an international star-hunting program for students, teachers, and the general public was created called GLOBE at Night. GLOBE at Night is now in its 5th year and is hosted by the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

There are 5 GLOBE at Night campaigns in 2013:
January 3 - 12
January 31 - February 9
March 3 - 12
March 31 - April 9
April 29 - May 8

Through this program, children and adults are encouraged to reconnect with the night sky and learn about light pollution and in doing so, become citizen scientists inspired to protect this natural resource. Teachers like the GLOBE at Night program, because it lends itself to cross-curricular learning: astronomy, geography, history, literature, and writing. The possibilities are great.

Help scientists gather much-needed data on the abundance and distribution of an invasive plant called 'garlic mustard' (scientific name: Alliaria petiolata).

Many invasive species, like garlic mustard, are quickly changing North America's ecosystems, but scientists still don't understand why or how this happens. Maybe it's an escape from enemies, maybe it's an increase in size or seed production, or maybe it's a misperception.

To figure this out we need sample data from all over the world, but that requires a large group effort. Fortunately, it does not require specialized training because plant performance can be reliably quantified with simple measurements such as height and seed production of individuals, as well as area of coverage and density of plants.

By spending as little as a single day on this project, you could help scientists to come to a new understanding about invasive species. This in turn could ultimately lead to important new management strategies.

Armed with your camera, rediscover your natural surroundings; you might be surprised what you find!

British biodiversity is currently under threat, with thousands of our plants and animals facing habitat destruction and homelessness. What on Earth is a call-to-action to identify as many plants and animals as possible in UK parks, gardens, and hedgerows.

Go outside and reconnect with all the weird and wonderful flora and fauna that inhabit our small but diverse land.

Upload a photo of anything you don't recognise and in return we'll send you a free packet of seeds designed to encourage more creatures to inhabit your local space (subject to availability), in addition to a Biodiversity Information and Activity Pack.

Are you interested in bringing Hubble Space Telescope data into your classroom? Then check out NASA Top Stars!

U.S. formal (K-12 and college) and informal educators were invited to submit their best examples of using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope for science, technology, engineering or mathematics education. Those selected as Top Stars received national recognition and awards. Winning entries are published online for other educators to use to inspire their students.

The deadline to enter was Feb. 28, 2010. While the contest has ended, the Top Stars website provides access to a showcase of Top Stars winners and other resources for the classroom.

Top Stars is an IGES initiative, through funding from NASA, and in cooperation with the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Herbaria@home is a ground-breaking new approach to digitizing and documenting the archives of the United Kingdom's herbaria. This site provides a web-based method for documenting herbarium sheets. This is important work that will help make the collections accessible to researchers and the public.

With your help and expertise and the support of 1000's of other like-minded volunteers we can realistically document the entire herbarium collections of even major institutions.

Through the efforts of a small army of amateur botanists the plant biodiversity of the UK is the most studied and recorded in the world. This project aims to apply some of that effort to making the wealth of information from historical collections widely accessible and available.

This project is open to everyone. You do not need any particular botanical knowledge or experience to take part.

Use your mobile phone to help us locate invasive plants!

Invasive weeds are a significant threat to native plants and animals. Although most non-natives are not considered "invasive", those that crowd out food sources for wild animals, create erosion, or act as a significant fire hazard can be considered a threat and need to be identified and located for removal. You can help!

Then, using your Android mobile phone, help us locate invasive plants in an expanding number of locations across the US, or you can create your own list of plants that you want help in locating.

Our iPhone app currently works only in the Santa Monica National Recreation Area but is being updated soon.

The plants you identify will be placed on public map and alert park rangers of the spread of these habitat-destroying plants.

You can also participate using any mobile phone with text or picture messaging, email, or our web forms and a digital camera.

The Reef Volunteer Fish Survey allows volunteer SCUBA divers and snorkelers to collect and report information on marine fish populations as well as selected invertebrate and algae species along the West Coast of the US and Canada. Keep track of the fish you see while scuba diving or snorkeling. Submit those to an online database.

This is a worldwide program for:
Pacific Coast
Tropical Eastern Pacific
Tropical Western Atlantic
Hawaii
NE US and Canada

Mushroom Observer is a website where you can record observations about mushrooms, help people identify mushrooms they aren’t familiar with, and expand the community around the scientific exploration of mushrooms.

By some estimates less than five percent of the world’s species of fungi are known to science. While things are slightly better for the large fleshy fungi known as mushrooms, 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. This site is intended to address that gap by creating a place for us to talk about and record what we’ve found, as well as connect to the existing literature about mushrooms.

Please do not feel intimidated by the scientific bent of the site. Everyone is welcome to dive in and add their own mushroom observations, upload mushroom photos and make comments on other people’s observations.

