Citizen Science Association

CitSci2019 Workshops

Return to CitSci2019 Conference Information

Wednesday  |  Friday  |  Saturday  |  Sunday

(see also Field Trips for Wednesday and Sunday)

The following are accepted workshops of #CitSci2019 – Register for the CSA Conference to join a workshop. Below is a summary of the days and format.

Note: not all workshops listed here will appear in the registration form. Registration is only necessary for those with fees or limited capacity. The full menu of workshop options is available here to inform your registration choices.

(R) – indicates registration required
(Free) – indicates free, or discount ticket available

*Indicates Free or discount code available

Wednesday March 13th, 2019

Wed AM W77 – Citizen Science Air Quality Monitoring

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day AM

Organizer: Amanda Kaufman

Local air pollution issues often arise in communities that are over-burdened and under-served. Members of these communities and the broader population have an increasing desire to understand local pollution exposure and generate data to support actions that improve air quality. This interactive workshop, led by the Community and Tribal Programs Group in EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS), will offer an overview of EPA’s Clean Air Act (CAA) and National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), as well as information on low-cost air sensor technologies and resources available to communities, tribes, state and local agencies and other stakeholders.

Price: Free

Capacity: Room Limit

Wed AM W157 – Next Steps: Developing a National Extension Citizen Science Network

Time: Time: Wednesday March 13th Half Day AM

Organizer: Alyson Eberhardt

Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant Extension (“Extension”) are home to dozens of citizen science initiatives. The place-based national reach of the Extension system positions us well to facilitate citizen science projects that address communities’ needs. This workshop seeks to build a national Extension citizen science network to support place-based citizen science. Workshop outcomes will include an inventory of Extension resources and benefits to citizen science programs, a plan of action to sustain national momentum in Extension citizen science, and over time, an increased capacity for Extension to provide technical assistance to the broader community of citizen science. 

Price: Free

Capacity: 50 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Wed AM W215 – CANCELED – Participatory paleontology: A workshop on app-based citizen science

Time: Wednesday March 13th Half Day AM

Organizer: Kent Crippen

Designed for diverse audiences, this workshop provides an opportunity to find and document fossilized specimens, with an emphasis on techniques that ensure such specimens become viable scientific records that are accessible to researchers and educators worldwide. Participants will sort through fossil-rich sediment sourced from Aurora, North Carolina and Gainesville, Florida. Using the myFOSSIL app, they will document and upload photographs of fossilized specimens to the myFOSSIL database where they can be used as evidence for conclusions about past environments. Participants will learn how they can discover and share paleontological methods, events, collecting sites, and more.

Price: CANCELED

Capacity: 30

Wed AM W225 – Using Anecdata.org to power your citizen science project – Full / Waitlist Only

Time: Wednesday March 13th Half Day AM

Organizer: Duncan Bailey

Could your citizen science project benefit from online or mobile data collection? Would you like a way to share your observations online? In this workshop, attendees will receive a crash course on how to set up and run a project on the citizen science platform Anecdata.org. Topics will include project creation, datasheet design, inviting participants, collecting data using the web or the iOS and Android app, and browsing, visualizing, and downloading data. We created Anecdata to fill a gap in the citizen science landscape by providing a versatile, user-friendly platform that can support a wide range of projects which include Mass Audubon’s Eastern Meadowlark Survey, which collects presence/absence data on meadowlarks across Massachusetts; Washington and Gulf of Maine King Tides, which collect photographs of astronomic ‘king’ tides which may help visualize future sea levels; and SC Aquarium’s Litter-Free Digital Journal project, which collects beach debris sweep data which has successfully helped pass single-use plastic bans in municipalities in coastal South Carolina.

Outcomes: Attendees will leave the workshop with everything they need to know to set up their own project and start collecting and sharing data.

Intended Audience: While this this workshop is primarily intended for existing project managers, anyone who is interested in starting a citizen science project or sharing their datasets is welcome to attend!

Price: Free – Covered by Anecdata — FULL / Waitlist Only

Capacity: 30

Wed AM W240 – CSA Data & Metadata

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day AM

Organizer: Justin Schell

The CSA Metadata and Data Working Group invites all conference attendees to join our half-day workshop to continue work on its ongoing projects: advancing work on the PPSR-Core (Public Participation in Scientific Research-Core) metadata standard, including the recent Geneva Declaration from the European Citizen Science Association; triangulating and integrating citizen science data across the field; and developing a communications strategy for best practices in this area. The Workshop will provide a forum for new and returning members to address the crucial international task of metadata standardization, interoperability, and adoption throughout the field of citizen science.

