Monday, March 21, 2022

Crowdsourcing science

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3/21/22

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Coming Soon

Science may seem like a spectator sport. But when it comes to meaningful research, non-pros definitely aren’t stuck on the sidelines. April is Citizen Science Month, an annual celebration of volunteers who help collect and analyze data for scientific studies.

The online citizen-science hub SciStarter has everything you need to get involved. The organization’s list of featured projects includes plenty of activities perfect for beginners, such as projects to crowd-source light pollution data and litter sightings. SciStarter also provides a calendar of citizen-science events to be held across the country and online this April, from star parties to bug hunts. For other ideas, check out the website’s list of more than 3,000 projects searchable by location, topic, age and more. Zooniverse similarly connects volunteers across the globe with citizen-science projects.

Here at Science News for Students, we’re all about encouraging kids and teens to get involved in science. It’s why we run our Experiments and Competition Science series. It’s also why we end every story in our Let’s Learn About collection by inviting readers to participate in a citizen-science project or other scientific activity. And it’s why we’ve run stories detailing how citizen scientists have contributed to new discoveries, such as spotting mysterious “yellowballs” in telescope images and a weird purple glow in the sky called STEVE. We’ve spotlighted citizen-science projects to support conservation and combat climate change. And if you’re looking for stories about young citizen scientists in particular, we’ve got those too.

Citizen science isn’t just a great way for non-pros to learn about a new field and get inspired. Amateurs bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to the scientific community. So this April, let’s all get our science on. Who knows? Your casual afternoon pastime may just lead to one of science’s next great discoveries.

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Catch up with the latest from Science News for Students

Analyze This: Birds may decorate nests to scare off rivals: Birds that nest in holes face stiff competition for nest sites. Some use feathers, also found where predators have made a kill, to keep rivals away. Readability: 6.8 Resources: power words

Is the sky really blue? It depends on what language you speak: English speakers talk about color a lot but rarely about smell. Researchers are learning how those who speak other languages sense the world — and why the size of their vocabulary for sensory words can differ widely. Readability: 6.4 Resources: classroom questions, power words, word find puzzle, audio sample

Instagram influencers promote more unhealthy foods than other celebs: These findings could encourage new social-media regulations to protect young users from being bombarded with unhealthy ads, concludes a teen researcher. Readability: 7.9 Resources: power words

Orcas can take down the largest animal on the planet: For the first time, scientists observed that orcas can kill blue whales by using the same hunting techniques that have worked on other large whales. Readability: 6.1 Resources: power words, alternate version at Science News

Satellites find big climate threats — ultra-emitters of methane: Eyes in the sky show many of the worst methane emitters are in countries that produce a lot of oil and gas, such as Russia and the United States. Readability: 7.2 Resources: power words, alternate version at Science News, map

The Alps’ Matterhorn shows how much even big mountains sway: Such data might help planners map high-risk zones for peaks, bridges or any large structures. Readability: 8.1 Resources: classroom questions, power words, animated image

Let’s learn about Earth’s secret stash of underground water: Groundwater provides drinking water to billions of people and is used to water crops worldwide. Readability: 6.8 Resources: power words, word find puzzle, video

Scientists Say: Cellulose: Cellulose is an abundant natural polymer found in plants and algae. It’s used to make everything from paper to clothing. Readability: 6.5 Resources: power words, audio recording

Analyze This!

Some birds may use a cunning trick to ward off nest-stealing neighbors: decorating their homes with feathers to make it look like another bird died there. In the latest installment in our data-literacy series, Analyze This, students can “read” the data to see how long birds of different species hesitated before entering nests with and without feathers.

Find out more about the resources available for using Science News for Students stories for learning. And if you like this newsletter, please share it with a friend or colleague. Did someone share this with you? Subscribe to this newsletter here. If you’ve got questions, suggestions or comments, email us at sns@sciencenews.org. Thank you for reading!