Earth Day & Arbor Day Resources

Collect and report plant data for the Chicago Botanic Garden's research projects.

Report local bird sightings to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

"The nation's longest-running community science bird project," organized by the National Audubon Society.

Measure and report the precipitation that occurs in your own backyard!

Help the Cornell Lab of Ornithology by recording your birdwatching observations on the eBird app.

"A distributed computing project for simulating protein dynamics, including the process of protein folding and the movements of proteins implicated in a variety of diseases. It brings together citizen scientists who volunteer to run simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computers. Insights from this data are helping scientists to better understand biology, and providing new opportunities for developing therapeutics."

"Foldit is a revolutionary crowdsourcing computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research." Foldit is an interactive protein folding game.

Observe the visibility of constellations and share your data to help measure light pollution.

"NASA’s citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and interested members of the public. Through these collaborations, volunteers (known as citizen scientists) have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries."
Some projects are done online, but others need you to make observations in the real world!

Help scientists by collecting data on local plants and animals for the USA National Phenology Network.

"Counts are open to public participation and new participants are encouraged."

"The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research."
Dozens of projects are available! Most projects involve transcribing information from documents or identifying images or sounds.