Five A+ Back-to-School Citizen Science Projects
Fall means back to school—check out these five citizen science projects on a variety of topics to bring the classroom to your living room!
The SciStarter Blog
As another school year starts, dare we say that learning is in the air? To help jump back into school, we’ve highlighted five teacher- and student-tested projects, below.
And don’t forget, there are hundreds of projects with classroom materials to choose from on SciStarter, and a free Foundations of Citizen Science training to introduce citizen science to your learners. And our Education page has gold-star projects organized by grade level, from pre-K to college.
You can turn any place into a home, classroom, or campus citizen science learning lab!
Cheers,
The SciStarter Team
Sourdough for Science
Help solve the mystery of bread by comparing the growth of microbes in different types of flour. You’ll learn how those microbes contribute to the taste and texture of bread, while showing scientists more about these helpful microbes.
Watch SciStarter LIVE: Sourdough for Science
Location: Global
Questagame
Submit geo-tagged sightings of real-world creatures in your local area and compete with other players in Questagame.
You can join quests, earn gold, compete against other players and more. Your sightings are geo-tagged with location, date and time, meaning all the data scientists need is right there for them to see.
If you’re looking for more outdoors fun, check out the Great North American FungiQuest, the largest-ever fungi bioblitz, starting September 15! You can participate using Questagame.
Location: Global
Monkey Health Explorer
How do genes affect health in monkeys? Help answer that question with Monkey Health Explorer, a citizen science project anyone can do from home.
Look at slides of blood samples from rhesus macaques to find and identify different cell types, which tells researchers how healthy the monkeys are.
Location: Online
Eterna
Become an RNA explorer with Eterna. Contributors solve puzzles to design specialized RNA-based medicines, working together with scientists to better understand how RNA works.
You can also join their ongoing Open Ribosome project to help reengineer the E. coli ribosome for laboratory use while learning about ribosome structure and function.
Register for SciStarter LIVE: Eterna
Location: Online
Best for grades 9-12 and college
Crowd the Tap
Help ensure safe drinking water in the U.S. by adding your home to a national inventory of water pipe materials.
That inventory is a key part of national efforts to prioritize infrastructure replacement and water testing in areas with poor drinking water. Add your data to help it happen!
Location: Global
