Please consider applying here.
The Summer Instructor will lead Citizen Science Ambassadors, a summer science research experience for Chicago high school students. The instructor will assist in preparing the program curriculum and will serve as the primary staff working with youth.
During Citizen Science Ambassadors 16 teens learn about and apply the scientific inquiry process through citizen science. They make discoveries by diving into wildlife data from Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and astronomical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In teams, teens will work together to create original research questions, analyze data from select Zooniverse online citizen science projects, and share results with different audiences through research presentations and science blogging.
Training will begin in June, with exact dates and schedule to be determined. Expected teaching dates are 12:30pm – 4:30 pm Tuesday – Friday from July 3rd through August 10th.
Please consider applying here.
The Summer Instructor will lead Citizen Science Ambassadors, a summer science research experience for Chicago high school students. The instructor will assist in preparing the program curriculum and will serve as the primary staff working with youth.
During Citizen Science Ambassadors 16 teens learn about and apply the scientific inquiry process through citizen science. They make discoveries by diving into wildlife data from Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and astronomical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In teams, teens will work together to create original research questions, analyze data from select Zooniverse online citizen science projects, and share results with different audiences through research presentations and science blogging.
Training will begin in June, with exact dates and schedule to be determined. Expected teaching dates are 12:30pm – 4:30 pm Tuesday – Friday from July 3rd through August 10th.
2 Participants
6 Comments
I'm not 100% sure how we should use this board yet. I still like tagging #dailyzoo -- but it might also be useful to have some suggestions here as well.
I think this is one of our teen interns' ideas in practice, so I'm going to let them use it as they see fit!
I'm not 100% sure how we should use this board yet. I still like tagging #dailyzoo -- but it might also be useful to have some suggestions here as well.
I think this is one of our teen interns' ideas in practice, so I'm going to let them use it as they see fit!
56 Participants
223 Comments
I agree that this thread can be difficult to follow, in part due to its huge scope. However, I think it may be quite difficult to tease out three major themes, say, and so split the discussion.
On the topic of participation by children and teens, in online CS projects such as those under the Zooinverse brand, one important aspect has not yet been mentioned (though I may well have missed it): the laws in various different countries.
There are laws seeking to regulate, restrict, guide, etc the online activities of juveniles (I'll use that to cover everyone under age 18, or whatever is the 'threshold age'), likely in nearly all the countries in which most zooites live. Are these laws consistent? Do some of them mandate parental consent? Invest ultimate responsibility for online activity in the parents/guardians? Are there laws which mandate actions which the Zooniverse, or any of its individual projects, must take (re 'signing in', participating, access to personal data, etc), beyond those which apply to everyone? Must the Zooniverse's lawyers (and those associated with each project) be sufficiently cognizant of the relevant laws in all countries (or at least those with registered users) so they may be as certain as they can reasonably be expected to be that there are no violations of any relevant laws?
Beyond laws - which cannot be broken, knowingly or not, on pain of sanctions - there are ethical concerns.
For example, in the Acknowledgement sections of 'Zooinverse papers', one can read text like this (from Keel+ 2012):
This work would not have been possible without the contributions of citizen scientists as part of the Galaxy Zoo project. We particularly thank Hannah Hutchins, Elizabeth Baeten, Massimo Mezzoprete, Elizabeth Siegel, Aida Berges, and users voyager1682002 and Caro, who each examined all of the galaxies in the targeted AGN sample, and in addition Christian Manteuffel, for assistance in compiling the list of SDSS AGN candidates. We are grateful to the following additional Galaxy Zoo participants who contributed to the targeted AGN search: Michael Aarons, Mark Ackland, AdrianusV, Aerial, alexob6, Daniela Alice, Norvan Allen, Anderstp, AndrewM, angst, Anjinsan, ARCHEV, artemiit, aryamwojn, astrobrainiac, astronomicom1, Markku Autio, Michelle Ayers, Elisabeth Baeten, R. Balick, Michael Balzer, Michael Derek Barnett, Kirsten Barr, Barbara Ann