WildObs, Citizen Science | Scientific American

condor, Peru Courtesy of Larry Greenemeier

Technology

WildObs

WildObs (from "wildlife observations") captures memorable wildlife encounters, and puts them to work. Record your encounters for your own studies, or enjoyment, via your smart phone (apps are available for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices). Use these records to develop your own wildlife calendar for the year. Maintain and grow your life-list, learn about new species and connect with nature.

As a wildlife community we help each other find the nature we want (for a photograph or close encounter), and we can learn about the species in our neighborhoods.

Additionally, WildObs is a partner of the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Watch, and works with a number of other scientific studies to extract citizen science from recorded encounters.

Project Details

PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST: Adam Jack
SCIENTIST AFFILIATION: Wildlife Observations (WildObs)
DATES: Ongoing
PROJECT TYPE: Observation
COST: Free
GRADE LEVEL: All Ages
TIME COMMITMENT: Variable
HOW TO JOIN:
Register at the WildObs Web site.

See more projects in Free, Observation, All Ages.

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What is Citizen Science?

Research often involves teams of scientists collaborating across continents. Now, using the power of the Internet, non-specialists are participating, too. Citizen Science falls into many categories. A pioneering project was SETI@Home, which has harnessed the idle computing time of millions of participants in the search for extraterrestrial life. Citizen scientists also act as volunteer classifiers of heavenly objects, such as in Galaxy Zoo. They make observations of the natural world, as in The Great Sunflower Project. And they even solve puzzles to design proteins, such as FoldIt. We'll add projects regularly—and please tell us about others you like as well.

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