The document discusses the rise of citizen scientists, who number over 50 million worldwide, often contributing to scientific research out of personal satisfaction and a desire to improve their communities. It highlights the impact of the internet and accessible technology in promoting citizen science, resulting in significant discoveries and contributions to environmental understanding. The document also outlines a solution to connect eager individuals with various research opportunities through a project finder database.

1. Disrupting Science! (in a good way) Humanity + Summit @ Harvard: Rise of the Citizen Scientist Darlene Cavalier Science For Citizens http: //scienceforcitizens .net

2. Common Misconception (among scientists)

3. What is a Citizen Scientist?

4. Who are Citizen Scientists? 50 million+ worldwide 46% surveyed*, hold graduate degrees (national avg is 9.9%**) Highly educated, affluent, active users of the Internet. *2009 Brownstein/Science Cheerleader survey of 150 active citizen scientists **U.S. Department of Education, 2009-2010

5. Who are Citizen Scientists? MOST CITIZEN SCIENTISTS ARE GEN JONERS: who have an “aching to act.”

6. Why volunteer for science? To help safeguard or improve the environment. To learn more about a subject I’m interested in. To generally expand my knowledge, broaden my mind. To help improve my community. To help advance science. Citizen scientists don ’t do scientific research for a living; they practice science for personal satisfaction.

7. Online data analysis citizen scientists Demographics: avg age 43 yrs old; 80/20 men/women; 28% hold Masters degree+; 29% hold Bachelors #1 reason these 250,000+ people volunteer to sort through images of galaxies? “ To contribute to research.” Source: Jordan Raddick (JHU), Galaxy Zoo survey: “Why do people become citizen scientists?”

8. Why now? Internet makes it easy to obtain and share information Instrumentation is cheaper, more accessible Mobile smart phones: GPS, digital photography, microscopes, sensors Open data

9. Impact? Peer reviewed papers Discoveries: Amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley, discovered a hole in Jupiter’s atmosphere, the size of the Earth! At least three citizen scientists played key roles in what has become known as Climategate. Six-year-old Alyson Yates and her mom, Kate, discovered a rare nine-spotted ladybug while taking part in Cornell University’s Lost Ladybug citizen science project. By running DNA tests, teenagers in NYC found a new breed of cockroach and discovered food labels lie.

10. Impact? White House Increasing number of published papers Field of academic study Policy: Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology Public Understanding of Science

11. Buzz The NY Academy of Sciences: The Growth of Citizen Science The New York Times: A New Kind of Big Science O’Reilly Report: Citizen Science and Urban Sensing TreeHugger: The Big Deal with Citizen Science Education.com: Citizen Science benefits to children Seed Magazine: Creating Citizen Scientists CNN Citizen Science and Climate Change And many more.

12. What we do We enable regular folks to tap their inner scientists and improve the world.

13. The problem Millions of people eager to explore science and nature can’t find the thousands of research activities they could be participating in.

14. Our solution: the Project Finder Fireflies, oil spills, the moon, your local river… Yup, our database has a project for that.

15. Harnessing the power of America’s greatest resource, to improve our world.