This is the first of a series of three posters that we’re presenting today at the AAS meeting in Washington, D.C.

Abstract

CosmoQuest is a second generation citizen science project that makes it possible for NASA Subject Matter Experts to engage the public as both learners and collaborators in research. Engaging the public in publishable science is termed “Citizen Science.” This is a powerful technique for accomplishing research projects and tasks that require many minds and eyes to complete. While some projects may use undergraduates for help, others simply have too many images or too much data for a small population to sort through. CosmoQuest is a platform that enables scientists to take advantage of already existing science tools to engage the public in their research and to acquire the data analysis they need. Citizen scientists, like students, need their experience properly scaffolded to their understanding, and they require mentoring and training to succeed.

This presentation focuses on methods for focusing research projects for successful citizen science engagement, and determining what scaffolding must be built to support citizen education and engagement.

This presentation will help you understand how to transform your research project into a successful citizen science engagement ­either fully online or observational. We will also present a flowchart to help you define: what is required, how to focus on what science does and doesn’t work, and what support your project requires. The content presented will allow you to successfully implement a project within the CosmoQuest facility, and determine what educational support you should provide or request aid to provide.

by: 

Pamela L. Gay, Sanlyn Buxner, Jennifer Grier, Matthew Richardson, and the CosmoQuest Team

You can access the entire poster as a PDF here.