Ever Thought of Becoming a Scientist? You Can!
Anyone can be a citizen scientist and contribute to the world’s knowledge
Where science and life intersect
I love science and scientific thinking. I’m a questioner and a critical thinker. I even conduct scientific research as part of my studies and my job. But for all of us, there are times when emotion tips the scales, when media images smash through our cautious outlook and when we struggle to make sense of all the ‘experts’ who seem to devote more energy to disagreeing with each other than to educate the public.
In today’s world of sensationalist media and poorly funded science education, it can be extremely difficult to develop an informed mindset. Being informed helps us make sure that our decisions are based on sound knowledge. Thinking scientifically means understanding and emulating how scientists think and conduct research, cultivating a questioning outlook and critical thinking skills.
This helps us not to be persuaded into poor purchasing choices by unscrupulous marketers, not to make potentially life-threatening behavioural choices in the face of medical science, and not to mistake the many offerings of the entertainment media for education.
Yawn.
Might be important, but thinking scientifically doesn’t exactly sound like a barrel of laughs, does it?
And besides, it is not always simple to embed this kind of thinking into how you live your life.
One of the best ways to change your thinking is to practice. And there is no better way to become familiar with science than to participate in it. It’s easier than you think.
Science in the real world
Join the investigators, the researchers and the experimenters and see for yourself just how much fun and how satisfying it can be to be part of a larger endeavour, one which can affect people and nature and industry all across the world, and which can have impacts lasting far into the future.
Working on real science projects is a great way to get yourself engaged and enthusiastic about science, no matter your age or interests.
By becoming citizen scientists, together with you, your family and friends can quite literally help to change the world and you will grow in understanding, knowledge and skills at the same time. Best of all, it’s fun!
What exactly is a citizen scientist?
SciStarter tells us:
‘A citizen scientist is an individual who voluntarily contributes his or her time, effort, and resources toward scientific research in collaboration with professional scientists or alone. These individuals don’t necessarily have a formal science background.’
Sound good?
How do you become a citizen scientist?
It is surprisingly easy to get started. There are all kinds of options available and many of them don’t involve a huge amount of effort. You can be as involved as your life and enthusiasm allows, whether that’s spending thousands of dollars and months of time assisting on an archaeological dig, or spending a few minutes once a week in your own backyard using no tools more sophisticated than your eyes and a pen and paper.
A caveat
Now, I should be clear that contributing to large scale projects can be hard work. And you might not see a lot of results or rewards for quite some time. That’s the life of a scientist. They work on seriously big timescales, with many false leads and disappointments before a breakthrough. They rarely get to do those two-minute, soundbite-length experiments or experience quick and easy stimulus-reward cycles.
But if you persevere with your chosen project, you will find that missing out on your accustomed instant gratification is nothing compared to the satisfaction of knowing that without you, the work could not have been completed. Seeing your contributions grow and knowing you are an important part of the research that can change our understanding and increase our knowledge as a species — it’s a rush!
Next steps
Let’s take a look at some of the options available right now for citizen scientists. Remember though, that new experiments and research projects are developed all the time. If you keep an eye out for new possibilities, who knows what contributions you might be able to make in the future? The world is your oyster.
United States and Beyond
There are plenty of international projects which anyone from around the world can get involved in. Here are a few:
This international organization is a gateway to citizen science projects around the world, from their site, Zooniverse.
Zooniverse offers a wide range of projects that you can become involved in including fossil finding in Kenya, spotting and identifying individual humpback whales, watching and analyzing videos of chimp behaviour, transcribing documents from history and much more.
Their website is a treat to explore and they have set it up to be appealing and fun, no matter what you’re interested in. This is an inspiring place to start your citizen science journey.
A great collection of citizen science projects for you to browse and join. Whether you want to measure earthquake tremors, count passing meteors or monitor noise and light pollution, there’s a project there for you.
While the website is not as flash as the Zooniverse one, it is still packed full of great projects for you to contribute to.
Not only are they now offering thousands of their exhibits free of charge as 2D or 3D images, the Smithsonian also offers a range of citizen science projects across a variety of scientific fields.
The Planetary Society has projects relating to all things outer space for the would-be astronomer.
Australia-Specific Options
If you want to get involved in an Australian project, your first stop is The Australian Citizen Science Association website, which gives you links and information about all sorts of citizen science programs available.
Here are two of the options.
This is the largest organisation of biodiversity science projects in Australia. From their Get Involved page, you can contribute your sightings of wildlife to the atlas, you can get involved with specific projects such as koala counting, you can help to digitize resources (which means typing up paper documents and posting them online for global access) and much more. Take a look and see what you might be able to do today.
The Australian Museum has a number of citizen science projects available including water monitoring, and seeing how Sydney’s cockatoos are embracing their increasingly urbanized home.
Ready to Take the Leap?
I hope this article has whetted your imagination and your appetite to contribute to large scale scientific endeavour and become a citizen scientist. And for those who plan to get involved, thank you on behalf of us all, and good luck on your scientific adventure!
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to find out more about developing an informed mindset and learning to think critically and ask the right questions, you might like to take a look at the resources available from my Gumroad page. See you there!
