tizen Science project designed to introduce participants to methods of studying climate. Citizen Scientists collect live and archive Weatherbug data from select stations in the Baltimore region to compare temperatures and log this data for scientists.
Scientists at the Baltimore Ecosystem Study then use this data to test models of temperature patterns across the city to aid in urban planning. This data illustrates the Urban Heat Island effect on the area, a phenomenon classified by temperature differences between a metropolitan area and more rural landscape nearby. An Urban Heat Island is not an effect of climate change, but rather of our activity shaping the environment around us.
Using either this website or our Smartphone application (available free of charge for both iPhone and Android) Citizen Scientists submit temperature data from six weather stations in the Baltimore region. The purpose of this is to collect a stream of simultaneous data from multiple sites in and around the metropolitan area. This data, along with first-hand location observations, will be used to understand the Urban Heat Island Effect in Baltimore.
Anyone with access to the Internet and/or a Smartphone can be a Citizen Scientist and participate in Temperature Blast!? While the data obtained from the program is relevant to the Baltimore metropolitan region, there is no geographic or age restriction for Citizen Scientists.
Genetics of Taste Lab
Welcome to a world where very small changes in a person's DNA can have a huge impact on how they perceive taste.
The community-based Genetics of Taste Lab at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science is now home to a new and groundbreaking population study! Findings from the study will contribute new insights into the possibility that there are more than just the five known tastes of sweet, sour, salty, umami (savory), and bitter. The focus for this study will be to learn more about people’s ability to taste fatty acids.
Assuming people can detect the taste of fatty acids, how does it happen?
The Genetics of Taste Lab is a unique venue for both research study participation and citizen science, connecting the community to real scientific research.
This research study is being conducted FOR the community and BY the community. Our scientific team includes citizen scientists, undergraduate interns, and Teen Science Scholars.
This two-year study is led by Nicole Garneau PhD and Richard Mattes PhD and made possible by a partnership between the Health Science and Visitor Programs Departments at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the Nutrition Science Department at Purdue University.
Discover the Microbes Within! The Wolbachia Project
The Wolbachia Project brings real-world biology research into high school and undergraduate classrooms to empower students with science.
The four core goals of this initiative are:
1. Engage citizen scientists in nature and real-world research
2. Encourage international participation in the collection of new scientific data on Wolbachia bacteria that live inside insects and other arthropods
3. Enhance interest in science through an integrative lab series spanning biodiversity to molecular biology
4. Give people an idea of what it's like to be a scientist.
In this integrative lab series, you will collect insects and other arthropods in your local area, identify the organism using an online key, extract DNA from the animal, use biotechnology techniques to test for the presence of Wolbachia bacteria in your samples. You will also be able to send your sample to a research institute that will sequence the Wolbachia DNA so you can do a bioinformatic / phylogenetic analysis of the Wolbachia symbiont.
EyeWire is a citizen science project aimed at mapping the neural connections of the retina. All you have to do is play a relaxing and absorbing game of coloring brain images!
In the game, participants reconstruct the tree-like shapes of the neurons in the retina. By tracing branches throughout images, you can help the computer develop 3-D reconstructions of the neurons.
Anyone can participat