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"scientific work undertaken by members of the general public, often in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific institutions" (Oxford English Dictionary 2014)
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Citizen science is all about noting what you observe. It can be as simple as keeping track of the daily temperature on the calendar or when you see your first robin each year; or as complex as working hand-in-hand with scientists at a research university to help solve a problem. The key concept is that observations made and noted by the non-scientist general public are extremely valuable and provide a lot of the data used to create policy, regulations, and support university research.
Core elements of 4-H are represented: research and observation, record keeping, public speaking, community service, and physical activity.
Here is a selected list from Cornell University of ongoing citizen science projects that have involved 4-H youth.
Check out California 4-H Citizen Science Project HERE.
Core elements of 4-H are represented: research and observation, record keeping, public speaking, community service, and physical activity.
Here is a selected list from Cornell University of ongoing citizen science projects that have involved 4-H youth.
Check out California 4-H Citizen Science Project HERE.
THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS TO PARTICIPATE IN CITIZEN SCIENCE THESE DAYS!!
Check out these resources; many have COOL Apps for your phone or tablet
Check out these resources; many have COOL Apps for your phone or tablet
The NASA GLOBE program is a FANTASTIC resource for all sorts of cool citizen science. Through their GLOBE Observer app, you can make observations on trees, clouds, mosquitoes, and land cover and then upload your data into a world-wide database. Great non-techie activities are on the website as well.
GLOBE 4-H Cloud activity guide. 
Citisci.org is a portal of such that provides comprehensive support for citizen science projects, globally. Easy to use and be a part of something larger than ourselves. 
The USA National Phenology Network brings together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators, and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. The Nature's Notebook app makes it easy to track your observations and upload your data to the national database.
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Zooniverse gives people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to participate in real research with over 50 active online citizen science projects. Work with 1.6 million registered users around the world to contribute to research projects led by hundreds of researchers.
iNaturalist is a popular way to create or join projects and make observations. The observations are then crowd-sourced by scientists and other experts in that field to help properly identify your subject. There is an app that makes recording observations on your tablet or phone easy-peasy. Register in iNaturalist and then search for the Alaska 4-H projects and join! Or create your own project that you can team up with other club members, friends, neighbors, family, or clubs across the country! 
While less citizen science-y and more of a fantastic-ly fun resource for learning, from Cornell University is the Merlin Bird ID app for your phone or tablet. In addition to being a handy field guide with awesome descriptions and photos and examples of calls and songs, you get to make observations of your own! Download the app and select the Alaska and arctic birds pack to pre-load a collection of bird species that you may observe while out and about.
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DO NOT WORRY! There are TONS of ways to participate in citizen science without a smartphone or tablet!
Good old notebooks and pencils: take them with you when you go out hiking and wandering around. Find a spot to sit. Stay quite for a few minutes. Make note of the sounds you hear, the smells your nose detects, watch for movement and color. Making these kinds of observations and keeping track will help paint of picture of where you live. You can then share that information, refer back to it from day-to-day, month-to-month, or year-to-year, and track the changes that you see. Something that can be scaled up or down for various ages and abilities is a Phenology** Wheel. Draw a circle and divide it up into pie pieces (12 if you want to track a year). Label each of the pie pieces with a month. Use the pie piece shapes for each month to record your observations. You could do one for each month (30-ish pie pieces) and put each year into a booklet. Keep track of: temperature, clouds, the moon phases, leaves, river flow, animal sightings, ANYTHING! Other cool examples include taking a photo of the same spot in the woods, at the same time each month to create something like THIS. Keeping a simple or elaborate nature journal is a great way to make your observations. **Phenology is the study of the timing of biological events: such as trees leafing, plants emerging, animals migrating, etc. |
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Other opportunities to check out:
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There are lots of great books out there; these are just a few of the cool ones:
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