SciStarter

SciStarter recruits, trains, and equips people for citizen science research projects in need of their help. It was founded by Darlene Cavalier and is a research affiliate of Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society. SciStarter is a collection of smart web tools and an event-based organization that connects people to more than 1,200 registered and vetted citizen science projects, events, and tools. New tools, developed by SciStarter with support from the National Science Foundation, enable citizen scientists to find, join, and track their contributions across projects and platforms. The organization's primary goal is to break down barriers preventing non-scientists from fully engaging in scientific research.^[1]

Approach

The organization received a grant from the Simons Foundation to create open, customizable, plug-and-play software tools for ease of use, including application programming interface (API) documentation.^[2] Once projects are reviewed and shared on the site, anyone living within the prescribed geographic area of a study with internet access to the site can input live data. Information about SciStarter projects are also shared on the organization's partner sites^[3], who export or import records with the SciStarter database. SciStarter's partner organizations include CitSci.org, the Atlas of Living Australia, Discover Magazine, the CitizenSci blog on the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the Philadelphia Media Network, Cornerstones of Science, the PBS television show "The Crowd and the Cloud," the PBS Kids television show "SciGirls," The TerraMar Project, Astronomy Magazine, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and AllforGood.org.^[4]

Awards

The organization receives awards from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Prototype Fund, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, NASA, and the University of California Davis, Youth Learning as Citizen and Environmental Scientists Foundation, among others.^[5] SciStarter in collaboration with Arizona State University was awarded funding by the National Science Foundation's Advancing Informal Science Learning, iCORPS-L^[6] and EAGER^[7].

Events

The organization announced a partnership with the Citizen Science Association to organize an annual "Citizen Science Day" with the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, which first took place on April 16, 2016.^[8] Citizen Science Day activities for 2017 started on April 15 and continued through May 20.^[9]

On June 20, 2017, Darlene Cavalier and Dr. Caren Cooper presented information^[10] about citizen science and SciStarter to attendees from the National Science Foundation, United States Geological Survey, United States Department of Energy, Institute for Museum and Library Services, Environmental Protection Agency, NPR, National Park Service, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, and other organizations. They presented trends, opportunities, and challenges in citizen science (particularly related to recruiting, training, equipping and retaining participants).

This event included:

• a brief overview of citizen science;
• a presentation and soft-launch of SciStarter 2.0, a smart collection of web components, including a dashboard and integrated login, designed to extend, enhance, and enrich participant experiences while at the same time supporting STEM research and enabling research on motivations and learning outcomes of participants;
• and a discussion on future directions for SciStarter 3.0, given the opportunities and challenges facing participants, project organizers/researchers, and supporting agencies and foundations.
• a YouTube recording of the presentation and link to the slides http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/citizen-science-salon/files/2017/06/SciStarter2.0_Federal-Agencies-Presentation.pptx-1.pdf provide details about the new tools deployed through a growing network of projects and platforms, as well as personal perspectives from the project owners using these tools .

SciStarter partners with Discover Magazine, Astronomy Magazine and the Science Cheerleaders to activate citizen science at live events including the USA Science and Engineering Festival, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Family Science Days , the Philadelphia Science Festival, the Atlanta Science Festival, the Arizona Science and Technology Festival, the Cambridge Science Festival, the World Science Festival, SciStarter organized citizen science events at March for Science events across the country.^[11]

External links

• SciStarter Website
• SciStarter Database API
• SciStarter Citizen Science Research

Other links

• https://www.amazon.com/Rightful-Place-Science-Citizen/dp/0692694838
• https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/scistarter-20/170184

Notes