Science Cheerleader

Do you ever wonder what is really coming out of the faucet when you turn on your water?  If you participate in World Water Monitoring Day on September 18, you will be one step closer to finding out!  World Water Monitoring Day is an international education and outreach program that protects the quality of local water resources around the world by enlisting citizen volunteers to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies.  This project is organized by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the International Water Association (IWA), and they hope to expand participation to one million people in 100 countries by 2012.

Though there are celebrations being held in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta this year on September 18, anyone can organize their own event right in their neighborhood.  An easy-to-use test kit enables everyone from children to adults to sample local water bodies for a core set of water quality parameters including temperature, acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity) and dissolved oxygen (DO). Each test kit, which is recommended to be used in a group of no more than 5-10 people, contains:

• 1 Instruction booklet (English/Spanish)
• 1 Sample collection jar
• 1 pH test tube
• 1 Dissolved oxygen vial
• 1 Secchi disk decal
• 2 Temperature strips (14-40°C and 0-12°C)
• 50 pH reagent tablets (enough for 50 tests)
• 100 Dissolved oxygen reagent tablets (enough for 50 tests)
• 1 Color chart for determining DO, pH and turbidity test results
• 1 Mini pencil
• 1 Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)

The results of the study are then reported through the World Water Monitoring Day website. Though World Water Monitoring Day is officially celebrated on September 18, the monitoring window has extended for the first time this year from March 22 (World Water Day) until December 31. Participants are encouraged to celebrate anytime during the extended window, making this a perfect project for classrooms this fall!  (All the materials are even included, so schools and/or their teachers will not have to shell out extra dollars for supplies.)

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: water, analytical chemistry
• Location: at home, close to home
• Duration: until December 31, but if you are going to a local river or stream, probably in the warmer months!
• Cost: free
• Gear:  A test kit, which you can order here
• Level of Difficulty: easy

A first-person account of a citizen science project, from our very own, Georgette.

Last weekend, I gave my first go at searching for ladybugs to photograph for the Lost Ladybug Project. The project looks for local evidence of a few native species of ladybugs that have become quite rare in recent years, being quickly replaced by more exotic species. Ladybugs are important and beneficial predators; they eat harmful insects like aphids that damage plants. This project aims to collect photographs and raise awareness for the many important questions this change poses for agriculture like, Will these new exotic species be less able to protect farms from harmful insects?

The site provides tons of useful and interesting information, from how to make your own sweep net, to illustrated ladybug identification pictures, to bookmarks, pamphlets and even a coloring book page for kids to join in on the fun!

I set out on my expedition on Saturday, heading for the BioPond at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Ripe with beautiful greenery and wildlife, I figured this was a sure spot for finding some spotted friends. With sweep net and bug box in hand I searched the area, but was unsuccessful. My lack of success continued for the next two days. Despite having certainly seen ladybugs in Philadelphia, finding them out in the wild seemed to be quite a challenge. Perhaps they really are disappearing?!

My search will certainly continue. I’ve planted some cilantro and fennel in my own garden to attract the lovely critters (ladybugs are particularly fond of those herbs). In any case, I had fun and learned a lot about  ladybugs in the process. If you happen to come across a ladybug, scoop it up and snap some pictures to send in to the Lost Ladybug Project. Send us (Science Cheerleader) your thoughts on the experience as well. And I’ll leave you with this lovely ladybug tune.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

Topics: ladybugs, nature, outdoors

Location: anywhere

Duration: any

Cost: free

Gear: sweep net (wire hanger, pillowcase, duct tape), camera

Level of Difficulty: easy

NASA has been in the news a lot lately – President Obama just named Charles Bolden as its new administrator a few days ago, the Hubble Telescope was repaired successfully, and soon NASA will prepare to launch the space shuttle Endeavour for a jouney to the International Space Station.  For those citizen scientists interested in learning more about astronomy and physics, NASA has an excellent citizen science website filled with many ways that you can both access and contribute to their ongoing collection of observations.  I am thrilled that NASA is beginning to make access to their research more public in the hopes that other governmental organizations will soon follow suit.  Listed below are ways that you can become more involved in the future of space travel.

• Night Sky Network: Are you a part of an astronomy club?  Like looking at photos from space?  Or maybe you are interested in spreading the word about NASA missions to your local community?  All of these resources and more are available in NASA’s Night Sky Network.  One particular note of interest are the funding resources on this site that are available for high school astronomy groups.
• MY NASA DATA:  My NASA Data, or Mentoring and inquirY using NASA Data for Atmospheric and earth science for Teachers and Amateurs (say that three times fast!) is an excellent resource for classroom teachers interested in new ideas to enrich next year’s astronomy curriculum.  Teachers can make custom data sets from published data sets collected by NASA that their students can learn how to analyze, or students can simulate what an actual satellite orbit patterns might look like.
• What’s Observable Tonight?: Visitors can search by an observation date, location and other constraints to find all asteroids and comets that are observable on that night.
• Space Calendar: The Space Calendar covers space-related activities and anniversaries for the coming year. Included are over 1,700 links to related home pages!

