Citizen science is when members of the public voluntarily help professional scientists do research. It goes by many names — participatory science, crowdsourcing, community science, "c* science" — but they all describe the public taking part in the scientific process.
Doing citizen science at Glacier National Park. Credit: National Park Service / Jami Belt.
For the National Park Service (NPS), that participation matters twice over: people learn about science, and parks get the best available data for managing the lands and resources in their care. It helps fulfill the NPS mission to "[preserve] unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations."
If there's an "-ology," there's probably a project that invites the public in: archeology, biology, geology, ornithology, paleontology, phenology and more.
What counts — and what doesn't
The test is simple: are members of the public collecting and processing new scientific data to create new knowledge?
| Activity | Citizen science? |
|---|---|
| Recording observations that inform park management decisions | Yes |
| A curriculum, lesson plan or educational activity that doesn't gather new information | No — that's education |
| Volunteer stewardship, like picking up litter or pulling invasive plants | No — valuable, but not research |
How a project works
A typical project brings together members of the public (who may or may not be official Volunteers in Parks), resource or subject specialists, and park staff.
- Project directors — NPS staff, often working with a partner such as a university — decide what data are needed and how they'll be used.
- They set the research question, the goals, and the methods and tools for collecting data.
- They recruit participants: park visitors, student groups, local residents, even people at home.
- They keep the data good — quality control — by training and mentoring participants.
Community science
Some projects start the other way around: a community leads, and professional scientists and NPS technical experts help it pursue its own priorities. That is community science. See recent projects for examples.
The Park Service's aim is to make science inclusive, so that everyone has the right and the chance to take part in research — because the best way to learn science is to do it. Find a project on the NPS citizen science site.
Sources
Based on "What Is Citizen Science?", National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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