A BioBlitz, also written without capitals as bioblitz, is an intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area. Groups of scientists, naturalists, and volunteers conduct an intensive field study over a continuous time period. There is a public component to many BioBlitzes, with the goal of getting the public interested in biodiversity. To encourage more public participation, these BioBlitzes are often held in urban parks or nature reserves close to cities. Research into the best practices for a successful BioBlitz has found that collaboration with local natural history museums can improve public participation. As well, BioBlitzes have been shown to be a successful tool in teaching post-secondary students about biodiversity.
The Genographic Project, launched on 13 April 2005 by the National Geographic Society and IBM, was a genetic anthropological study that aimed to map historical human migrations patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples. The final phase of the project was Geno 2.0 Next Generation. Upon retirement of the site, 1,006,543 participants in over 140 countries had joined the project.
The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) is a public research project which aims "to build a comprehensive parts list of functional elements in the human genome."
Citizen science is research conducted with participation from the general public, or amateur/nonprofessional researchers or participants for science, social science and many other disciplines. There are variations in the exact definition of citizen science, with different individuals and organizations having their own specific interpretations of what citizen science encompasses. Citizen science is used in a wide range of areas of study including ecology, biology and conservation, health and medical research, astronomy, media and communications and information science.
The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institute is independently governed and supported as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization under the name Broad Institute Inc., and it partners with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the five Harvard teaching hospitals.
George McDonald Church is an American geneticist, molecular engineer, chemist, serial entrepreneur, and pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology. He is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), founded in 1944 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is an association of science teachers in the United States and is the largest organization of science teachers worldwide. NSTA's current membership of roughly 40,000 includes science teachers, science supervisors, administrators, scientists, business and industry representatives, and others involved in and committed to science education.
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digital platforms to attract and divide work between participants to achieve a cumulative result. Crowdsourcing is not limited to online activity, however, and there are various historical examples of crowdsourcing. The word crowdsourcing is a portmanteau of "crowd" and "outsourcing". In contrast to outsourcing, crowdsourcing usually involves less specific and more public groups of participants.
DragonflyTV is an American science education television series produced by Twin Cities Public Television. The show aired on PBS Kids from January 19, 2002, to December 20, 2008. It was aimed at ages 9–12. Seasons 1–4 were co-hosted by Michael Brandon Battle and Mariko Nakasone. Seasons 5–7 were hosted by Eric Artell and were produced in partnership with science museums. DragonflyTV was created in collaboration with Project Dragonfly at Miami University, which founded Dragonfly magazine, the first national magazine to feature children's investigations, experiments, and discoveries. DragonflyTV pioneered a "real kids, real science" approach to children's science television and led to the development of the SciGirls television series. DragonflyTV and SciGirls were funded in part by the National Science Foundation to provide a national forum for children's scientific investigations. Reruns of DragonflyTV aired on select PBS stations until 2019, and later in off-network cable syndication to allow commercial stations to meet federal E/I mandates.
The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States Congress, the executive branch, and in state and local governments. The foundation's primary focus was the role of money in politics. The organization sought to increase campaign finance regulations and disclosure requirements. The Sunlight Foundation ceased operations in September 2020.
Darlene Cavalier is an American professor of practice at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society. She is the founder of SciStarter, founder of Science Cheerleaders, cofounder of ECAST: Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology, and she led the ideation and a team of collaborators to develop ScienceNearMe.org to connect, promote and research all types of opportunities for the public to engage in science.
Science Buddies, formerly the Kenneth Lafferty Hess Family Charitable Foundation, is a non-profit organization that provides a website of free science project productivity tools and mentoring to support K-12 students, especially for science fairs. Founded in 2001 by engineer and high-tech businessman, Kenneth Hess, Science Buddies features STEM content and services to assist students and educators. Since its founding, it has expanded its original mission to provide teacher resources targeted for classroom and science fair use.
The maker culture is a contemporary subculture representing a technology-based extension of DIY culture that intersects with hardware-oriented parts of hacker culture and revels in the creation of new devices as well as tinkering with existing ones. The maker culture in general supports open-source hardware. Typical interests enjoyed by the maker culture include engineering-oriented pursuits such as electronics, robotics, 3-D printing, and the use of computer numeric control tools, as well as more traditional activities such as metalworking, woodworking, and, mainly, its predecessor, traditional arts and crafts.
Hsinchun Chen is the Regents' Professor and Thomas R. Brown Chair of Management and Technology at the University of Arizona and the Director and founder of the Artificial Intelligence Lab. He also served as lead program director of the Smart and Connected Health program at the National Science Foundation from 2014 to 2015. He received a B.S. degree from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, an MBA from SUNY Buffalo and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Information Systems from New York University.
Eyewire is a citizen science game from Sebastian Seung's Lab at Princeton University. It is a human-based computation game that uses players to map retinal neurons. Eyewire launched on December 10, 2012. The game utilizes data generated by the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research.
The Forum of Culture and Arts of Uzbekistan Foundation, also known as The Fund Forum, established in February 2004, was an NGO in Uzbekistan, pursuing the goal of supporting domestic science, culture, education and sports. Among the founders and trustees of the Fund were famous figures of culture and arts from Uzbekistan and foreign countries. Chairperson of Board of Trustees was Gulnara Karimova. The Fund Forum was the biggest public organisation in Uzbekistan, and it expanded its international activities, currently it has representative offices in Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, Vienna, Geneva, Madrid, New York City, Berlin and London. The NGO was closed in November 2013.
The Citizen Science Association (CSA) is a United States member-based professional organization for practitioners and researchers of citizen science, where scientific research is conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists. The Association aims to expand the reach, relevance, and impact of science and research in the United States and internationally. The CSA was founded in 2013 in the United States and was recognized as a charitable organization with a 501c3 designated status in June 2017.
Caren Beth Cooper is an American professor and scholar at North Carolina State University, citizen science advocate, and author of two books on citizen science. Her doctoral dissertation addressed the effects of habitat fragmentation on the Australian passerine. Her scientific publications concentrate primarily on ornithology as well as citizen science contributions to science and diversity, equity, and inclusion in underserved communities.