Price: $15 Early Bird / $25 Regular

Capacity: 50

Combined format

Wed PM CF W131 – Create your own crowdsourcing project with the Zooniverse Project Builder!

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day PM

Organizer: Grant Miller

In this half-day workshop, participants will learn the basics of creating a crowdsourcing project from scratch using the Zooniverse Project Builder (https://www.zooniverse.org/lab): a free, do-it-yourself tool that lets anyone build their own project with a user-friendly interface. Discover how you and your learning community can participate in people-powered research!The workshop is aimed at researchers from all backgrounds. Participants should arrive for the workshop with a laptop, a project idea and some sample data (~50-100 images; an ideal dataset is one for which the same line of questioning can be applied to each image).

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 50 – FULL

Wed PM CF W163 – How to use iNaturalist (and teach others how too)

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day PM

Organizer: Miguel Ordeñana

Experience two different conversations centered around the iNaturalist platform. 

iNaturalist 101: Learning the Mobile App – This workshop is designed for people who are new or beginners to iNaturalist. Discussions will focus on the free mobile app (iOS/Android): joining projects, adding observations, checking activity, exploring, and more.

iNaturalist 401: Developing Best Practices – Designed for experienced iNaturalist users who also train people on iNaturalist. Let’s discuss best practices for iNaturalist trainings, and how we as trainers can develop a community of practice focused on iNaturalist trainings.

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 40 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Sat PM CF W196 – REDCap: Data Management and Survey Tool

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day PM

Organizer: Theresa Baker

Understanding and implementing robust data management principles is essential for any scientific field. This workshop presents critical concepts and practical methods to support the planning, collection, storage, and dissemination of data in research using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap). Attendees will learn research data collection method and strategy development, fundamentals for electronic data capture, data management plan development, and post-study activities including data wrap up and reporting. The goal of this workshop is to provide the principals of data management and introduce attendees to REDCap. REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases.

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 24 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Wed PM CF W217 – Grow by Connecting: New Ways to Link to SciStarter for Programmatic Ties to Girl Scouts USA, K12 Districts, Higher Ed Cit Sci, Earth Challenge 2020, and more.

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day PM

Organizer: Caren Cooper

SciStarter.org, the largest inventory of citizen science projects, offers free digital “affiliate tools” for projects to connect website data analytics for volunteers to track their contributions across projects and platforms, and researchers to holistically study learning outcomes across projects and platforms. Projects that use the affiliate tools are eligible for special programs with the Girls Scouts USA, Earth Challenge 2020, PBS, school districts, college campuses, libraries, and corporate volunteer programs. The half-day at CSA will include hands-on development, step-by-step guidance to embed the tools, and take-home resources. Prior to the workshop, review documentation https://www.scistarter.com/API  and submit questions to info@scistarter.com . 

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 30 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Wed PM CF W229 – So You Wanna Test Your Soil? Successful Strategies in Advocacy and Sample Plan Building

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day PM

Organizer: Shaun Crawford

This workshop will cover all aspects of preparing a successful soil sampling
campaign, from initial planning, to coordinating a larger environmental justice movement. The presenters will guide participants through the practice of engaging communities and implementing a soil sampling strategy, using their experience successfully mounting a citizen science environmental justice movement against an industrial facility in Tonawanda, New York. Included in the workshop will be a tutorial on what tools and methods are necessary to collect soil samples using USEPA approved metrics, and how to ensure that the samples meet the utmost
scientific integrity.

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 24 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Wed PM W99 – Inform, Engage and Inspire People with Your Story

Time: Wednesday March 13th Half Day PM

Organizer: Charmel Menzel

Join us for a hands-on workshop to experience how narratives and geography can be combined into one experience: a story map. Whether you want to motivate the public to participate, officials to make changes or promote the analytical results of your project, web applications are a great means to tell your story. Storytellers often turn to maps to illuminate and contextualize their words. Maps are the visual representation of where events happen. As such, maps and stories complement each other. This workshop is focused on communicating through stories utilizing Esri Story Maps app via ArcGIS Online.

Attendees should bring a laptop to access the resources during the workshop.