There are many more activities where this short list comes from, and I hope all of you will check out the vast amount of information on the NASA website.  Many thanks to Paul Shin, one of our Science Cheerleader subscribers, for suggesting this citizen science resource.  As always, should you have any citizen science information that you would like to share with our readers, feel free to contact us here.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has dedicated itself to interpreting and conserving the diversity of nature’s bird population through research, education, and citizen science projects.  Though I encourage you all to check out their website for more information on all of the exciting research going on in the Cornell laboratories, today I would like to highlight one of the ways you can help as citizen scientists.

One of the major projects at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology involves NestCams, which record live images of birds courting, mating, laying eggs, and raising young.  These cameras record a variety of bird species, including Northern Cardinals, Osprey, Blue Jays, and American Robins (to name a few).  As a scientist myself, I can attest that sometimes the hardest thing about science is not collecting data, but analyzing it.  And as you can imagine, with images recording around the clock, these scientists at Cornell collect a lot of data to classify and analyze!  This is definitely one way that citizen scientists continue to be essential for the success of the NestCam project.  The Cornell scientists have created CamClickr, which is a completely online-based citizen science project to help them classify their tremendous archives of video and still images.  Users simply log on to the CamClickr site and then choose the species and phase of the nesting cycle they want to start classifying.  It’s that easy!  User tagging and coding for species and nesting cycles occurs in two phases.  In phase one, users drag and drop images into photo albums that are classified according to presence or absence of nests, adult birds, eggs, or baby birds.  Once 99 images have been classified, users can then move on to phase two, where all images that passed through Level 1 are classified according to pre-defined behaviors.

Top “CamClickrs” are rewarded for their efforts – one point is awarded for every successful classification, and those points can add up to prizes!

P.S.  The image above is from a coloring book – happy coloring, kids of all ages!

Statistics from previous years:  Since 1999, NestCams have documented 90 nesting attempts by 17 bird species across North America.  That is a lot of data!  Hundreds of thousands of images have since been classified by citizen scientists like you and me.  Today’s top CamClickr is user name Claire K, with over 188,000 images classified!  Can you beat her?

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: birds, ecology, nesting cycle
• Location: at home or close to home
• Duration: a few minutes, whenever you can veg in front of your computer
• Cost: free or low cost
• Gear: a computer with internet access
• Level of Difficulty: easy

Squirrels live in small areas of our neighborhoods year round and don’t hibernate, though they often go unnoticed as we humans carry on our daily lives.  However, you might say that squirrels and people have a lot more in common than any of us probably realize when we see one interrupting our picnics or scurrying across a sidewalk.  Like us, squirrels are creatures of habit, using the same sources of food, water, and shelter almost every day in order to survive.  By studying the appearance of squirrels, scientists also gain a lot more insight into our own habitats.  If squirrel populations fluctuate over the course of a year, this can tell a story about the changing ecology of a neighborhood.

Project Squirrel, a project sponsored by the Chicago Academy of the Sciences and the University of Illinois of Chicago, is trying to understand urban squirrel biology as applied to a larger “urban game park,” including everything from squirrels to migratory birds, nocturnal mammals, and secretive reptiles and amphibians.

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The Boston Museum of Science is sponsoring Firefly Day this Saturday at 9:00 am to kick off another summer of Firefly Watch, a citizen science project dedicated to tracking the appearance of fireflies throughout the summer months.  Throughout the day, visitors to the museum can learn more about fireflies, meet the team of scientists sponsoring this citizen science opportunity, and watch their kids march in the Firefly Parade!

Spotting fireflies on warm summer nights mesmerizes all of us each year, but the population of fireflies seems to be dwindling with each summer.  Firefly Watch is a citizen science project that hopes to understand where fireflies live and thrive.  This information can be used to create habitats to promote firefly survival.  To learn more about fireflies, get started by checking out the wealth of information found on the museum’s webpage or this post by Backyard Nature.  This is a great project for families to do together after a summer BBQ or before bedtime. (more…)

Though it is not something that we think about every day, pollination is an important part of our ecosystem.  Everything from the prescription drugs we take to the food we eat for lunch comes from natural plant products that are pollinated in the wild.  Economists and ecologists working together to assess the financial value of natural ecosystems estimate that pollination of plants in the wild by bees in the United States is worth four to six billion dollars per year!  BILLIONS…and we get it all for free…

…for now, anyway.  Scientists are already aware that populations of bees are dwindling in wild and agricultural landscapes.  Even worse, because natural habitats are uncommon in city dwellings, they may not provide enough resources to support viable communities of pollinators.  Tracking where pollinators thrive can help scientists determine how habitats can be changed to promote bee colonization.

Launched in 2008 by Dr. Gretchen LeBuhn at San Francisco State University, The Great Sunflower Project aims to do just that.  Participants can sign up online to receive Lemon Queen sunflower seeds through the mail, and plant them in their own garden.  Two weekends a month, participants would be required to sit outside in the sunshine and record the number of bees visiting their flowers during 30 minutes.  (Not a bad gig, and a great excuse to enjoy the spring weather.)

