Photograph by Kelly Thayer, MyShot
Did you know snapping mountain-top photos of smog and listening for frog calls can help scientists? Get ideas for how you can participate in citizen science—projects in which volunteers and scientists work together to answer real-world questions and gather data. Check out two of National Geographic's preeminent citizen science projects: the Great Nature Project and FieldScope.
More Ideas Like This
Bird Count
Participate in a state-wide bird count by contacting your state's ornithological society.
Monitor Water Quality
Volunteer to help monitor and protect the health of your local rivers, streams, and other bodies of water.
Frog and Toad Populations
Survey frog and toad populations in your area by participating in the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, which will teach you how to identify frogs and toads by their calls.
Bird Census
Join the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count and contribute to a wildlife census that will help scientists assess the health of bird populations.
World Monitoring Day
Celebrate World Water Monitoring Day. Use a test kit to sample local bodies of water for water quality data and share the results with other communities around the world.
Search Space
Want a chance to have an interstellar dust particle named after you? Help NASA by volunteering for Stardust@home and searching images for tiny interstellar dust impacts.
Bird Watch
Join eBird, an online checklist project created by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. Ebird allows people to report real-time bird sightings and observations.
Monitor Bird Nests
Join NestWatch, a continent-wide project to monitor bird nests. The project was started by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.
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Writer
Christina Riska Simmons
Editor
Jessica Shea, National Geographic Society
Photo Researcher
Livia Mazur, National Geographic Society
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