• New on the Citizen Science Central site: Climate Change
• Discussion site available late summer!

• Volunteer-based monitoring in journal Conservation Biology
• Public Participation in Scientific Research: inquiry into educational outcomes
• Citizen Science at the Ecological Society of America meeting this week
  

Climate Change tab on Citizen Science Central

At the bottom of the left menu bar on citizenscience.org, you will now notice a link reading "Climate Change".  This new set of pages highlights projects working to understand climate change, and offers resources supporting climate change research and education. See the work of the new Communicating Climate Change (C3) initiative for an example of how citizen science projects are partnering with science centers to advance both scientific knowledge and public understandings. Know of other exemplary projects or resources? Please be in touch to share!

Discussion site available late summer!

Citizenscience.org was designed with the idea that we can all learn more if we each share a bit of what we know.  We've finally found a great platform for bringing our experiences together, using a Wetpaint wiki. The wiki will open formally late-summer, but we're looking for a handful of field-testers to help seed discussions (already on the table:  ideas around volunteer retention, and resources for data storage and analysis). We will open the wiki more broadly towards the end of the summer... look for an announcement via this listserv.

Volunteer-based monitoring in journal Conservation Biology

Some of the costs and benefits for researchers working with volunteers have recently been described by a large group of European researchers, in a paper entitled, "Advantages of Volunteer-Based Monitoring in Europe" (the title gives a hint to some of the conclusions!).  You can read the abstract here, but the PDF of the paper may not be available to all.  A tip: try contacting the librarian at your state's land-grant University... they have been known to be very helpful to people (especially educators) trying to access a journal article or two.

Public Participation in Scientific Research: inquiry into educational outcomes

What kinds of educational outcomes are possible from citizen science, volunteer monitoring, community forestry, or other projects where the public participates in scientific research? A new report from the National Science Foundation's Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) offers a matrix of project types, a rubric for assessing outcomes, and ten case studies. Click here to read a summary by CAISE, with links to download the full report or Executive Summary.

Citizen Science at the Ecological Society of America meeting this week

More and more, professional associations are talking about citizen science.  This week, it's the Ecological Society of America, meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the conference thematically focused on Ecological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society. A keyword search of the program (try "volunteer" as well as "citizen science) reveals related talks on, among other things, phenology, science literacy, invasive species management, social capital, and global change. There's also a full session of talks entitled Using Citizen Science to Rebuild Ecological Knowledge in Human Communities, with talks touching on indigenous knowledge, amateur naturalists, participatory research, and much more. If someone in attendance would like to summarize the coverage to post on Citizen Science Central, please be in touch!