TRAINING in German: CAS Citizen Science and Public Engagement

Hast Du eine Idee für ein partizipatives (Forschungs-)Projekt und fragst Dich, wie Du diese am besten umsetzen kannst? Steckst Du mitten in der Projektarbeit und merkst, dass die Dinge nicht ganz so laufen, wie Du es Dir vorgestellt hast? Oder bringst Du schon einiges an Erfahrung mit in partizipativen Projekten und möchtest über Deinen Tellerrand schauen? Dann bist Du hier richtig - egal ob ganz am Anfang einer vagen Idee oder schon mittendrin. Denn: Gemeinsam wissen wir mehr. Vielschichtige Perspektiven & Erfahrungen Neben Inputs zu zentralen Themen rund um partizipative Projektarbeit lebt der CAS von den vielschichtigen Perspektiven und Erfahrungen der Teilnehmenden. Diese kommen aus ganz unterschiedlichen Bereichen: zum Beispiel aus der Forschung, Museen, Bibliotheken, Archiven, NGOs, der Verwaltung oder dem Gesundheitsbereich. So vielfältig diese Zielgruppe auf den ersten Blick sein mag, sie eint das Interesse an der Umsetzung partizipativer Projekte, an gemeinsamer Wissensproduktion und dem Einbezug der Bevölkerung. Genau in dieser Kombination aus Unterschieden und Gemeinsamkeiten der CAS-Teilnehmenden sehen wir eine grosse Chance für das Von- und Miteinander-Lernen und für die Vernetzung mit Gleichgesinnten, die sich in ganz anderen institutionellen Umgebungen bewegen und zu den verschiedensten Themen arbeiten.

Belgian Citizen Science Networking day

Lessons and insights from WeObserve

WeObserve tackles three key challenges that citizens observatories face: (1) awareness, (2) acceptability and (3) sustainability. Its overall mission is to create a sustainable ecosystem of citizen observatories that can systematically address these identified challenges and help move citizen science into the mainstream. As the project draws to its conclusion, team members will highlight what the project has learnt through its activities. Speakers include: Gerid Hager (IIASA) – WeObserve in a nutshell Uta Wehn (IHE Delft), Joan Maso (CREAF), Dilek Fraisl (IIASA) – WeObserve communities of practice: how to ‘do’ CoPs and some reflections Mel Woods (University of Dundee) – Accelerating the uptake of citizen observatories through MOOCs and open data challenges Joan Maso (CREAF), Valantis Tsiakos (ICCS) – Data interoperability and standardisation: using interoperability experiments and hackathons to address data-related challenges in citizen observatories The webinar will finish with a Q&A by Margaret Gold (Citizen Science Lab). The event will be in English, and you can register for free here.

Open cultural data in citizen science

This roundtable discusses the concept of citizen science as a participatory research methodology in cultural heritage and reviews good practices in creating and communicating open cultural data in citizen science initiatives. Speakers: Mariana Ziku, Fred Truyen, Susanna Anäs, Katerina Zourou, Sofie Taes

Citizen Science in der Verhaltensbiologie: das Projekt NestCams als Fallbeispiel

Wir freuen uns den ersten Vortrag unserer Vortragsreihe zu Citizen Science im Sommersemester 2021 präsentieren zu dürfen. Wenn Sie Interesse an diesem Vortrag haben, würden wir Sie bitten sich auf der dazugehörigen Eventbrite Seite anzumelden (https://www.eventbrite.at/e/citizen-science-seminar-tickets-117528511943). Einen Tag vor dem Vortrag werden wir an alle registrierten Personen einen Link zum Zoom Raum senden. Referent: Dr. Didone Frigerio (Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle, einer Core Facility der Universität Wien mit Sitz in Oberösterreich) Zusammenfassung: Der Fortpflanzungserfolg eines Individuums kann als direktes Maß für seine biologische Fitness betrachtet werden und gibt Aufschluss über die Anpassungsfähigkeit einer Art. An der Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle (einer Core Facility der Universität Wien mit Sitz in Oberösterreich) sind wir daran interessiert, die Zusammenhänge zwischen Brutverhalten und Bruterfolg zu untersuchen. Wir erforschen das an zwei Vogelarten: den langzeit-monogamen Graugänsen, und den saisonal-monogamen Waldrappen. Dafür haben wir mehrere Nistplätze mit Videokameras ausgestattet, die das Verhalten der Brutvögel aufzeichnen. Daraus sind große Datenmengen resultiert, welche wir nur mit kräftiger Unterstützung bewältigen können. Der Vortrag beleuchtet die Schwerpunkte des Projektes und die Vor- und Nachteile von online Plattformen für Citizen Science Ansätze.

Monitoring groundwater in Limpopo Province through citizen science

On 2 March 2021 (11:00-12:00 CET), Jaqui Goldin, from the Centre for UNESCO Groundwater, will present the latest findings from a groundwater-monitoring citizen science project based in the Hout Catchment, Limpopo Province – one of the poorest provinces in South Africa. In this project, citizen scientists capture data on groundwater levels and rainfall, putting it onto a smartphone from where it is uploaded to the web. The data is then available to the Department of Water and Sanitation, and others, who are otherwise unable to access groundwater information in remote wells. After the presentation, Jaqui will answer questions about the project. Attendance is free, and the event will be held in English.