This sponge monitoring program calls on citizen scientists to submit observations of sponges in local waterways to help biologists prioritize future survey efforts. Freshwater sponges are aquatic animals that grow in lakes, rivers, bogs, and streams attached to submerged rocks, sticks, logs, or aquatic vegetation.

These sedentary animals feed by filtering small particles from the water and are thought to be sensitive indicators of pollution. Limited research seems to indicate that the range of some sponge species is more restricted now than in previous years. This study tries to shed more light on how abundant and widely distributed Wisconsin’s sponges are today.

Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL) is a citizen science project in which volunteers make and report cloud observations from sites of their choosing, such as a field trip, vacation, or even a backyard. The project aims to collect data on cloud type, height, cover, and related conditions from all over the world. Observations are sent to NASA for comparison to similar information obtained from satellite.

Many people take for granted how powerful clouds are in our atmosphere. It is clouds, in part, that affect the overall temperature and energy balance of the Earth. The more that scientists know about clouds, the more they will know about our Earth as a system. The S'COOL observations help validate satellite data and give a more complete picture of clouds in the atmosphere and their interactions with other parts of the integrated global Earth system. Citizens benefit from their participation in a real-world science experiment and from their access to a variety of background material. Educational materials for teachers are also available.

Arachnologists at the California Academy of Sciences need your help documenting the presence and distribution of Zoropsis spinimana spiders.

Although harmless to humans, this spider competes with local species and is considered invasive. Participants can use a simple digital camera to document the presence of this spider, and, if comfortable collecting the spider, send in actual spider specimens.

With the help of citizen scientists, researchers can study how the Zoropsis spider population is spreading in the Bay Area.

Project Pigeon Watch is a citizen science project in which volunteers count pigeons and record the colors of courting pigeons.

Pigeon watching can take place anywhere in the world where pigeons gather in flocks, are accustomed to being fed, and have close contact with people. The data reported back to scientists are crucial for this ongoing research, and pigeon watchers, in turn, learn about birds and how science and scientists work. Anyone can be a pigeon watcher, including kids in urban youth groups, rural after-school groups, science classes, and home schools.

Project Pigeon Watch aims to teach people how to conduct a scientific study and to show them that research can be fun! The project helps people learn about the coloration and courtship behaviors of pigeons and tries to understand why pigeons exist in so many colors.

The Perfect Pitch Test is a study to determine whether absolute pitch differs systematically for different timbres. Your participation involves a brief survey and a pitch-naming test and will make an important contribution to auditory research.

Do you have absolute pitch, the ability to identify or recreate a musical note without any reference? If so, researchers at the Perfect Pitch Test need your help.

The Smell Experience Project is collecting stories from people who have experienced a significant change in their sense of smell.

Changes in odor perception can be a symptom of a condition, such as depression, head injury, dementia, or allergies, or a side effect of medication. Because the changes are subjective and difficult to measure, medical professionals often do not ask patients about changes in their sense of smell. As a result, there is little documented information about these changes. Smell Experience Researchers need your help to better understand changes in our sense of smell.

The National Science Digital Library encourages citizens to help enlarge and strengthen their library of high quality resources and tools that support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.

Developers of content in these subject areas, National Science Foundation grantees, educators and learners, and all other members of the community are welcome to recommend digital resources for the library. These resources include activities, lesson plans, Web sites, simulations, or any materials that help educators meet the demands of an increasingly complex technology-based world.

As a national network of learning environments, resources, and partnerships, the National Science Digital Library seeks to serve a vital role in educational cyberlearning for the nation, meeting the informational and technological needs of educators and learners at all levels.

The Juvenile Lobster Monitoring Program is a community-based research program that aims to measure the health and productivity of lobster nursery habitats over space and time. The project measures the abundance and distribution of juvenile lobsters and uses marking and recapture techniques to investigate growth rates and survival.

Program scientists have developed a set of rigorous training tools to teach volunteers how to census lobsters at nursery grounds in the lower intertidal zone. The census data collected by volunteers are extremely valuable as indicators of lobster fishery health because the juvenile lobsters of today represent the catches of tomorrow.

Anyone with the time and inclination (and a good pair of boots!) can participate in this program. It's easy and it's fun. Involving volunteers of different age groups and backgrounds aids in community building and provides public access to scientific research and knowledge. This project can thereby help to bridge the gap between science and the public through hands-on training and accessible learning.

The Maine Butterfly Survey is a five-year butterfly atlas that leverages professional and citizen scientists to increase knowledge on the status and distribution of Maine's butterflies, as well as geographic priorities for its conservation.

Butterflies play an important ecological role in terrestrial and wetland ecosystems by serving both as pollinators of many wildflowers and as prey for larger species. The Survey will provide critical information about the fragile and ecologically important butterfly population.

