Get Your Geek On, Help Scientists With iDoScience

Do you have a passion for science? Are you a citizen scientist wanting to connect with other people as engaged as you, and connect with professional scientists about projects? iDoScience is the new resource that will help make that happen, blending citizen science, social media, and education into one helpful website.

What is iDoScience?

iDoScience recognizes the lightening pace at which technology has allowed us to move forward in science and learning. It also recognizes the importance of putting teachers and students in direct contact with scientists so that the information can be shared as quickly as it is being collected, putting the average citizen on the same plane as researchers.

Scientists can create a new project and get participation from anyone around the world - like crowd sourced research data - that they can use in their project. And participants, especially students, get the amazing experience of working on real projects that are making differences in the world.

According to iDoScience, there are some excellent benefits that will come from this new resource, to be launched on March 1st.

1.Teachers now have an unprecedented resource of meaningful science projects to engage their students.

2.Students can work with professional scientists anywhere in the world on real research projects that benefit us all.

3.Students can create their own projects and find collaborators all over the planet.

4.Citizen scientists can find like-minded people to share ideas.

5.Home-schoolers now have a network of science lovers to use as a resource for their children.

6.Professional scientists now have a turn-key solution to promote their research projects, archive their data, find collaborators and reach out to thousands of people they could not reach before.

One of the key leaders behind this project is Dr. Shawn Carlson, who has been an instrumental force behind the modern citizen scientist movement. He is the only person every to win a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship for advancements in science education. And well deserved - citizen science is a big deal.

Why Citizen Science Is Important

Citizen science is a way for everyone to help out scientists in data gathering, so that they can more easily do their job. It's not necessarily an easy task on the part of volunteers, and has to be taken seriously since the data being added to the research needs to be reliable. Still, it is a lot of fun, and minimally trained volunteers can be a boon for projects. When citizens eager to help are mixed together with scientists eager for information, good things can happen. Here's how the Earthwatch Institute puts it:

As Drs. Buesching and Newman put it, "While it is essential to calibrate the accuracy of volunteers this does not diminish their value. They allow numerous sites to be surveyed simultaneously and they can save time....Many volunteers can be trained simultaneously, representing a time-and cost-effective method for ultimately increasing the number of competent ecological monitors in society."

...The Citizen Science model doesn't assume professional accuracy in each volunteer and doesn't depend upon it to work. Rather...it assumes its profits lie in volume. With so much work to be done--most people have no idea of the infinite amount of daily "grunt work" required by even the most basic field science projects--60% accuracy multiplied by hundreds or thousands of helping hands moves the scientific ball significantly down the field toward quality data, even factoring in the need for training, monitoring, and sorting out the inevitable errors.

How To Get Onboard with Citizen Science

If you'd like to help out, and learn a whole heck of a lot about the world around you, register with iDoScience. When the site launches on March 1st, you'll be able to get involved in projects as they arise.

There are many more opportunities to get started as a citizen scientist. For instance, Cornell wants bird watchers to come aboard their program. Or you could join up with the USA National Phenology Network to work on climate change. There's a whole slew of projects eager for your help listed at Citizen Science Projects.