Barrett, David Bartlett, Coral Benham, Aida Berges, Mark Bernaldo, Chiheb Boussema, Gwen Brogmus, Dave Browne, brunochi, buddyjesus, David Burt, cadou, caliz83, Capella, Alice Carlsen, Caro, Jiri Cejka, Theodore J. Celaya Sr., chairstar, citisue3, Nick Clarke, Ana Claudia, cloud9, clua, David N. Cook, coral, Gemma Coughlin, Rob Cowhey, Penny Cox, Laurence Cuffe, cyprien, DancesWithWords, Darren, DarthKeribo, Lloyd Daub, daveb, dave3, david_mbe, david_nw, Michael C. Davis Jr., distel, Dobador, Shane Dobkins, drawm, Juliette Dowle, Elizabeth Duff, Graham Dungworth, dxjerlubb, dzd, Michael Easterly, echo, Alan Eggleston, Thomas Erickson, ErroneousBee, Falconet, firejuggler, frisken, Gino, glyphon, GNB080, gordhaddow, Michael Gronceski, grrower1, Michael Hand, Thomas Hardy, Hans Heilman, Steph Hill, Thomas Hobbs, Rick Holtz, Rob Hounsell, hrutter, Mikko Huovinen, IC1101, ixzrtxp, Nina Jansen, Alain Jaureguiberry, jayton, jczoehdo, jhyatt, David E. Johnson, Steve Johnson, David James Jones, John Kelly, khwdfnwit, Pat Kieran, KillerSkaarj, kiske1, knuid, kokdeblade, Anuradha Koratkar, Michi Kovacs, kzhndepnd Marc Laidlaw, laihro01, landersonzych, Lily Lau WW, lawless, Bill Lawrence, Kathleen Littlefield, Liz, Marc Lluell, Michael Lopez, lpspieler, luigimx, Lzsp, Michael MacIsaac, Christine Macmillan, Katie Malik, Steve Malone, mardo, Lelah Marie, Mark, Michael Marling, Stephanie R. Marsala, Mauro Marussi, marxpmp, Mark McCormack, Rob Mellor, Massimo Mezzoprete, mgn, Michaelr1415, MichaelRoberts, MichaelSangerTx, milkncookies, miraculix250, Elspeth Mitchell, Graham Mitchell, mlvgofjedxv, mothic, Mukund, mykyij, NGC3372, Julian Nicol, Rick Nowell, nrbeuw, Richard Oram, orion, oswego9050, pbungaro, Alice Peachey, Thomas Perraudin, Amanda Peters, Erica Pinto, plum- merj, Jim Porter, Steven Porter, Richard Proctor, ptkypxdh, randa, RandyC, Kim Reece, Jessica Reeder, RelativisticDog2, Thomas Rickenbach, ripw, rjwarmv, rnjrchd, Michael Roberts, RobinMiller, Jim Robinson, roborali, Rona, Geoff Roynon, Paul Rutten, Rynnfox, S4CCG, Michael Salmon, salteV, Jeroen Sassen, second_try, Matt Sellick, sheba, Alice Sheppard, SianElderxyz, Nanne Sierkstra, Michael Simmons, SJPorter, skepticdetective, Stephen Sliva, Mark Smith, Sophie378, spat, Maria Steinrueck, stella13, stellar390, John H. Stewart, Doug Stork, sumoworm, superhouse, tadaemdg, Auralee Tamison, Chet Thomas, thom_2, Michael Thorpe, timchem, torres, Trixie64, Ramon van der Hilst, Marcel Veillette, Rob H.B. Velthuis, John Venables, Michael Viguet, vkhtmhfigou, Aileen Waite, David Walland, wbybjbpv, weezerd, Mark Westover, Julia Wilkinson, Nat T. Winston III, Windsmurf, wpubphx, xuhtjhc, xzxupfqjd, and Mairi Yates. We also thank the referee, who caught a mistake in calculating light-delay times and helped make the discussion more comprehensive. Jean Tate helped to untangle some issues of participant discovery order.
I'm fairly sure that to be included in this list, the zooites needed to give explicit permission to use either their real names or their handles (how well, and comprehensively, this is done for every such paper I do not know). If any of these zooites were juveniles at the time, is it OK that only they gave such permission? Should the Zooniverse, and the authors of such papers, go the extra mile to ensure that juveniles also have the permission of their parents/guardians? This may be important, legally, in some countries, but I think the more general ethical principle is more important.
Some years ago there was an excellent series of GZ blog posts under the heading "She's an Astronomer" (link). If anything similar were to be kicked off, for any Zooinverse project (or the Zooniverse in general), should the coordinator/editor include juveniles? exclude them? On the one hand, offering encouragement in such a high-profile way would surely be good, right? On the other hand, what ethical aspects should be considered? An example: here in the US there are a great many high schools where students are subjected to intense peer-pressure to not 'act white' or 'act Asian', and one such behavior is to excel academically. Suppose a student at such a high school - in South Side Chicago say, or Baltimore - were to become deeply involved in a Zooinverse project, and be considered for write-up in something like a "She's an Astronomer" blog post. The student herself may be strongly motivated to agree to being written-up, but should the editor first engage with her parents? The school's teachers and principal?
What do you think?
I agree that this thread can be difficult to follow, in part due to its huge scope. However, I think it may be quite difficult to tease out three major themes, say, and so split the discussion.
On the topic of participation by children and teens, in online CS projects such as those under the Zooinverse brand, one important aspect has not yet been mentioned (though I may well have missed it): the laws in various different countries.
