Welcome to our ongoing effort to catalog citizen science and other public participation in scientific research (PPSR) projects for UC California Naturalists and other citizen scientists. We invite you to browse the listed projects or enter key words (like birds, youth, invasive, coast, Alameda, etc.) in the search box above to find projects in your area. It's a great way to stay involved and keep developing your skills as a natural scientist!
A vast majority of the information in the database was gathered from project websites and may be out of date. We encourage you to contact projects directly to get involved and learn about most recent opportunities. If you work with a listed project and would like to add to, update, or correct the information we have, please email cghdixon@ucdavis.edu. Also, please consider filling out the "PPSR perspectives" survey. Click here to access the survey, which will help guide this project in the coming year.
If you know of a project not on our list, please go to the "tell us about a project" link on the left so we can list the project here. Thanks for your help!
Special thanks goes to the National Science Foundation Informal Science Education program and the Stephen J. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation for supporting this database of projects.
Globe at Night Project
-
Organization NameThe National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO)
-
Project Website
-
Organization Website
-
PartnersN / A
-
Contact NameN / A
-
Contact Emailglobeatnight@noao.edu
-
Contact PhoneN / A
-
Other Contact InformationN / A
-
Project Purpose (taken from project materials)
The GLOBE at Night program is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution.
-
Participant Activities
Citizen-scientists are ask to measure their night sky brightness and submit their observations to a website from a computer or smart phone.
Participants will go outside and view a designated constellation then select from a group of magnitude charts that most closely resembles what they see. Data submitted will include various conditions such as cloud cover, ambient light conditions from various sources and time taken. If a Sky Quality Meter (SQM) is used that data will also be recorded.
-
Data Entry
-
Website
-
Cell Phone
-
-
Other Participant ActivitiesN / A
-
System Studied
-
Air Quality
-
Pollution Clean-up or Monitoring
-
Astronomy
-
-
Geographic ScopeInternational
-
RegionAll (see 'geographic scope')
-
LocationAnywhere the sky can be seen.
-
Location - MapKitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ
-
Time Commitment
-
Specific dates (see Other Information below)
-
-
Volunteer Qualifications
None
-
Volunteer Training
Very clear instructions on the website.
-
Cost to ParticipantN / A
-
How will the findings be used?
The database is usable for comparisons with a variety of other databases, like how light pollution affects the foraging habits of bats.
There is a webpage within the site where you can compare your data to other places around the world. Data can be viewed in a number of different formats.
http://www.globeatnight.org/analyze.html -
Other Information
The GLOBE at Night campaign has run for two weeks each winter/spring for the last six years.
The GLOBE at Night website is easy to use, comprehensive and holds an abundance of background information. http://www.globeatnight.org/index.html
-
PhotoN / A
-
last update:N / A
If you work with this project and would like to add to or update the information below, please email cghdixon@ucdavis.edu.
If you know of a project not on our list, please go to the "tell us about a project" link on the left so we can list the project here. Thanks for your help!
This database is focused on projects in California focused on the environment. For opportunities outside California, as well as national projects that don't have a California-specific components, check http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/projects.