Price: $50 Early Bird / $50 Regular

Capacity: 25

Wed PM W137 – Science Communication for Scientists

Time: Wednesday March 13th Half Day PM

Organizer: Kate Stone

This workshop is for enthusiastic individuals who want to share research projects and findings with the greater public. No prior experience in science communication is needed. 

Participants will receive instruction in basic science communication theory and best practices, learn about optimal article structure and readability metrics, and work one-on-one with editors. Let us guide you through writing a piece of short-form science journalism. Completed articles may be reviewed for publication in GotScience Magazine.

Please bring a computer and some source material to work from. This may be an academic journal article, narrative description of your research, or a call for citizen scientists.

Price: $50 Early Bird / $50 Regular

Capacity: 14 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Wed PM W164 – Designing Open Data Standards for Citizen Science Projects Through the Analysis of Existing Tools and Projects

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Half Day PM

Organizer: Christopher Gwilliams

Citizen Science projects exist in almost all disciplines, creating the issue of developing a standard schema for these data that provide sufficient flexibility to meet all requirements. Our research is currently focused on the various schemas used in different citizen science projects, as well as within tools such as Pybossa or Epicollect. This workshop aims to connect researchers and citizens to investigate, discuss and compare existing schemas, as well as looking at current efforts to develop standards that can be followed by tools, platforms and projects across all disciplines. Please join us and discuss your requirements and experiences.

Price: $15 Early Bird / $25 Regular — CANCELED

Capacity: Room Limit

Wed PM W224 – Data to Action: Using King Tides and Related Projects to Build Resilience in Coastal Communities

Time: Wednesday March 13th Half Day PM

Organizer: Jane Disney

This workshop will bring together King Tides project leaders to share information and approaches to engaging citizens in addressing shoreline inundation due to sea level rise. We will have a panel discussion of various approaches to engaging citizens in documenting and sharing the impacts of sea level rise and extreme storm events in their communities. Our ultimate goal is to develop a nation-wide working group of King Tides Project leaders and participants who will work together in the coming years to ensure that coastal communities are empowered to translate their collective knowledge to action that will result in climate resilience.

Price: Free – Registration covered by Grant – Sign up soon!

Capacity: 30 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Wed Full Day W223 – Getting Your Project off the Ground: A mix of informational talks, interactive activities, networking, creative project development, and feedback

Time: March 13th – Wednesday Full Day

Organizer: Katrina Theisz

This interactive full-day workshop will help you answer the question, “How do I grow my idea into a funded project?” Regardless of whether your project is fully formed or just the seedling of an idea, join us as we help you navigate the citizen science funding space, learn from experts, network and share ideas with others. Form teams (or work on your own) to incubate your ideas and develop your pitch, receive feedback, and present your revised idea during the conference poster session. Afterward, hear from funders at a separate “Meet the Funders”* event.

*Please note that the “Meet the Funders” session is free and open to all CSA attendees and directly precedes the CSA opening reception.

View W223’s Agenda

Price: $25 Early Bird / $30 Regular

Capacity: 100

Friday March 15th 2019

Fri Lunch W79 – (Roundtable) – Getting Unstuck: Polarity Thinking to Overcome Common Recurring Tensions in Citizen Science Partnerships

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Melinda Butsch Kovacic

Most research partnerships related to citizen science and community-engaged research face recurring problems or challenges that cannot easily be solved thus requiring leaders to make tough decisions and manage tensions to enable both short-term success and long-term sustainability. These tensions are often due to an overemphasis of one value or point of view to the neglect of equally important ones. This workshop introduces Polarity Thinking—a set of principles for recognizing, assessing, and leveraging these tensions. Led by Melinda Butsch Kovacic, a citizen-science researcher and Polarity-Master, attendees will learn to utilize the “both-and”perspective rather than “either-or” to get “unstuck”.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W102 – (Roundtable) – CANCELED – Making the Case for Gray Paper Towards Environmental Justice

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Zakia Shabazz

In making the case for a Gray paper comparisons are made between two inner-city Black males both victims of lead poisoning in their youth.  This comparative discussion highlights the damaging and lasting effects of child lead poisoning and links it to the nine people activities as defined by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing.  A Gray Paper examines the untimely demise of Freddie Gray in juxtapose to the life of Sergio Gray a prisoner in Red Onion supermax State Prison. In exploring the links between lead poisoning, criminal delinquency, incarceration and death what can we as citizens do to

  • Prevent lead poisoning
  • Halt the school to prison pipeline
  • Stop death by lead

Lead poisoning, likened to hypertension, has been a silent killer among people of color in low income, marginalized and vulnerable communities for decades.  It is time to break the silence.

