Citizen Science:The Power and the Potential

February 11, 2016
2 pm lecture by Rick Bonney, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
4 pm poster session and reception
Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum
Free, but space is limited so please RSVP.

Around the globe, thousands of research projects are engaging millions of individuals—many of whom are not trained as scientists—in collecting, categorizing, transcribing, or analyzing scientific data. These projects, known as citizen science, cover a breadth of topics from microbiomes to native bees to water quality to galaxies. Most projects obtain or manage scientific information at scales or resolutions that are unattainable by individual researchers or research teams, whether enrolling thousands of individuals collecting data across several continents, enlisting small armies of participants in categorizing vast quantities of online data, or organizing small groups of volunteers to tackle local problems. The scientific potential of citizen science is enormous, and hundreds of peer-reviewed papers have now been published based on citizen-collected data. The educational opportunities provided by citizen science are also huge, but are not yet reaching their full potential. This talk will explore the range of citizen science projects; describe numerous outcomes for science, environmental conservation; and public literacy; show how to integrate citizen science into research and teaching; and discuss next steps for this rapidly growing field.
Co-sponsored by the NM Informal Science Education Network (NM ISE Net) and  NM EPSCoR, with support from Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER), NM Museum of Natural History and Science, and the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum
Who Should Attend? 
Informal Science Educators, Environmental Educators, Museum Professionals, Citizen Science participants, and Scientists with an interest in Outreach or STEM Education
Who Should Present a Poster? 
Anyone who would like to share their citizen science project or results.

About the Speaker
Rick Bonney is director of the public engagement in science program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where he has worked for 32 years. During that time he has received more than 20 awards from the National Science Foundation focused on program and curriculum development, professional development, exhibit development, and program research and evaluation. Rick co-founded the Lab’s citizen science program and started many of its current citizen science projects. He is founder and director of the website www.citizenscience.org;co-editor of the book Citizen Science, published by Cornell University Press; and Principal Investigator of two NSF-funded workshops designed to identify best practices in citizen science project development, implementation, and evaluation. He is also a founder of the Citizen Science Association and is serving on its first board of directors. Rick was lead of the CAISE inquiry group on citizen science in 2009 and editor of the PI Guide to Managing Evaluation in Informal STEM Education Projects published by the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education in 2012. His team at the Lab of Ornithology is currently developing customizable tools for evaluating the impacts of participating in a range of citizen science project models and is employing these tools in the evaluation of several citizen science projects around North America.
Registration deadline for the lecture or reception is February 5. Poster abstracts are due byJanuary 29.


Click here to register