The Conversation: Citizen science projects tend to attract white, affluent, well-educated volunteers − here’s how we recruited a more diverse group to identify lead pipes in homes

The Conversation: Citizen science projects tend to attract white, affluent, well-educated volunteers − here’s how we recruited a more diverse group to identify lead pipes in homes. “Recruiting participants for a citizen science project produced a more diverse group when people were signed up through partner organizations, such as schools and faith-based organizations, than when they joined on their own. We used this approach to recruit volunteers for Crowd the Tap, a citizen science initiative that crowdsources the locations of lead plumbing in homes.”

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research: How social media can contribute to species conservation

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research: How social media can contribute to species conservation. “With the increasing use of social media and the widespread availability of high-quality digital cameras, new opportunities are arising. Nature photographers worldwide are sharing their biodiversity observations on social media, which has huge potential. A research team has used the South Asian country of Bangladesh as an example to investigate what contribution Facebook data can make to biodiversity monitoring and, ultimately, to assessing potential protected areas.”

Cornell Chronicle: Add new types of data for the 37th season of Project FeederWatch

Cornell Chronicle: Add new types of data for the 37th season of Project FeederWatch. “The prime directive for Project FeederWatch has been and continues to be gathering data about how bird populations and distributions are changing across the United States and Canada—vital information for conservation. For the 37th season of this project, participants can enter some brand-new kinds of data—and finally get a chance to tell tales about squirrels, deer, raccoons, bears, or other mammals they see at their count sites in winter—in addition to the birds.”

Turning the tide: Ghana’s innovative approach to tackle marine plastic pollution with citizen science (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis: Turning the tide: Ghana’s innovative approach to tackle marine plastic pollution with citizen science. “Working with IIASA researchers, Ghana has adopted a citizen science approach to addressing the problem of plastic pollution in marine environments, becoming the first country to integrate this type of data on marine plastic litter into its official monitoring and reporting processes. A new study presents this innovative approach on Ghana’s citizen science journey and offers a pathway that can potentially be adopted in other countries.”

North Carolina State University: Citizen Science Inspires Kids to Take Local Action

North Carolina State University: Citizen Science Inspires Kids to Take Local Action. “North Carolina State University researchers recently found that a program designed to get Girl Scouts involved in citizen science – programs where members of the public can participate in real scientific research – not only taught girls about the process of science, but also motivated them to tackle scientific or environmental problems in their communities.”

Mercer University: Professor creates accessible weather device for visually impaired students

Mercer University: Professor creates accessible weather device for visually impaired students. “Physics professor Dr. Matt Marone created the accessible technology — which converts data measurements to speech — for Georgia Academy for the Blind in the spring, and students used it in May to take their first temperature and humidity measurements for NASA’s Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program.”

Rochester Institute of Technology: RIT scientists unveil Citizen Science Project to search for distant galaxies

Rochester Institute of Technology: RIT scientists unveil Citizen Science Project to search for distant galaxies. “In collaboration with NASA, RIT unveiled a website asking for volunteers to join an effort to take critical measurements that will aid astronomers in identifying the ‘fingerprints’ of different chemical elements present in galaxies and measuring their distances.”

The Conversation: Social media snaps map the sweep of Japan’s cherry blossom season in unprecedented detail

The Conversation: Social media snaps map the sweep of Japan’s cherry blossom season in unprecedented detail . “The hanami festival has been documented for centuries, and research shows climate change is making early blossoming more likely. The advent of mobile phones – and social network sites that allow people to upload photos tagged with time and location data – presents a new opportunity to study how Japan’s flowering events are affected by seasonal climate.”

Engadget: Google wants you to lend your ears to help save coral reefs

Engadget: Google wants you to lend your ears to help save coral reefs. “Google is calling on recruits to help repopulate coral reefs. Its new project, a collaboration with marine biologist Steve Simpson and marine ecologist Mary Shodipo, wants your help training AI to recognize aquatic wildlife sounds in hopes of replenishing them and raising awareness of the ocean’s troubled habitats.”

Leiden University: Citizen scientists discover more than 1,000 new burial mounds

Leiden University: Citizen scientists discover more than 1,000 new burial mounds. “In total, over 6,500 people worked on the project and identified thousands of potential archaeological objects, such as burial mounds (c. 2,800-500 BC), Celtic fields (prehistoric field complexes dating from 1,100 to 200 BC), charcoal kilns (places where wood was burned to make charcoal) and cart tracks.”

Curtin University: Everyday Aussies’ social media posts help find missing plant species

Curtin University: Everyday Aussies’ social media posts help find missing plant species . “Scientists have identified six new or rediscovered Western Australian plant species from photos taken and uploaded to the internet by members of public, including a nature photographer from Jurien Bay, a pair of wildflower enthusiasts from Dongara and a farmer from near the Stirling Range National Park.”

Yale Climate Connections: Smartphone apps help rural Alaskans monitor effects of warming climate

Yale Climate Connections: Smartphone apps help rural Alaskans monitor effects of warming climate. “The project provides people in remote communities with training and tools to record coastal erosion rates, when sea ice melts, or other data of interest. Participants enter their observations in a smartphone app. It works offline and then syncs to an online database when cell service is available. Tribes can use the data they collect to better manage natural resources as the climate warms. And they can share it with others, like state or federal biologists.”

Harvard Business Review: The Risks of Empowering “Citizen Data Scientists”

Harvard Business Review: The Risks of Empowering “Citizen Data Scientists”. “…with great business insight, augmented with auto-ML, can come great analytic responsibility. At the same time, we cannot forget that data science and AI are, in fact, very difficult, and there’s a very long journey from having data to solving a problem. In this article, we’ll lay out the pros and cons of integrating citizen data scientists into your AI strategy and suggest methods for optimizing success and minimizing risks.”

Discover Magazine: Largest-Ever Fungi Bioblitz Catalogs the Diversity of North American Mushrooms and More

Discover Magazine: Largest-Ever Fungi Bioblitz Catalogs the Diversity of North American Mushrooms and More. “This fall, between September 15 and October 15, more than 30,000 volunteers combed through forests, fields and even their own backyards in search of the humble mushroom…. Altogether, the citizen scientists who took part collected nearly 150,000 fungi sightings, and identified almost 4,400 different species. Their findings were posted on a digital map, as well as to an online database, and the data they gathered will be used by mycologists who are studying the diversity of fungi across the continent.”