The Maine Plant Watch is a citizen science project in which volunteers identify plants, their location, and the first date of blooming. This data will help scientists improve our understanding of climate change.

The Bay Area Ant Survey is a citizen science program that gives the public a chance to participate in research by obtaining baseline data for ants living in local counties. The major goals of this scientific survey are to identify local species, chart native ant distributions, and provide baseline data to monitor the distribution of the invasive Argentine ant.

Participants collect ants and send their ant-filled vial and corresponding data sheet back to the Naturalist Center at the California Academy of Sciences. All specimens will be identified and entered in a database by an Academy entomologist. All results are then uploaded to AntWeb where the location and identification of the ants are made public. Your contribution becomes part of the scientific record!

The US Geological Survey's Twitter Earthquake Detection Program gathers real-time, earthquake-related messages from Twitter and applies place, time, and keyword filtering to gather geo-located accounts of shaking.

This approach provides rapid first-impression narratives and, potentially, photos from citizens at the hazard’s location. The potential for earthquake detection in regions that are populated but where seismic instruments are sparse is also being investigated.

Data from the project will support other earthquake projects that rapidly detect and report earthquake locations and magnitudes in the United States and globally. The Program will also determine the best way to broadcast scientifically confirmed earthquake alerts via Twitter.

World Water Monitoring Day is an international program that encourages citizen volunteers to monitor their local water bodies. An easy-to-use test kit enables everyone from children to adults to sample local water bodies for basic water quality parameters: temperature, acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity), and dissolved oxygen.

Though World Water Monitoring Day is officially celebrated on September 18, the monitoring window is extended to cover the period from March 22 (World Water Day) until December 31. Participants are encouraged to make their observations at anytime within that extended window.

The results of current and past studies are shared with participating communities around the globe through the organization's online Data & Reports page.

Discover Life is calling all citizen scientists in the DC/Baltimore area to help them map out the distribution of crickets and katydids through the city and suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC. Participants can track the sounds of these insects during the annual Cricket Crawl event held on the evening of Friday, August 24th 2012.

This project is a collaborative venture between Discover Life, The Audubon Naturalist Society, The Natural History Society of Maryland and the USGS

Find and photograph ladybugs! Join us in finding out where all the ladybugs have gone, so we can try to prevent more native species from becoming so rare.

Across North America, ladybug species distribution is changing. Over the past twenty years, several native ladybugs that were once very common have become extremely rare. During this same time, ladybugs from other places have greatly increased both their numbers and range. Some ladybugs are simply found in new places.

This is happening very quickly and we don’t know how, or why, or what impact it will have on ladybug diversity or the role that ladybugs play in keeping plant-feeding insect populations low.

The Great World Wide Star Count is an international event that encourages learning in astronomy by inviting everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and report what they see online.

Participating in the event is fun and easy! You can join thousands of other students, families and citizen scientists from around the world counting stars. Don't miss out!

Help solve the mystery of epsilon Aurigae, a star that has baffled scientists since 1821. You don’t need any prior scientific training to observe and record the changing brightness of this star this site provides all of the tools you need to become a citizen scientist, including a training program that begins with stars that are easy to find and observe. Slowly the stars become more challenging as you go down the list. By the time you reach epsilon Aurigae at the bottom of the list, you’ll be an expert variable star observer contributing real data to professional scientists.

The Great Sunflower Project uses data collected by citizen scientists to produce the first real map of the state of the bees.

Some bee populations have experienced severe declines that may affect food production. However, nobody has ever measured how much pollination is happening over a region, much less a continent, so there is little information about how a decline in the bee population can influence gardens.

The Great Sunflower Project makes it easy to gather this information. Plant a seed or two, spend 15 minutes watching your flowers for bee visits, and send in your data. You can make as many observations as you want while your flowers are in bloom. Plant, Watch, Enter. Repeat. That's it. And, who doesn't like sunflowers?!

"Did You Feel It?" provides an opportunity for people who experience an earthquake to share information about its effects to help create a map of shaking intensities and damage.

By taking advantage of the vast numbers of Internet users, the project garners a more complete description of what people experienced, the effects of the earthquake, and the extent of damage. The resulting “Community Internet Intensity Maps” contribute greatly to the quick assessment of the scope of an earthquake emergency and provide valuable data for earthquake research.

CamClickr is a year-round citizen science project in which viewers "tag" and classify breeding behaviors from more than 8 million images of birds courting, mating, laying eggs, and raising young. CamClickr will help answer questions that can only be answered using webcams while providing scientists with a tool to search and sort images once they are tagged.

It's fun, easy, and promises to change the way you think about breeding behavior. The Top CamClickrs are rewarded for their efforts - one point is awarded for every successful classification, and those points can add up to prizes!

Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration needs the help of citizen scientists to observe and classify stars never before classified. The goal is to mine data from photographic images of star spectra, which result from light absorption in the outer surface of a star. Star spectra are made available online where citizen scientists can compare them to stars with known spectra.

Don't wait--be the first to classify one of hundreds of thousands of stars that have never been seen before!

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. No matter where you live, city or suburb, from the Midwest to the East Coast, Canada to California, if squirrels live in your neighborhood, you are encouraged to become a squirrel monitor.

The scientists at Project Squirrel will also use this project to understand the effect that participation in citizen science has on participants. By contributing to Project Squirrel and documenting your experience, you can provide valuable information that will eventually be used to recruit other citizen scientists.

Crayon Physics is an innovative physics puzzle game in which you get to experience what it would be like if drawings you create on your computer were magically transformed into real physical objects. Through 70 levels, your success relies on nothing but your imagination, creativity, and ability to wield a miniature crayon.

Butterflies I've Seen allows you to keep track of all of your butterfly sightings.

Once your sightings are logged in the database, you can retrieve them by location, by date, or by species. You can print out a list of all the butterfly species you've ever seen, a "Life List," or you can print out a list of all the butterfly species you've ever seen at a particular location. At the same time, the sightings you enter provide important information that the North American Butterfly Association, the major butterfly conservation organization in North America, will use to help answer scientists' questions about butterfly distributions, abundance, and conservation.

Enjoy the site and the fact that your efforts are increasing our knowledge and helping butterfly conservation!

Casey Trees is a Washington DC-based organization that enlists volunteers to help restore, enhance, and protect the tree canopy of our Nation’s Capital.

At the heart of this effort are community volunteers known as "Citizen Foresters," who serve as tree ambassadors to their local community on behalf of Casey Trees. Citizen Foresters teach new volunteers how to properly plant and care for trees, represent Casey Trees at neighborhood meetings and events, perform tree maintenance such as watering and mulching, and spread the word about Casey Trees and the value of urban forests.

Casey Trees also offers many opportunities for citizen scientists interested in the environment, including their Trees 101 course, design and planting workshops, and urban forestry inventory training.

Wildlife Watch is a national, nature-watching program created for people of all ages. When you record your observations, National Wildlife Federation and Wildlife Watch partners collect and review your findings to track the health and behavior of wildlife and plant species. In return, the Wildlife Watch website keeps you up-to-date on wildlife news and facts, and they provide new ideas for attracting wildlife to your backyard and community.

Wildlife’s ability to survive the challenges of the 21st century is becoming outpaced by the events that are transforming our world. Global warming, the loss of habitat, and people becoming more disconnected from nature than past generations are converging on a dangerous path for our planet. The work of the National Wildlife Foundation provides answers to these challenges and will help ensure America's wildlife legacy continues for future generations.

The RoadKill project is designed to involve students and teachers in scientific monitoring of an environmental parameter using telecommunications and to increase participant awareness of motor vehicle hazards with wildlife. Participants collect roadkill data in their community for analysis and compare their data to other areas participating in the project.

Roadkills vary depending on the population of the community, the amount of traffic, and the type of roads. Migratory patterns of animals and habitat of the local area will also affect the number of roadkills.

The purpose of Project Roadkill is to give students an awareness and understanding of the natural world around them. By participating in Project Roadkill, students and teachers will:
- understand the reciprocal effects between humans and wildlife
- predict which type of animal will be most and least killed by motor vehicles
- compare the relationship between geography and topography and the types and number of roadkill in different locales and states
- understand the habitats and ecological importance of small and large mammals, reptiles, and birds

NASA's Radio JOVE project enables students and amateur scientists to observe natural radio emissions from Jupiter, the Sun, and our galaxy. Participants learn about radio astronomy first-hand by building their own radio telescope from an inexpensive kit and/or using remote radio telescopes through the Internet. They also collaborate with each other through interactions and sharing of data on the network.

The Radio JOVE project began in 1998. Since then, more than 1,600 teams of students and interested individuals have purchased non-profit radio telescope kits and are learning radio astronomy by building and operating a radio telescope. This self-supporting, non-profit program continues to thrive and inspire new groups of students as well as individuals.

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, we hope 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 we hope to also learn more about those effects.

- Join a network of volunteers.
- Observe your own backyard.
- Track your progress online and interact with fellow Citizen Scientists.
- Help scientists map fireflies found in New England and beyond.
- No specific scientific training required.

It's easy to participate in Firefly Watch. Basically, we want to know if you have fireflies in your backyard this summer (or in a nearby field if you don't have a backyard). Even if you don't see fireflies, your data is valuable.