Yesterday I talked about how my 10 year old is getting ready to start her project for this coming year's science fair at her school. I encourage all students to participate in a science fair, even if they are not quite sure what to do or have little to no science knowledge. Participating and getting your hands dirty, so to speak, is the best way to get involved in science. If your school is not participating in a science fair, or if it's the wrong time of the year but you still want to do a science project, the good news is there are many citizen science projects out there to get involved in.
Citizen science projects are science projects setup by professional scientists who have done the leg work of setting up the experiment and often acquiring the data. In many cases, the data set is so large that it's impossible for one scientist, or even a team of scientists to analyze the data in any reasonable amount of time. Therefore thousands of citizen scientists are needed to help analyze the data. This is where you, the non-scientist and possibly aspiring scientist, comes in. The professional scientists setup an online platform to deliver the data to you and ask you to analyze the data. This may seem impossible, but it's actually quite easy. The citizen science projects I've worked on, mostly through Galaxy Zoo, provide the necessary training for you to accurately analyze the data.
Citizen science projects used to be few and far between and the ones that existed often required you to have a significant knowledge base to get started. That's not true anymore which means more people can get involved in real scientific research! I came across this list of citizen science projects at National Geographic.
Citizen Science Projects
The projects on this site range from astronomy to biology to environmental science, and more! So check out the link, find a project you find interesting, and get started! It's that easy!
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