Discovering the unexplored deep marine environment

Deep underwater neutrino telescopes as KM3NeT measure neutrino and environmental events that constitute “noise” for the neutrino searches. These environmental events range from biological bioluminescence to acoustic signals from sea mammals. Citizens can support KM3NeTs scientists to increase the efficiency in the neutrino detection algorithms, providing input that will be crucial for two scientific tasks: the classification of noise types, and the identification of the frequency range and typical length of noise signals. The output of the citizen science activity will serve as a basis for training machine learning algorithms, which will automatically identify and classify the noise sources, thus monitoring the noise with an unprecedented detail. At the same time, citizens will have the opportunity to gain a greater insight of the unexplored deep marine environment. In the framework of REINFORCE, time sequences of the optical counting rates on the KM3NeT “eyes” will be made available to the general public in order to monitor ambient bioluminescence, and citizens will be invited to classify in a systematic way the various types of waveforms observed. Furthermore, in order to involve in this activity also visually-impaired citizen scientists, the “ears” of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope will also be exploited by utilising the time sequences of the acoustical signals detected. Both sound and visual data for the bioluminescence and the acoustic signals will be produced. The webinar aims to give an overview of the Deep Sea Hunters Large Scale Citizen Science demonstrator and how it will be implemented in order to engage citizens in the scientific research, showcasing the tasks that citizens will be asked to perform and how their input will be fundamental to explore the environment of the deep sea below 1000m depth in which humanity has little experience so far. Who should attend? Potential citizen scientists Neutrino researchers and academics Members of the physics and marine community You will learn: How citizens can play an active role in the advance of ground-breaking research How a deep underwater neutrino telescope works How REINFORCE demonstrator about Deep Sea Hunters will be developed How the project will work to include diverse and underrepresented groups in science Agenda 15:00 - 15:10: Welcome and introduction - Paschal Coyle, CPPM, Marseille 15:10 - 15:20: Neutrinos and KM3NeT - Gwenhael de Wasseige, APC, Paris 15:20 - 15:30: Deep Sea Hunters on Zooniverse - Remy Le Breton, APC, Paris 15:30 - 15:40: Bioluminescence - Severine Martini, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, Marseille 15:40 - 15:50: Submarine Intelligent Listening into KM3EnT & Abyss - Herve Glotin, Computer Science & Systems Lab., CNRS, Toulon 15:50 - 16:00: Q&A and wrap-up

Introducing Cos4Cloud

On 24 February 2021 (15:00-16:30 CET), Cos4Cloud will be running an ECSA/EU-Citizen.Science webinar to share the project’s progress so far. This is a chance for the citizen science community, and anyone else with an interest in this project, to find out more and put their questions to the project team. Attendance is free, and the event will be held in English – although questions are welcomed in other languages, and we will do our best to translate them! More details (speakers, etc.) will be shared soon, but you can register for the event now via the URL.

CoAct Webinar: Co-Shaping Evaluation in Citizen Science?

Participatory evaluation is an approach that aims at giving voice to the stakeholders of an intervention in its evaluation design, process and results. This webinar will shed light on the specificities of this methodology, as well as challenges and opportunities related to its application in citizen science. The aim of the webinar is to furthermore provide an overview on co-evaluation as a strategy and to discuss which respective approaches and options have been available for a long time in participatory research and citizen science, how they have been received, what opportunities they have opened up, what obstacles have been overcome, but also what we can learn from them for the future.

Social Media for Citizen Science Projects

The OeAD-Center for Citizen Science invites researchers and practitioners to an online-event, which will be all about using social media in citizen science projects. Experts from the field will provide theoretical input and best practice for successful use of different social media channels, creation of target groups and community management. Presentations will be in German.

Citizen Science in the Classroom: How Real Research is a Mechanism for Increasing Diversity in STEM

Teachers will get an introduction to citizen science, access resources to find projects that fit their curricula and go through an exercise to help integrate these projects into their classroom. Teachers will also leave with a digital toolkit that will enable them to take the lessons learned and apply them to their learning objectives in their classroom.

Webinar: Citizen science and financial sustainability

Let’s talk about money. On 19 November, from 10 to 12 CET, the ACTION project will host an online event dedicated to CS financial sustainability. A two hours talk with experts and success cases and occasion for discussing how to find the right mix among different sustainability paths.

WeObserve MOOC: 'Citizen Science Projects: How to Make a Difference'

Learn to capture and analyse data and use the findings to take action Would you like to understand the environment and other global challenges to help create change? Citizen science projects and citizen observatories are the ideal way to explore big issues, take action and become a change-maker. On this course, you’ll discover many different types of projects and how to get involved. You’ll find out how to lead a project, including the best practices for community building, question forming and data collecting. You’ll also learn how to interpret the information you collect and use your findings to educate others about important universal concerns.