Citizen Science

Curious People Contribute to Science
Millions of people enjoy science and nature, while thousands of scientists need volunteers. When regular citizens begin participating in data collection, analyzing, and testing, the general term for this is Citizen Science.

Borrow Citizen Science Kits with your Solano County Library card here!

Current event: COVID-19 pandemic
We all know we are staying at home to flatten the curve, but we can help in more ways that just social distancing and hand-washing. Help researchers solve this real life pandemic by doing simple things like reporting your own data and playing computer games. You can do these projects from home, or incorporate them into your classroom.
Join these projects and help accelerate COVID research so scientists can develop a cure!

• COVID Near You
  State some basic info like age and zip code, and if you are feeling well or not… and if “not”, then select your symptoms. You then see the map get updated for your area. This data is self-reported, which means that people who haven’t visited a doctor can still include their own data. It also gives us an idea of which communities are doing the most testing over the most current 2 weeks reported.
• COVID-19 Citizen Science by UCSF (iOS | Android)
  Text COVID to 41411 or download the app provided by researchers from UCSF. This study will help us learn more about how the coronavirus is spreading throughout the world, and ways to predict and prevent further infections. You must be 18 or older to contribute to this project.
• Corotrac (Web)
  Corotrac also ask you to report basic information and symptoms that people might not be reporting to their doctor daily during isolation. Creating an account allows you to share the start date of your isolation (when you came into contact with the virus, or first noticed symptoms). All the data you enter is anonymous. Reporting can be done in English, Spanish, and other languages.
• FoldIt
  Fold.it is a game where you compete against other players to find the best ways to fold proteins, which will help researchers develop antiviral proteins for treating Covid. For this, you have to have to have a Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

Citizen Science projects you can do from your backyard!
iNaturalist (iOS | Android)
Naturalist provides a place to record and organize nature findings, meet other nature enthusiasts, and learn about the natural world. It encourages the participation of a wide variety of nature enthusiasts, including, but not exclusive to, hikers, hunters, birders, beach combers, mushroom foragers, park rangers, ecologists, and fishermen. Through connecting these different perceptions and expertise of the natural world, iNaturalist hopes to create extensive community awareness of local biodiversity and promote further exploration of local environments. iNaturalist is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
Seek by iNaturalist  (iOS | Android)
Kid-friendly version of iNaturalist.
GLOBE at Night
Globe at Night is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting citizen-scientists to measure & submit their night sky brightness observations. It’s easy to get involved – all you need is computer or smart phone & follow these 5 Simple Steps!
Crowd the Tap (Web)
The mission of Crowd the Tap is to ensure safe drinking water in the United States. Make your home part of the national inventory of water pipe materials! The inventory will help prioritize areas for tap water testing and infrastructure replacement.
EPA Smoke Sense (iOS | Android)
This study is the first of its kind known to use a mobile application to evaluate health effects from wildland fires experienced by those who participate, and to test whether health risks can be communicated effectively through resources and engagement delivered with the app.
NASA GLOBE Observer (iOS | Android)
Make environmental observations that complement NASA satellite observations to help scientists studying Earth and the global environment. By using the GLOBE Observer app, you are joining the GLOBE community and contributing important scientific data to NASA and GLOBE, your local community, and students and scientists worldwide.

Playing games allows you to contribute your own findings
Stall Catchers
Help accelerate research on Alzheimer’s Disease by playing this game. Your participation can help researchers fully understand how stalls are contributing to Alzheimer’s and discover potential treatment targets.
Earth Challenge 2020 (EC2020)
Citizen science app (Android | iOS) where you can help scientists and researchers collect billions of data on air quality and plastics pollution. Just follow the super simple instructions to take a couple of observation photos and submit.

Looking for more? Check out the citizen science projects at the following resource sites
Scistarter
Join this online community where you can find over 3,000 projects and events searchable by location, scientific topic, and age level. Sign up for a free SciStarter account to track your contributions and provide valuable feedback.
NASA’s Citizen Science Projects
Want to work on some real NASA science to help NASA researchers and scientists make important scientific discoveries? Get started with one of these projects. Projects with a little person icon can be done by anyone, anywhere, with just a cellphone or laptop.
EPA Citizen Science
Explore and participate in the EPA-supported citizen science projects to help advance environmental protection by helping communities understand environmental problems and collect quality data used in research to improve environmental health.
Zooniverse
Find hundreds of projects where young people can collaborate on real science research.
Anecdata.org
Citizen science platform with 160+ citizen science projects worldwide. Sign up for an account by downloading the Anecdata.org app (iOS | Android) or through their website.