OPS 2-8
Growing NEON citizen science through external collaborations
Citizen Science (CS) projects and activities are a cornerstone of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Education and Public Engagement program and have proven to be an effective approach in making NEON relevant for a variety of non-scientific audiences. The continental-scale reach of NEON CS is in large part due to both ongoing and new collaborations with external partners. NEON CS represents a multi-pronged approach including Project BudBurst (budburst.org), a continental-scale plant observation program; Citizen Science Academy (citizenscienceacademy.org); and a new crowdsourcing approach to the categorization and annotation of remotely sensed phenological images. All of these key efforts have significant external collaborations. Project BudBurst was co-founded by staff at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Although the Citizen Science Academy, an online professional development resource for educators, originally focused on Project BudBurst, current offerings reflect the intent to engage external CS programs. Finally, collaboration between Harvard University and NEON has resulted in a relatively new opportunity for ecology – a crowdsourcing approach to remotely sensed phenological imagery that will utilize approaches from the social sciences and the gaming community.
Results/Conclusions
Working with external partners has increased the reach of NEON’s CS programs and activities. A key outcome has been the ability to advance continental scale ecology by making it relevant at a local level. For example, Project BudBurst partners helped create templates that allow local plant species of interest to be the focus of education and outreach at wildlife refuges, national parks, botanic gardens, and other nature based centers. Project BudBurst partners represent all parts of the country including Alaska and Hawaii. The number of observations submitted has increased as a result of the Project BudBurst partnership efforts. NEON’s CSA has also expanded its reach by partnering with other institutions and programs in offering citizen science based instruction. For example, the USDS Forest Service has worked with NEON staff to create an online course targeted at Forest Service field staff. The effort is currently being beta tested, however, it is anticipated that the result will be a significant increase of phenological observations from national forests and grasslands. In addition, an online course focused on citizen science for educators has been developed in collaboration with other CS programs external to NEON (eBirds; COCORaHS; PicturePost, and FrogWatch USA). This course was offered for the first time in February and resulted in registrations from dozens of educators across the country.