Citizen Science

citizen science – science for everyone

Citizen science is a relatively new way of building an active, engaged society, and at the same time one of the most advanced forms of dialogue between science and the public, including local communities. It involves collaborative research projects in which citizen scientists – people who are not professional researchers – collect specific data. This data is then analysed by specialists, and the results are shared with society as a whole.

what does it involve?

Some of the earliest initiatives of this kind include large-scale bird migration surveys in the United Kingdom and the creation of plant flowering maps compiled by thousands of volunteers in Germany.

One of the most popular modern examples was an Italian project mapping the presence of jellyfish in the Adriatic Sea – a project that involved thousands of beachgoers.

Citizen science projects are also carried out in Poland. One of the most well-known took place in 2011, when people were asked to observe the night sky in their local area over two summer weeks and report how clearly they could see the stars. This made it possible to create a map of areas where city lights and air pollution do not interfere with astronomical observations.

Initiatives involving the reading of birds’ identification rings that lived in or migrated through Poland have also proved very popular.

At the Experyment Science Centre we are also involved in citizen science projects. You can participate in them as part of organised activities (such as outdoor lessons for children or sessions designed for older adults), through volunteering, or individually.