By This was originally published as the May 2025 CitSci newsletter. Want citizen science in your inbox? Subscribe today.
Hey from the CitSci team!
We’re kicking off the summer with a major milestone—CitSci’s Extremophile Campaign was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered on May 29!
As we reflect on a successful spring of global community science, from mapping microbes to clearing campus litter, we’re overcome with gratitude for you: the CitSci community.
This summer, our focus will be creating resources to empower even more of your great work, from starting citizen science projects to sharing research results, and even bringing science to the classroom.
🔎 In this newsletter:
- An NPR spotlight on the Extremophile Campaign
- Results from the Leave No Trash University Challenge
- New services to support your project
- Award-winning research from our lead developer, Brandon
- Our updated FAQ page
- A sneak peek at everything else that is coming next
Let’s get into it 👇
Extremophile Campaign Featured on NPR
Listen to National Public Radio (NPR)’s All Things Considered to hear how the Extremophile Campaign is bringing citizen science to kitchens, springs, and science labs worldwide.
Led by The Two Frontiers Project, hosted on CitSci, and with support from Seed, this campaign asks participants to search for extremophiles, microbes that thrive in harsh conditions and may help us fight climate change.
🔍 In Your Home
Collect microbial samples from places like AC units, dishwashers, and water heaters.
🌊 In the Wild
Explore natural springs or unusual outdoor habitats to help map rare microbial communities.
🧪 All samples contribute to a global, open-source research database.
🔗 Join “In Your Home”
🔗 Join “In the Wild”
🔗 Listen on NPR
#LeaveNoTrash University Challenge: Spring 2025 Results
This April, over 550 participants from 18 universities across the U.S. and Nigeria joined the #LeaveNoTrash Challenge, logging more than 2,200 gallons of litter through CitSci to support sustainability research.
📊 Highlights:
- 🏆 Top Universities, by gallons of trash picked up: Brevard College, Colorado State University, Southern Illnois University–Carbondale
- 🌍 Top Group, by number of participants: Unique Mappers of Nigeria
- 🗑️ Most Common Trash: Food wrappers, plastic bottles, plastic bags, and paper waste
🔗 See the full results
📝 Sign up for the 2026 challenge
New: CitSci Services Page
Want to build or improve your citizen science project? The new CitSci Services page showcases tools and support to help you launch, grow, and sustain your work.
✅ Free tools include:
- Unlimited project hosting
- Datasheet builder
- Volunteer and data management
- Map and graph visualizations
🚀 Optional paid services:
- Organizational and API integration
- Project design and outreach strategy
- Workshops and training sessions
- Protocol and print resource design
CitSci Research: How to Ask Better Questions
We’re thrilled to announce that Brandon Budnicki, PhD student at Colorado State University and lead developer at CitSci, earned Best Poster honors at the 2025 Conference for Advancing Participatory Sciences (CAPS) in Portland, Oregon this week.
Brandon’s poster, “Improving Research Protocols Through Natural Language Processing,” explored how to help project managers write clearer survey questions. By analyzing over 13,000 questions from projects on CitSci, his team used computer models to find confusing wording and suggest fixes—like simplifying phrasing or changing answer formats. This approach, called natural language processing, teaches computers to understand and improve human-written questions.
The goal? Make it easier for anyone to build better surveys in citizen science.
📍 Check out the award-winning poster.
👏 Congrats to Brandon and co-authors Dr. Hannah Phillips, Dr. Greg Newman, Stacy Lynn, and Sarah Newman!
New FAQ Page + What’s Coming Next
Need a quick guide to how CitSci works? Our new FAQ page covers:
- How to join or lead a project
- Website vs. app functions
- Data formats and privacy options
- Volunteer management and data analysis
📦 Coming soon from CitSci:
- Privacy-conscious project design tips
- CitSci for Educators toolkit
- A project starter kit with templates and checklists
- Information about integrating your project with SciStarter, the world’s largest citizen science database.
We’ll share these updates on our blog and social media when they go live. Want more materials from us? Get in touch at admin@citsci.org.
Support Students with a Gift
Help us raise $10,000 to support student software developers who want to make a difference! CitSci students gain hands-on experience in participatory science while working alongside experienced developers to improve community projects. Many have gone on to careers in nonprofits, government, and industry.
A gift of $10, $20, or more provides meaningful work and learning experiences for students—and who knows, they might be working for you one day!
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