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Ever wanted to contribute to scientific understanding of our planet, learn more about nature, help prevent species from becoming endangered, or help discover a new species never seen before in Ohio? If so, you’ll only have to travel as far as your own yard or nearby field or woodlot, and you won’t need any special skills. You just need a desire to start exploring, contributing, and learning through community-based science.
Formerly known as citizen science, community science is when non-professionals in the broader community contribute data to help scientists more easily track populations of species over time. There are community science projects in all areas of nature and physical science that require varying degrees of effort and training, but many require little or no experience. For instance, you could tag Monarch butterflies or watch for them to arrive at a field near you; watch for birds in your backyard or nearby trail; monitor a stream for water quality; listen for frog calls; or photograph bees.
The power of community science is in the numbers and the use of electronic or online tools that allow broad-scale, longer-term monitoring where people can collect and share data with the scientific community.
Want to learn more about community science and how to contribute to the understanding of birds and bird conservation? Check out “Taking Flight with Community Science” today.