Start your garden today!  Seeds (along with a handy welcome kit) will be sent out during the month of March and through the beginning of April.

(Photo, “Carpenter Bee on Sunflower,” was used here with permission by Ginny Stibolt.)

Statistics from 2008: 40,000 sunflowers planted and observed across the United States

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

> Topics Sunflowers, bees, spring, pollination

> Location Close to home

> Duration 30 minutes, two weekends a month

> Cost Free

> Gear No special equipment required – they will mail you seeds!

> Level of Difficulty Easy

Flower shows around the country are a pleasant reminder that spring is just around the corner!  One of my favorite things about spring is the blooming of the beautiful plants and flowers as the weather begins to warm.  (Even if my seasonal allergies beg to differ.)

This year, instead of just passing by blooming plants on our commute to work, we can take a moment to record our observations and send them to Project Budburst.  Founded in 2007, Project Budburst is a national citizen science campaign designed to collect data about the phenophases (stages of a plant’s life cycle, such as first leaf, first flower, etc.) of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses in our areas.  By collecting this data each year, Project Budburst will be able to determine how variations in our climate affects plant growth in regions around the country.  This project is funded by a variety of sponsors, including the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Chicago Botanical Garden, and the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana.

Phenology is a visible way of demonstrating the effects of climate change directly to young students,  and many elementary science classrooms around the country are participating in this year’s data collection.  I will be keeping tabs on the phenological observations of my mother’s fifth grade science students in the weeks to come.  When asked why she chose this particular science project for her students to become involved in, my mother replied, “I find my students are more interested in science that they do themselves; getting them out of the textbook is the easiest way to hold their interest.  I think with this particular project, they can involve their parents and siblings in getting excited about the arrival of spring without a big time commitment.  I also liked that once their data was submitted, my students could go back to the website to see their local results for Butler, PA posted on a map of the entire United States.  Seeing that their simple observations of the world around them impacted such a large study is a great reinforcement of what they accomplished as citizen scientists.” (more…)

GLOBE at Night wants you to  participate in a global campaign to observe and record visible stars to help researchers measure light pollution.  ”2008 marked a monumental shift in human history when the number of people living in cities exceeded half the people on Earth. Because of the ambient light of urban landscapes, many city dwellers have never seen a sky full of stars.” (Including this urbanite!) 2008’s program inspired 6,838 measurements of night-sky brightness by citizen scientists around the world. 

“While we have just begun to analyze the data, we have strong anecdotal evidence from our citizen-scientist network in North America that they experienced abnormally cloudy skies this year,” says Connie Walker, GLOBE at Night project manager at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, AZ.

GLOBE at Night takes approximately 15-30 minutes. Do it as a family or get a bunch of friends together and do some real star-gazing! Start by finding Orion an hour after sunset between March 16-28th and follow the four, simple steps described on Globe’s site.

 Orion, the Great Hunter, looks like this (left).  ”Look for three bright stars close together in an almost-straight line. These three stars represent Orion’s belt. The two bright stars to the north are his shoulders and the two to the south are his feet.”

 No prior experience is necessary and all the information you need to participate is on the site including activity kits for families, teachers and students.  All observations will be available online via Google Earth.

On a related note, Science Cheerleader subscriber Phil Hoffman sent in this news tip: The Galileoscope is a high-quality, low-cost telescope kit developed for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 by a team of leading astronomers, optical engineers, and science educators. No matter where you live, with this easy-to-assemble refractor, citizen scientists can see the celestial wonders that Galileo first glimpsed 400 years ago and that still delight stargazers today, including lunar craters, the phases of Venus, the moons of Jupiter, and Saturn’s rings!

Globe at Night 

Project Snapshot

> Topics  Astronomy & Space, Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Nature & Outdoor

> Location Close to home, Outdoors

> Duration  15-30 minutes

> Cost  Free

> Gear  Just a computer to log in your observations

> Level of Difficulty Easy

Hey, Citizen Scientists! Here’s another terrific activity for our  Project Finder. BioBlitz is a 24-hour event in which teams of scientists, volunteers, and community members join forces to find, identify, and learn about as many local plant and animal species as possible. National Geographic is “helping conduct a BioBlitz in a different park each year throughout the decade leading up to the U.S. National Park Service centennial in 2016.” The next annual National Geographic-National Park Service BioBlitz takes place at the Indiana Dunes BioBlitz, a 24-hour event from May 15 to May 16, noon to noon. The goals of the BioBlitz are “to record as many living organisms in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 24 hours, to increase awareness of the diverse species in this urban setting and to better understand how to protect the natural environment in the future. Chicago Wilderness and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources are collaborating in the race to discover and document the 15,000-acre park.”      

“Explorers” of all ages are needed.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

 Topics: Animals, Birds, Ecology, Environment, Nature

 Location: Chicago, Outdoors

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Fee: No Costs

Gear: No special equipment required

Duration: 24 hours

Suitable for people of all ages!