Price: CANCELED

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W109 – (Roundtable) – Collective Troubleshooting

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Michelle Prysby

This workshop, offered by the CSA Professional Development Working Group, is aimed at any citizen science practitioner who has been facing a hurdle in developing or implementing a citizen science effort. We will use those challenges as springboards for small group discussions during which participants will examine the issue in depth and generate ideas for solutions. Not only will participants gain new ideas applicable to their own citizen science practice, but they also will strengthen their ties to other members of the citizen science community. Participants should come with ideas for challenges to discuss and a willingness to troubleshoot collectively.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W114 – (Roundtable) – CANCELED – Developing Citizen Science projects with Scientists, Educators and Community Partners to preserve and protect springs and wetlands of the Southwest

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Jeff Depew

Springs and wetlands of the Southwest are remarkable habitats that support a much larger ecoregion. In the Southwest these areas are ‘jewels’ that hold precious water and are ‘natural areas’ that host an astounding biodiversity. With the appropriate restoration of native plants and wetland species, thoughtful ecological planning and management, utilization of Citizen Science projects – these areas become an oasis for wildlife, an educational teaching tool, a source for community involvement and areas of ongoing research. They are the ‘migratory waystations’ and ‘postage stamp habitats’ of the Southwest.This talk will show, with specific examples, how these areas can and need to be protected and restored. Citizen Science projects used by education, community and research-based programs serve to highlight, educate and protect these unique wetlands and springs. We will specifically look at the changing climate, water, soils and water use in the restoration of wetland projects in the Southwest. With wise management/stewardship, ecological decision making, planting native plants and the assistance of community partners and students across the region – these areas of water in an arid land can continue to be precious resources.

Price: CANCELED

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W116 – (Roundtable) – Citizen Science as a Catalyst for Environmental Stewardship in a Bilingual Context

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Carrie Strohl

Pollinator health has been a national priority since 2008. Around the same time, two successful pollinator-focused citizen science projects were launched: The Great Sunflower Project and The Lost Ladybug Project. The students at Pueblo Vista Environmental Science/Dual Immersion Magnet School have been studying human impact on pollinators, incorporating these citizen science projects as a catalyst for environmental stewardship. Using the school garden as an outdoor classroom, bilingual K-5 teachers and students investigate bees, butterflies, beetles, birds and bats within the context of NGSS aligned units of study taught in Spanish.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W150 – (Roundtable) – Collaboration between citizen science projects – Why and how? A workshop addressing the need, types and (dis)advantages of cooperation in the citizen science community

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Barbara Heinisch

Partnerships and long-term relationships are at the heart of citizen science. In citizen science projects, we normally use them to refer to the relationship between academics on the one hand and citizens on the other. However, much less attention is paid to fostering relationships and promoting collaboration within the citizen science community.Therefore, this workshop aims at identifying collaboration schemes between citizen science projects. In a world café session, we examine the need for cooperation in the citizen science community and barriers to collaboration. We address forms, advantages and disadvantages of cooperation between citizen science projects. The participants share their experience of collaboration, framework conditions as well as infrastructures that may enable collaboration between projects.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W175 – (Roundtable) – Caterpillars Count! A Citizen Science Workshop for Educators

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Allen Hurlbert

Looking for a new way to engage your students or visitors in hands-on science learning and contribute valuable information to research about birds and their arthropod food sources? Learn how to host a Caterpillars Count! survey site, train volunteers to conduct arthropod surveys, monitor changes in the abundance and type of insects present over time, and report data using our free mobile app or website. Use visualization tools on our website to answer your own research questions and explore data from across the United States and Canada. Standards-aligned learning activities that tie directly to project data will also be shared.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W182 – (Roundtable) – How to build a functional regional partnership

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Caroline Donovan

The Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative envisions a Chesapeake community where all data of known quality are used to inform watershed management decisions. The Cooperative started in 2015,maturing into a well-rounded program within the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2018. The objectives of this workshop are to describe the success of a functioning regional partnership and to provide resources to other organizations to build their own regional monitoring programs. We will help participants structure a regional partnership between citizen scientists, volunteer monitors, government agencies,and academic institutions.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W190 – (Roundtable) – Storytelling in Citizen Science

