Mountain goats’ winter coats: What can people-powered research tell us about patterns and phenology of molt?

This blog post originally appeared on the Ecology and Evolution blog, published by Wiley. It was re-posted here in it’s entirety with permission. Read the full published research paper here. By Katarzyna Nowak, Aerin Jacob, Shane Richards, Don Reid, and Greg Newman. Featured image shows one of the “crown jewels” of our camera trapping season

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Six Months after Earth Day: Collaborations Around Six Citizen Science Grand Challenge Questions through Earth Challenge 2020

By Alex Long, Sarah J Newman & Anne Bowser  This blog first appeared on the Wilson Center blog on December 10, 2020. We’ve reposted it here with permission. April 22, 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. While original plans of a large-scale celebration and campaign around citizen science required rethinking and adjustment, the movement that is Earth Day

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Gift Ideas for Scientists and Explorers at Heart

Do you have someone special in your life who loves science? Show them your love with the gift of community engaged science. We’ve created a gift guide fit for explorers and researchers of all ages. These ideas are perfect for holidays, birthdays, or any special occasion.  The Gift of Experience All of us here at

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Is Rainwater Safe to Drink? Runoff Collected by Volunteers Offers Clues

A citizen science project called Off the Roof tested rainwater runoff collected by volunteers. They found that rainwater can be easily treated, but does often have contaminants similar to what’s found in streams and rivers. This blog first appeared in the Citizen Science Salon, a partnership between Discover and SciStarter.org, on 2 Oct 2020. It

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How to Add Photos to Observations

Submitting photos along with observations to a CitSci project can provide valuable information to researchers and other citizen scientists. Through CitSci, you can attach many photos to each observation you submit to a project. In this tutorial, we will walk through how to add photos to observations in CitSci. ProTip: Be sure to have all

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How Citizen Science Paved the Way for This Student’s Career

When Brian Fauver set foot on the Colorado State University campus as a new graduate student in 2013, he never expected he’d coauthor a paper in the journal Nature three years later. His research journey began typically enough but the work that led to that Nature publication gave Brian “an expanded worldview of what science

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Handbook of Citizen Science in Ecology and Conservation

Handbook of Citizen Science in Ecology and Conservation

Wondering if citizen science is the right approach to answer your conservation questions? Realizing you could use more people-power to study ecology in your area? Feeling a little lost about how or where to get started? Designing a new citizen science project is not an easy task. It helps to have a team of people

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How to Get a Better Picture of Mountain Goats with Community Science

With the help of the larger U.S.-Canada community, a team of scientists has sought to understand how an alpine mammal sheds its winter coat. Cover Image: A camera trap on loan to Dr. Kate Nowak from WCS Canada captures a billy mountain goat at Pooly Canyon, Yukon, Canada What do goat hair, climate change, and

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