Quick Guide Series Part Two: Design, Data Collection & Volunteer Management

Thanks for reading our quick guide series! Part one covered research questions and big picture planning. Part two (this post) covers design, data collection, and volunteer management. Part three covers results and follow-up. Ready to start your project? Have your research questions ready? Now it’s time to think about whether you need a hypothesis. A

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Quick Guide Series Part One: Research Questions & Big Picture Planning

Welcome to our “Quick Guide” series, which should equip you with all the knowledge and tools that you need to start and manage a citizen science project! Part one (this post) covers research questions and big picture planning. Part two covers design, data collection, and volunteer management. Part three covers results and follow-up. Citizen science

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Dam Good Science: Restoring Wetlands with Beaver-Inspired Construction 

Ever heard the phrase “busy as a beaver”? Turns out, beavers are more than just overachieving rodents with a flair for construction; they’re also ecosystem engineers. And when nature’s little architects are in short supply, humans have to step in with our best imitation – making our own manmade, beaver-like dams (known in the business

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Citizen Science for Educators

Welcome to the “Citizen Science for Educators” blog! It’s a long post, meant to be a comprehensive introduction to citizen science for educators (K-12, informal/nonformal, university, and more) of all types. The table of contents, below, can help you navigate to the part of the post that you need. Background/Inspiration I’m Caroline, the communications lead

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NASA Science & New Tools

This was originally published as the June 2025 CitSci newsletter. Want citizen science in your inbox? Subscribe today. Hey from the CitSci team! It’s summer: the days are longer, the skies are weirder (hello, space clouds 👀), and it’s the perfect time to try something new in citizen science.  Whether you’re scanning the horizon to

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How to Set Location Options for Your CitSci Project

📍 This blog post is an adapted excerpt from the longer blog post entitled “Setting Up Your First Project & Datasheet”, which walks you through the first few steps of launching a project on CitSci. In this blog post, we’re just focusing on how to set up location tracking in your datasheet. When you’re designing

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Setting Up Your First Project & Datasheet

Thinking about launching a citizen science project? Whether you’re mapping urban wildlife, collecting community stories, or tracking environmental change, CitSci gives you the tools to make it happen. This guide will walk you through setting up your project, designing your datasheet, and making smart choices about privacy and participation—no tech background needed. Table of Contents:

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New Tools for Project Leaders: Social Media, Announcements & Datasheet Creator

Hello, project leaders! We’re so grateful you’ve chosen CitSci as the place to engage volunteers with your important work.  If you haven’t in a while, this might be a good time to log back into CitSci.org and navigate over to your profile and the projects you manage. We have some new features to share with

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Integrate Your CitSci Project with SciStarter to Reach More People

Are you a project leader using the CitSci app or website? If so, you’re part of a global community using an open-source platform to create, manage, and analyze data from citizen science projects. Whether you’re a researcher, educator, community member, or hobbyist, CitSci provides tools to build data collection forms, visualize data, engage participants, and

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CitSci on NPR + Big Wins for Participatory Science

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,

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