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Caroline Nickerson

This workshop will train participants to be citizen science communicators. The goal is for individuals at all levels of experience, ranging from first-time writers to publishing veterans, to emerge from the workshop with a greater understanding of how to craft a written narrative about a citizen science project. Every participant in this workshop will leave with a first draft of an article about a citizen science project from SciStarter’s Project Directory. This article will ultimately be published on SciStarter’s Syndicated Blog Network, which includes the SciStarter, Discover, and Public Library of Science platforms.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Registration Information and Link for W190

Fri Lunch W248 – (Roundtable) – The 500 Feet Project: People Powered Policy

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Jazmine Johnson

Countless California communities are disproportionately burdened with high concentrations of environmental hazards, inevitably causing poor health outcomes including high rates of asthma and cardiovascular disease. In South Central Los Angeles, one factor contributing to this reality is poor land use planning which engenders incompatible land use. This workshop will examine the participatory engagement model used in the 500 Feet Project to develop a comprehensive set of policy solutions intended to address this issue. Participants will explore the tools and interfaces developed for research and community engagement purposes, including ground truthing, a land use board game, and an interactive hazard-mapping tool.

Related Links:

Price: Canceled

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W118/124 – Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Protocol Activities to Enhance Youth Participation in Citizen Science and Environmental Justice Research

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizers: David A. Padgett, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, and Garry Harris, Center for Sustainable Communities, Atlanta, Georgia

Community based organizations engaged in environmental justice research are often comprised primarily of individuals 30 years of age and older. Thus, young stakeholders may be “left out of the process.” This workshop aims at non-traditional educators working to develop “all ages” research strategies. The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program (www.globe.gov) is an international science and education program that provides the public with opportunities to participate in earth systems data collection. Workshop activities include community-based geographic information systems (GIS) mapping and hands-on GLOBE Atmosphere Protocol data collection focused upon air pollution threats to human health.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W208 – Disruptive Technologies and Citizen Science: Air Pollution Monitoring with CommunityAQ

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Kodi Jaspers

Are you interested in getting your community involved in air quality monitoring? Then come and try the Personal Air Monitor (PAM)! During this workshop you will learn about data collection, data uploading, and data analysis with this air quality tool. You will also get to participate in a mobile Trek, using the PAM and smartphone app, where you can view real-time data on maps and graphs, the relative health of the air being measured, and data from the nearest government monitoring stations for comparison. Trek data is automatically uploaded from the app,which we will analyze when we return to the classroom.

Price: Free

Capacity: 25

Fri Lunch W901 – Citizen Science & FieldScope: Engaging Students in Scientific Practices

Time: Friday March 15th – 60 Minute Lunch

Organizer: Sean O’Connor, FieldScope/BSCS

In this lunch & learn session for educators, BSCS Science Learning will introduce FieldScope—an interactive platform for community and citizen science (CCS)—and projects using it from the North Carolina area that are open to classroom participation. We will share how participation in CCS activities in both the field and the classroom can support youth engagement in a range of scientific practices—from asking scientific questions to making meaning of data to communicating scientific findings. We will also introduce new BSCS learning materials that offer middle or high school students a structured experience working with “big data” generated from CCS programs using FieldScope.

Price: Free

Capacity: 30

Fri Lunch W142 – Engaging and Empowering Citizen Scientists: Practical Advice About Planning and Implementing Projects

Time: Friday March 15th Half Day PM  *Note this is parallel to sessions

Organizer: Shaun Goho

Harvard Law School’s Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic has developed a manual designed to empower individuals in their roles as citizen scientists and promote the practice of community-based citizen science as a vehicle for environmental justice. In   on March 15, 2019, the Clinic will offer practical suggestions for how to design and carry out an effective,community-based, environmentally-focused citizen science project. At the outset of the workshop, the Clinic will provide an overview of(1) tools to facilitate community understanding of local environmental and public health issues and enforcement of environmental laws; (2) laws that can impede citizen science activities; and (3) practical suggestions about data collection,analysis, and compliance with relevant scientific and data quality standards. Then, workshop attendees will break out into small groups.Each group will practice using the manual by applying it to hypothetical scenarios. The groups will then reconvene to discuss lessons learned about citizen science from working through the scenarios. The Clinic hopes to receive feedback from attendees about ways to improve the manual, which is available online at https://citizenscienceguide.com

Price: Free

Capacity: 50

Saturday March 16th 2019

Sat AM W149 – ImprovSciComm – the art of (science) communication is improvisation

Time: Saturday March 16th AM (2 hours)

Organizer: Susanne Hecker

Eager to enrich your communication skills, understand your audience and try something new? In this workshop, we will work on how to communicate with our audience/partner by experiencing basic facts of inter-human communication through improvisation exercises. We will live and discuss experiences of the easy-to-apply improv exercises and transfer this experience to real life citizen science situations. Exercises are related to body language, connect and communicate with our partner and the ability to talk openly in our citizen science project – with project partners of all ages and experience levels. You do not need any experience in Improvisation Theater to attend.

