Citizen science: a developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy
BioScience, 59 (11):
977-984 (2009)Abstract
Citizen science enlists the public in collecting large quantities of data across an array of habitats and locations over long spans of time. Citizen science
projects have been remarkably successful in advancing scientific knowledge, and contributions from citizen scientists now provide a vast quantity of
data about species occurrence and distribution around the world. Most citizen science projects also strive to help participants learn about the
organisms they are observing and to experience the process by which scientific investigations are conducted. Developing and implementing public
data-collection projects that yield both scientific and educational outcomes requires significant effort. This article describes the model for building
and operating citizen science projects that has evolved at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology over the past two decades. We hope that our model will
inform the fields of biodiversity monitoring, biological research, and science education while providing a window into the culture of citizen science.
