Have an idea for a wearable or smartphone sensor to help monitor and report air quality information? This just in….new contest presented by Innocentive, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Health and Human Service: My Air, My Health: An HHS/EPA Challenge This is a Theoretical Challenge that requires only a written proposal […]

By now, you’ve most likely heard the buzz about the Transit of Venus, occurring Tuesday, June 5, 2012. This cosmic event is worthy of all the attention it has received this week – after all, it only happens every 105.5 or 121.5 years. During the transit, the shadow of Venus will be visible against the […]

SciStarter is a proud founding partner of Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science & Technology (ECAST), a network that cordially invites you to the USA launch of the World Wide Views on Biodiversity project: A distributed, agile, collaborative, and non-partisan 21st century approach that integrates citizen participation, deliberation, expertise, and assessment into government policy making, […]

As part of our ongoing series, “Citizen Science Test Drive,” first-person reviews of citizen science apps, platforms, tools and projects, we present a guest post from Hal Hodson, a science and technology journalist, based in London, UK. There’s a misconception about astronomy, and it’s to do with the telescopes. Tell someone that you’ve got a […]

By Nick Fordes 2,083 citizens and scientists representing 111 different organizations collaborating on 71 challenges to produce over 100 innovative solutions to issues at home on earth and in space! Wow! Citizen science was really in full gear during last month’s International Space App Challenge. The NASA-lead project was a huge success and created a […]

This is a guest blog post from Jennifer Fee, K-12 Programs Manager, at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Calling all educators:  if you’ve participated in citizen science projects, we need your ideas for a book we are writing!  Citizen science is different from the traditional ‘cookbook’ approach to science education, and we’d like to know how […]

RESTON, Va. — Thanks to citizen-scientists around the country, the USA National Phenology Network hit a major milestone this week by reaching its one millionth nature observation. The millionth observation was done by Lucille Tower, a citizen-scientist in Portland, Ore., who entered a record about seeing maple vines flowering. Her data, like all of the […]

goal: Help seismologists detect and warn of earthquakes. task: Do a 1 minute cheer with your class and measure the shaking of your classroom. Join the Big Cheer for Science and Engineering on April 27, 2012 at 1:30 pm ET, presented by SciStarter, Science Cheerleader, the USGS, the Iris Consortium, Discover Magazine and the USA […]

Come join the SciStarter team at that “Woodstock of Science,” the Philadelphia Science Festival this Saturday, April 21st. Stroll along the beautiful Ben Franklin Parkway amid hundreds of hands-on science experiments and exhibits! And, on Tuesday, 4/24, meet SciStarter founder Darlene Cavalier, Azavea (creators of Philly Tree Map, see below) CEO Robert Cheetham, and SciStarter […]

Imagine someone who is exploring nature. Are they wearing a backpack and hiking boots? Are they roaming the great outdoors? Now imagine someone exploring science. Are they wearing a lab coat and glasses? Are they in a chemistry lab or a room full of computers? Have they been indoors so long that their eyes squint at the light of day? Scientists, naturalist, writers, and artists all look at nature in different ways. What’s your lens on nature?