Price: $15 Early Bird / $15 Regular

Capacity: 24

Sat AM W192 – A model of action research for building community decision-making capacity

Time: Saturday March 16th AM (2 hours)

Organizer: Janni Sorensen

This workshop lays out detailed steps of a four-phased action research project. We demonstrate how to build on each phase by establishing and developing relationships, increasing participation levels; establishment of a collective vision, building of social capital and strengthened local voice. Our goal is to share this model of action-based research so that it may inform the work of others working to engage local residents in recruitment of participants, data collection, analysis, advocacy and implementation of citizen led projects. Facilitators will guide participants through outlining steps for implementing the 4 phases on a project that their organization is engaged in.

Price: $10 Early Bird / $10 Regular

Capacity: 40 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Sat AM W211 – Best practices in Science Communication

Time: Saturday March 16th AM (2 hours)

Organizer: Alexandra Fries

This workshop helps improve participants’ science communication capabilities and helps participants translate their science to reach broader communities. Science communication is not only important for promoting inclusion and citizenry in science, but also for maintaining relationships and partnerships by communicating data in an understandable, engaging way. Participants will use their own data and research to create products that are designed to help communicate with their intended audiences, including volunteers, communities,researchers, managers, and policy makers. Several engaging games(such as “Conceptionary” and “Title Pursuit”) will improve participants’ knowledge and skills in data interpretation and science communication.

Price: $10 Early Bird / $10 Regular

Capacity: 30 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Sat AM W213 – Study Design: Developing a Citizen Science Project that Delivers Results

Time: Saturday March 16th AM (2 hours)

Organizer: Julie Vastine

Session objectives: Community based science projects can be effective data collection tools. It is also an opportunity to engage local communities and volunteers in collecting data that can lead to results in understanding, protecting, and restoring local environments. Prior to developing a community-based data collection program, it is essential to think through the scientific process and the steps necessary to create a program where the data collected match your monitoring objectives. The study design process facilitates the essential decisions that need to be made. This 90-minute, interactive session will explore the fundamental building blocks for building a strong citizen science program.

Price: $10 Early Bird / $10 Regular

Capacity: 50

Sat AM W219 – Volunteer Life Cycle: Understanding and engaging volunteers for citizen science

Time: Saturday March 16th AM (2 hours)

Organizer: Andrea Lorek Strauss

Citizen science programs seek the assistance of volunteers with a variety of tasks, but program coordinators often struggle to make the most of volunteer potential, complaining that they take too much time to train or supervise, they can’t conduct specialized tasks, they don’t do the work correctly, and may even discontinue service after an initial investment. This highly interactive session will introduce a model that describes the full life cycle of a volunteer’s experience. Participants will discuss and reflect on how they can improve volunteer engagement at various points in the cycle with a goal of sustaining volunteer service.

Price: $10 Early Bird / $10 Regular

Capacity: 75

Sat AM W235 – Citizen Science: Environmental Justice Science for Compliance

Time: Saturday March 16th AM (2 hours)

Organizer: Omega Wilson

Objectives: 1) Define “Science for Compliance” for grassroots environmental justice research; 2) How-to leverage citizen science data and research for legal compliance and enforcement; 3) Discussion difference legal leverage tools such as administrative complaint, a motion, a lawsuit, and how to file each; 4) How community collected data can be leveraged for local/state/federal legal compliance and enforcement. This workshop draws on decades of real-world experience, organizing collaborative “legal” partners, and use of collective data to improve human and environmental health. Through Q/A, discussions, and exercises, the organizers and panelists will help attendees learn how to consider “legal options for solutions”.

