Darlene Cavalier Science Cheerleader Citizen Scientists: Disrupting Science... In A Good Way! The field of citizen science is experiencing an unprecedented boom in popularity. Impressive numbers of people are inclined to “get their hands dirty” with science, either through recreational activities or full-fledged research projects. To take just a few examples, in the U.S. alone there are 48 million birders, half a million amateur astronomers, and another half a million volunteers who monitor the quality of our waterways. A few years ago when a citizen science project known as “Galaxy Zoo” put out a call for volunteers to analyze telescopic images online, nearly 150,000 people signed up. Not to mention the 90 million Americans who like to work on do-it-yourself projects and the newly christened “Generation Jones,” that sizable hunk of Baby Boomers who yearn to participate and be active. And there's no shortage of opportunities awaiting them now that many--but not all--scientists are taking citizen scientists seriously. “Snow Tweets” enables participants to use Twitter to add their current snow depth measurements to a real-time global map. “Firefly Watch” enlists citizen scientists of all ages to monitor the presence of backyard fireflies; their data is passed along to entomologists studying the insects’ habits. In “Project Gravestone,” volunteers gauge the weathering of tomb stones as an indicator of the acidity of rainwater. And “Solar Stormwatch,” a cousin to “Galaxy Zoo,” asks participants to help track explosions on the sun and track them across space to provide warnings for astronauts and data for solar scientists. So who are these so-called Citizen Scientists and how are they both aiding and disrupting traditional scientific research? Cavalier, aka The Science Cheerleader, and cofounder of ScienceForCitizens.net, will address the scientific and societal implications of Citizen Science. Highlights of her talk will include, but not be limited to: Demographics: Citizen scientists are, literally, everywhere, and they come in all different stripes. What defines them are their particular fields of interest. Star-gazers and water quality monitors, for example, are two different breeds. Motivations: Why would anyone volunteer to spend weekends knee-deep in cold water to track sea turtle eggs, for example? There are three common motivators almost all citizen scientists share. Data: How are scientists using this wealth of data? Fragmentation is still a challenge but some institutions have banded together to collaborate and share data. Future implications:We will likely see an entire academic discipline devoted to the field of Citizen Science or Participatory Research. While practitioners define and refine "best practices" the citizen scientists themselves are beginning to migrate from "data collectors" to policy advocates. Can/should their collective powers be harnessed to shape public policies? Darlene Cavalier is the founder of Science Cheerleader.com, a blog that promotes the involvement of citizens in science and science-related policy. She is also the cofounder of ScienceForCitizens.net, a major multi-functional Web site that encourages and enables lay people to learn about, participate in, and contribute to science through recreational activities as well as formal research. Cavalier held executive positions at Walt Disney Publishing and worked at Discover Magazine for more than a decade. She was the principal investigator of a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant applied to promote basic research through partnerships with Disney and ABC TV. Cavalier is a former Philadelphia 76ers cheerleader and holds a Masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied the role of the citizen in science. She is a writer and senior advisor to Discover Magazine, on the Steering Committee for Science Debate and is organizing an effort to launch the first-

1. Disrup'ng
Science!
(in
a
good
way)
Humanity
+
Summit
@
Harvard:
Rise
of
the
Ci8zen
Scien8st
Darlene
Cavalier
Science
For
Ci8zens
h>p://scienceforci8zens.net

2. Common Misconception
(among scientists)

3. Who
are
Ci8zen
Scien8sts?
•50
million+
worldwide
•46%
surveyed*,
hold
graduate
degrees
(na8onal
avg
is
9.9%**)
•Highly
educated,
affluent,
ac8ve
users
of
the
Internet.
*2009 Brownstein/Science Cheerleader survey of 150 active citizen
scientists

4. Who
are
Ci8zen
Scien8sts?
MOST CITIZEN SCIENTISTS ARE GEN JONERS:
who have an “aching to act.”

5. Why
volunteer
for
science?
1. To help safeguard or improve the environment.
2. To learn more about a subject I’m interested in.
3. To generally expand my knowledge, broaden my mind.
4. To help improve my community.
5. To help advance science.
Citizen scientists donʼt do scientific research for a
living; they practice science for personal
satisfaction.

6. Online data analysis citizen scientists
Demographics: avg age 43 yrs old; 80/20 men/
women; 28% hold Masters degree+; 29%
hold Bachelors
#1 reason these 250,000+ people volunteer to
sort through images of galaxies?
“To contribute to research.”
Source: Jordan Raddick (JHU), Galaxy Zoo survey: “Why do people
become citizen scientists?”

7. Why now?
Internet makes it easy to obtain and share
information
Instrumentation is cheaper, more accessible
Mobile smart phones: GPS, digital
photography, microscopes, sensors
Open data

8. Impact?
Peer reviewed papers
Discoveries:
Amateur
astronomer,
Anthony
Wesley,
discovered
a
hole
in
Jupiter’s
atmosphere,
the
size
of
the
Earth!
At
least
three
ci'zen
scien'sts
played
key
roles
in
what
has
become
known
as
Climategate.
Six-­‐year-­‐old
Alyson
Yates
and
her
mom,
Kate,
discovered
a
rare
nine-­‐spoKed
ladybug
while
taking
part
in
Cornell
University’s
Lost
Ladybug
ci'zen
science
project.
By
running
DNA
tests,
teenagers
in
NYC
found
a
new
breed
of
cockroach
and
discovered
food
labels
lie.

9. Impact?
White House
Increasing number of published papers
Field of academic study
Policy: Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and
Technology
Public Understanding of Science

10. Buzz
The NY Academy of Sciences: The Growth of Citizen Science
The New York Times: A New Kind of Big Science
O’Reilly Report: Citizen Science and Urban Sensing
TreeHugger: The Big Deal with Citizen Science
Education.com: Citizen Science benefits to children
Seed Magazine: Creating Citizen Scientists
CNN Citizen Science and Climate Change
And
many
more.

11. What
we
do
We
enable
regular
folks
to
tap
their
inner
scien8sts
and
improve
the
world.

12. The
problem
Millions
of
people
eager
to
explore
science
and
nature
can’t
find
the
thousands
of
research
ac8vi8es
they
could
be
par8cipa8ng
in.

13. Our
solu'on:
the
Project
Finder
Fireflies,
oil
spills,
the
moon,
your
local
river…
Yup,
our
database
has
a
project
for
that.

14. Harnessing
the
power
of
America’s
greatest
resource,
to
improve
our
world.