Citizen science on the Diane Rehm Show

Citizen science is clearly an idea whose time has come; I’ll be appearing on the Diane Rehm Show to discuss citizen science for the Environmental Outlook show on May 5. For those tuning in after the fact, the show will be archived online. Obviously, this is an amazing opportunity to share my passion for citizen science with (ulp!) 6-7 million listeners across the nation. I’ll be in the studio with Sharman Apt Russell, author of “Diary of a Citizen Scientist”, with call-in discussion from David Bonter of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Liz MacDonald of NASA and Aurorasaurus. I actually know David and Liz quite well–the citizen science world is small! Sharman and I also crossed paths at a conference a couple of years back, and I’m devouring her delightfully articulate book at the moment. It reminds me so much of my own dissertation fieldwork, studiously learning everything I could to identify birds and coming to understand the things I studied in so much more detail than I had previously imagined they could possess. I’m looking forward to the discussion with these fantastic panelists, and excited about the chance to talk about citizen science’s recent growth, achievements, and...

Speaking at DC Science Café on May 5

On May 5, I’ll be speaking at the DC Science Café on “the power of citizen science”, appearing on a panel with author Sharman Apt Russell and Aurorasaurus project director Liz MacDonald. It’s an exciting opportunity to talk about my research with the public! The challenge, of course, is that my usual audiences are 1) other academics, 2) grad students, and 3) public sector staff with substantial background in science. In other words, not the general public! There’s so much I could say about citizen science that it’s hard to know where to start. Further, it sort of sounds like slides aren’t the usual choice–and I can’t really recall the last time I did a talk without slides. So this is an interesting challenge, especially given that it’s the end of the semester and I’ve got a lot of other big events on the calendar for that week! The event is 6:30-8:30 PM at Busboys & Poets at K and 5th (in DC). I’m told that audience members should arrive early to get a seat, since their capacity is 150. The DC Science Café is a free monthly event organized by the DC Science Writers Association. I’ve heard of these events before, as a form of public engagement in science communication, but I’ve never attended one—and I certainly didn’t expect to be on stage for my first science café experience. It should be fun; come join the...