Price: Free

Capacity: Room Limit

Sat AM W243 – Citizen Science Training on the use of Low-cost Real-Time Sensors: Bladensburg as a Case Study

Time: Saturday March 16th AM (2 hours)

Organizer: Sacoby Wilson

Ambient air pollution from stationary sources such as concrete plants, industrial traffic, and commuter traffic can negatively impact air quality and human health including emissions of particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). During this workshop, we will discuss air pollution and health issues in Bladensburg, Maryland. Participants will learn how to use real-time sensors to measure PM (Airbeam and Purple Air sensor) and VOCs (Atmotube) including setting up the instruments, performing field monitoring, proper quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC), data download, and data interpretation. The audience for this workshop includes citizen scientists, researchers, students and residents of overburdened communities.

Price: $10 Early Bird / $10 Regular

Capacity: Room Limit

Sunday March 17th 2019

Sun AM CF W200 – Hands-on science kits to prepare citizen scientists for environmental health projects

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day AM

Organizer: Dana Brown Haine

Participants will explore four interactive kits designed to build the environmental health literacy of a range of community audiences in preparation for contributing to environmental health-focused citizen science projects. These kits were developed by four, university-based environmental health science centers funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and address the following topics: water quality, both urban and rural, and household exposure to lead and pesticides. These kits were designed to engage learners in informal settings and to train citizen scientists to conduct environmental health projects. Participants can request free kits and accompanying evaluation instruments beginning in early 2019.

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 20 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Sun AM CF W206 – Utilizing citizen science to fill gaps in the oil and gas knowledge-base: Tools available for addressing fracking impacts

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day AM

Organizer: Erica Jackson

The oil and gas industry impacts communities in many ways, yet ground-level data on these issues are severely lacking. FracTracker Alliance and Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (EHP) assist people in documenting health concerns associated with fracking. This workshop will train participants on four tools that help achieve this goal. FracTracker will train on its mobile app and web app, which monitor and report fracking impacts. EHP will train on the Speck air sensor and the Environmental Health Channel, which provides visualizations of Speck results. EHP will also discuss its national health registry for symptom data near fracking. Participants will engage with the tools in small-group sessions, and learn how these tools can help their campaigns.

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 75

Sun AM CF W208.pt2 – Disruptive Technologies and Citizen Science: Air Pollution Monitoring with CommunityAQ

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day AM

Organizer: Kodi Jo Jaspers

Are you interested in getting your community involved in air quality monitoring? Then come and try the Personal Air Monitor (PAM)! During this workshop you will learn about data collection, data uploading, and data analysis with this air quality tool. You will also get to participate in a mobile Trek, using the PAM and smartphone app, where you can view real-time data on maps and graphs, the relative health of the air being measured, and data from the nearest government monitoring stations for comparison. Trek data is automatically uploaded from the app,which we will analyze when we return to the classroom.

Price: Free – registration required for a headcount

Capacity: 25

Sun AM W125 – (Outside) – Science in the Schoolyard – Student-driven Investigation*

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day AM

Organizer: Jennie McGuigan

In this session, we address the importance of giving students the freedom to ask their own questions and to think like scientists. Experience the thrill of discovery as we explore, pose questions, and probe for answers during this half-day outdoor workshop. We will discuss overcoming the barriers to taking your students outside, group management skills, and safety guidelines. We will model experiential learning routines that will encourage your students to become keen observers and question-askers. Next, be prepared to work with fellow participants to design a mini exploratory investigation, create a poster, and share your results with your peers.

*This session will take place primarily outdoors with an initial gathering and conclusion inside.

Price: $15 Early Bird / $20 Regular

Capacity: 30

Sun AM W106 – Get it together: data collaborations from singular to systems

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day AM

Organizer: Heather Fischer

Citizen Science projects range in topics from human health, species observations, earth systems, atmosphere, and space. With these myriad programs, citizen science data has become prevalent. This workshop aims to leverage the vast and varied data collected from citizen science programs and foster data sharing and transfer collaborations between a diverse group of citizen science data managers and practitioners. Sharing and combining individual citizen science datasets allows more complex system-level research questions to be addressed through citizen science.   

Workshop participants should bring their own citizen science dataset and a laptop (sample datasets will be provided if needed). Participants will be encouraged to collaborate with each other to discover, integrate, and analyze various citizen science and authoritative datasets. From project planners and data collectors to data managers and decision-makers, the audience for this workshop is anyone involved in the data lifecycle of a citizen science program.

