Citizen science projects engage individual volunteers or groups to observe, measure, and contribute data to scientific studies. CENS is building a collection of mobile phone and web-based tools to make the citizen scientist experience more engaging and flexible. CENS is an NSF-funded Information and Technology Center that employs graduate students from Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at UCLA to create open-source software that is environmentally and socially responsible. The overarching goal of the Networked Naturalist project is to enhance participatory learning experiences through citizen science campaigns and help transform the associated learning process. We are collaborating with national field campaigns, such Project BudBurst, and also with the National Park Service to increase participation and retention in citizen scientist campaigns through two main avenues afforded by the use of new technologies: (1) to offer new methods for data collection, primarily using mobile phones, through text, picture, and smart-phone applications, and (2) to provide immediate feedback and automated, engaging analysis of data for informal learning opportunities. We are working to create a robust data collection system to enhance citizen science by ensuring data quality and improving data submission, and to transform participation into an active learning, engaging experience.
Results/Conclusions
