If you find yourself counting
the number of frogs in your local pond, noticing the date of the first
flower
on your favourite tree or waiting for the arrival of migrant birds, you
are potentially a citizen scientist.
| People
across the world are increasingly turning their hobby of
watching birds or taking a walk in the wild or even gardening into an
endeavour to
collect important ecological information.
Citizen Scientists the world over collect data on plants,
birds, insects and frogs; data that are crucial to our understanding of
the natural world and how it is changing. |
Who is citizen scientist? A citizen scientist is a volunteer who collects and/or processes data as a part of a scientific enquiry |
Well known citizen science
programmes in other countries include the Christmas Bird Count
and the Great
Sunflower Project in the USA and the UK Phenology Network. Tens of
thousands of volunteers take part in these projects.
Citizen science is currently in its early stages in India, with only a handful of existing volunteer-based scientific projects. The rise of the internet, and the growing interest in ecology and the environment, provides an opportunity for all of us to work together to collect information to better understand the natural world around us.
The Citizen Science Programme of the National Centre for Biological Sciences currently runs two volunteer-based projects.
MigrantWatch was started in August 2007 to monitor the timing of migration of birds to and from the Indian subcontinent. It currently has around 1,200 registered participants from across India. MigrantWatch is run in collaboration with Indian Birds journal. Do join us in this effort to document bird migration!
Project Manager: Uttara Mendiratta, www.migrantwatch.in | mw@migrantwatch.in
SeasonWatch is a new citizen volunteer network that monitors the timing of flowering, fruiting, and leafing of plants. Observations collected through this network will contribute to an understanding of the effects geographic and year-to-year variation in climate on plant ecology. Volunteers register one or more individual trees, and monitor them at weekly intervals. The SeasonWatch website is now ready for use in "beta", which means that we are fine-tuning some aspects of the site. But do go ahead and start monitoring your trees: several hundred trees have already been registered! SeasonWatch is run in collaboration with Wipro Applying Thought in Schools. Our implementation of SeasonWatch for schools in Kerala is run in partnership with Mathrubhumi's SEED programme.
Project Manager: Arun Elassery, www.seasonwatch.in | sw@seasonwatch.in
In addition, on 15 January 2010, we ran an intense, one-day project to monitor how animals respond to a solar eclipse. More details are on EclipseWatch.
For further information, please contact:
Uttara Mendiratta
Coordinator, Citizen Science Programme
National Centre for Biological Sciences
GKVK Campus, Bellary Road
Bangalore 560 065
Email: citizenscience@ncbs.res.in
Citizen science is currently in its early stages in India, with only a handful of existing volunteer-based scientific projects. The rise of the internet, and the growing interest in ecology and the environment, provides an opportunity for all of us to work together to collect information to better understand the natural world around us.
The Citizen Science Programme of the National Centre for Biological Sciences currently runs two volunteer-based projects.
MigrantWatch was started in August 2007 to monitor the timing of migration of birds to and from the Indian subcontinent. It currently has around 1,200 registered participants from across India. MigrantWatch is run in collaboration with Indian Birds journal. Do join us in this effort to document bird migration!
Project Manager: Uttara Mendiratta, www.migrantwatch.in | mw@migrantwatch.in
SeasonWatch is a new citizen volunteer network that monitors the timing of flowering, fruiting, and leafing of plants. Observations collected through this network will contribute to an understanding of the effects geographic and year-to-year variation in climate on plant ecology. Volunteers register one or more individual trees, and monitor them at weekly intervals. The SeasonWatch website is now ready for use in "beta", which means that we are fine-tuning some aspects of the site. But do go ahead and start monitoring your trees: several hundred trees have already been registered! SeasonWatch is run in collaboration with Wipro Applying Thought in Schools. Our implementation of SeasonWatch for schools in Kerala is run in partnership with Mathrubhumi's SEED programme.
Project Manager: Arun Elassery, www.seasonwatch.in | sw@seasonwatch.in
In addition, on 15 January 2010, we ran an intense, one-day project to monitor how animals respond to a solar eclipse. More details are on EclipseWatch.
For further information, please contact:
Uttara Mendiratta
Coordinator, Citizen Science Programme
National Centre for Biological Sciences
GKVK Campus, Bellary Road
Bangalore 560 065
Email: citizenscience@ncbs.res.in