Leveraging SciStarter to grow and sustain your citizen science project. Case Study: Project MERCCURI

SciStarter is more than a searchable index of over 800 citizen science projects worldwide. Project leaders can work with SciStarter to promote their projects and recruit participants. In the workshop, we'll cover the basics of... [ view full abstract ]

SciStarter is more than a searchable index of over 800 citizen science projects worldwide. Project leaders can work with SciStarter to promote their projects and recruit participants. In the workshop, we'll cover the basics of SciStarter's multi-media campaigns with Discover Magazine, Public Library of Science, WHYY and the National Science Teachers Association; highlight partnerships with broad and diverse audiences including national sports, culture, and hacker communities; and lead a brief “how to” session to implement free, open SciStarter APIs and other tools designed to make it easier for project owners to recruit, retain, and learn about participants, find and partner up with complementary projects, align NGSS with projects, and capitalize on opportunities to share and leverage existing citizen science data and participants, worldwide.

David Coil, coPI on Project MERCCURI, from the Eisen Lab at UC Davis, will kick off the workshop with a talk about this citizen science project to compare microbes on Earth and in space (citizen-collected samples are currently orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station!). He'll provide updates on the findings, share successes and challenges, illuminate how working together with complementary communities (including SciStarter and Science Cheerleader) helped advance the field of microbiome research and share a glimpse into the future of citizen microbiome research.

NOTE: we propose this as a hands-on workshop following David's talk, if possible.
Collaborators: Dr. Jenna Lang/Eisen Lab/UC Davis , Dr. Caren Cooper, NC Museum of Natural Science, and Arvind Suresh, SciStarter