The beginning of the workshop will include short presentations and time for discussion with scientists who use and help produce citizen science data. This portion of the workshop will include discussions of the data lifecycle, data access, data sharing and transfer, data discovery, and metadata best practices.  There will also be a demonstration of how two citizen science datasets can work together and how to think about appropriate scale of data and system level research questions. The example will include citizen science data collected from NASA’s Land Cover and Mosquito Habitat Mapper mobile applications.

The second half of the workshop will provide time for breakout groups to work together and network to think about how their data can be combined to answer system-level research questions and experiment with combining datasets. Breakout groups would be people who have data that seems to complement each other and will be self selecting. Breakout groups are asked to work together to develop a research question that can be addressed with a combination of datasets, then work together to perform some exploratory data analysis and produce a visualization of their analysis. The last activity will be short presentations by the breakout groups.

The expected outcomes for participants of the workshop include the formation of new networks for sharing and transferring citizen science data. As well as a better understanding of the data lifecycle and the potential of citizen science data to be used to answer scientific research questions beyond a singular project. Workshop notes and presentation will be available after the event. The cost of the workshop is $15. Full day workshop is preferable, but we will accept a half day time slot.

Useful background information: “Public Participation in Science Research Data Management Guide”: https://www.dataone.org/sites/all/documents/DataONE-PPSR-DataManagementGuide.pdf

Price: $15 Early Bird / $20 Regular

Capacity: 30

Sun AM W139 – Virtual ecological research assistant

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day (shortened from Full Day)

Organizer: Robert Bates

This workshop will introduce an interactive ecological modeling environment called VERA to the broad community of citizen science project leaders, volunteers, and researchers attending CSA 2019. VERA (for Virtual Ecological Research Assistant) allows a user to construct visual conceptual models of ecological systems, execute visual simulations to validate them, and make predictions about how the ecosystems may respond to hypothetical changes. Workshop participants will learn how to use VERA and how it can be applied in their own citizen science projects. The workshop may also be of interest to teachers and students interested in biology, ecology and the environment.

Price: $15 Early Bird / $20 Regular

Capacity: 40

Sun AM W143 – Citizen Science Day

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day AM

Organizer: Richard Smart

Citizen Science Day (#CitSciDay) is crucial to building awareness about the field, recruiting volunteers, and building local citizen science communities. Workshop attendees will learn #CitSciDay’s history, get ideas for online and in-person events from bioblitzes to book readings and beyond, and explore resources: social media kits, how-to guides, online event calendars, etc.

Attendees will get feedback on their event ideas, and be able to add their events to the online #CitSciDay calendar. This workshop is perfect for people at any stage of event planning for a #CitSciDay event in 2019 or beyond. Hosted by CSA’s #CitSciDay Taskforce.

Cost: Free – Registration covered by SciStarter – Sign up soon! — FULL / Waitlist Only

Capacity: 50 — FULL / Waitlist Only

Sun AM W239 – At The Table: Making Work Intersectional and Inclusive

Time: Sunday March 17th Half Day AM

Organizer: Nakisa Glover

Communities of color, tribal communities, low-income and marginalized communities, referred to as, environmental justice communities face changes because of gentrification, environmental destruction, weather-related disasters, and climate change. A strong understanding to best work inside communities is necessary for their success, resiliency, and success of your work.

Gain a deeper understanding of intersectionality, and increase accessibility, and inclusivity of environmental spaces, while centering marginalized voices. Build radical solutions, and gain resources to cultivate safe organizing spaces free from harassment and microagresssion. View the current status of your work and create roadmaps to the desired work outcome.

Price: $15 Early Bird / $20 Regular

Capacity: Room Capacity

Sun Full Day W93 – Evaluating the social health and sustainability of citizen science communities

Time: Sunday March 17th Full Day

Organizer: Jonathan Brier

Citizen science projects depend on their volunteer communities to remain vital; however, we have few established methods for evaluating the social health and sustainability of these critical communities. This workshop will start a dialogue to collaboratively identify techniques and metrics for evaluating the social health and sustainability of our volunteer (project), platform, network, and organizational (multi-project) participant communities. We will brainstorm and prioritize key categories of indicators relevant across projects, candidate metrics, and potential methods of evaluation. We will conclude by identifying priority actions to enable cross-community evaluation for a collective agenda to advance the sustainability of citizen science communities.

Price: $10 Early Bird / $15 Regular – supported by Nebraska Research Initiative.

Capacity: 30