There are laws seeking to regulate, restrict, guide, etc the online activities of juveniles (I'll use that to cover everyone under age 18, or whatever is the 'threshold age'), likely in nearly all the countries in which most zooites live. Are these laws consistent? Do some of them mandate parental consent? Invest ultimate responsibility for online activity in the parents/guardians? Are there laws which mandate actions which the Zooniverse, or any of its individual projects, must take (re 'signing in', participating, access to personal data, etc), beyond those which apply to everyone? Must the Zooniverse's lawyers (and those associated with each project) be sufficiently cognizant of the relevant laws in all countries (or at least those with registered users) so they may be as certain as they can reasonably be expected to be that there are no violations of any relevant laws?
Beyond laws - which cannot be broken, knowingly or not, on pain of sanctions - there are ethical concerns.
For example, in the Acknowledgement sections of 'Zooinverse papers', one can read text like this (from Keel+ 2012):
This work would not have been possible without the contributions of citizen scientists as part of the Galaxy Zoo project. We particularly thank Hannah Hutchins, Elizabeth Baeten, Massimo Mezzoprete, Elizabeth Siegel, Aida Berges, and users voyager1682002 and Caro, who each examined all of the galaxies in the targeted AGN sample, and in addition Christian Manteuffel, for assistance in compiling the list of SDSS AGN candidates. We are grateful to the following additional Galaxy Zoo participants who contributed to the targeted AGN search: Michael Aarons, Mark Ackland, AdrianusV, Aerial, alexob6, Daniela Alice, Norvan Allen, Anderstp, AndrewM, angst, Anjinsan, ARCHEV, artemiit, aryamwojn, astrobrainiac, astronomicom1, Markku Autio, Michelle Ayers, Elisabeth Baeten, R. Balick, Michael Balzer, Michael Derek Barnett, Kirsten Barr, Barbara Ann Barrett, David Bartlett, Coral Benham, Aida Berges, Mark Bernaldo, Chiheb Boussema, Gwen Brogmus, Dave Browne, brunochi, buddyjesus, David Burt, cadou, caliz83, Capella, Alice Carlsen, Caro, Jiri Cejka, Theodore J. Celaya Sr., chairstar, citisue3, Nick Clarke, Ana Claudia, cloud9, clua, David N. Cook, coral, Gemma Coughlin, Rob Cowhey, Penny Cox, Laurence Cuffe, cyprien, DancesWithWords, Darren, DarthKeribo, Lloyd Daub, daveb, dave3, david_mbe, david_nw, Michael C. Davis Jr., distel, Dobador, Shane Dobkins, drawm, Juliette Dowle, Elizabeth Duff, Graham Dungworth, dxjerlubb, dzd, Michael Easterly, echo, Alan Eggleston, Thomas Erickson, ErroneousBee, Falconet, firejuggler, frisken, Gino, glyphon, GNB080, gordhaddow, Michael Gronceski, grrower1, Michael Hand, Thomas Hardy, Hans Heilman, Steph Hill, Thomas Hobbs, Rick Holtz, Rob Hounsell, hrutter, Mikko Huovinen, IC1101, ixzrtxp, Nina Jansen, Alain Jaureguiberry, jayton, jczoehdo, jhyatt, David E. Johnson, Steve Johnson, David James Jones, John Kelly, khwdfnwit, Pat Kieran, KillerSkaarj, kiske1, knuid, kokdeblade, Anuradha Koratkar, Michi Kovacs, kzhndepnd Marc Laidlaw, laihro01, landersonzych, Lily Lau WW, lawless, Bill Lawrence, Kathleen Littlefield, Liz, Marc Lluell, Michael Lopez, lpspieler, luigimx, Lzsp, Michael MacIsaac, Christine Macmillan, Katie Malik, Steve Malone, mardo, Lelah Marie, Mark, Michael Marling, Stephanie R. Marsala, Mauro Marussi, marxpmp, Mark McCormack, Rob Mellor, Massimo Mezzoprete, mgn, Michaelr1415, MichaelRoberts, MichaelSangerTx, milkncookies, miraculix250, Elspeth Mitchell, Graham Mitchell, mlvgofjedxv, mothic, Mukund, mykyij, NGC3372, Julian Nicol, Rick Nowell, nrbeuw, Richard Oram, orion, oswego9050, pbungaro, Alice Peachey, Thomas Perraudin, Amanda Peters, Erica Pinto, plum- merj, Jim Porter, Steven Porter, Richard Proctor, ptkypxdh, randa, RandyC, Kim Reece, Jessica Reeder, RelativisticDog2, Thomas Rickenbach, ripw, rjwarmv, rnjrchd, Michael Roberts, RobinMiller, Jim Robinson, roborali, Rona, Geoff Roynon, Paul Rutten, Rynnfox, S4CCG, Michael Salmon, salteV, Jeroen Sassen, second_try, Matt Sellick, sheba, Alice Sheppard, SianElderxyz, Nanne Sierkstra, Michael Simmons, SJPorter, skepticdetective, Stephen Sliva, Mark Smith, Sophie378, spat, Maria Steinrueck, stella13, stellar390, John H. Stewart, Doug Stork, sumoworm, superhouse, tadaemdg, Auralee Tamison, Chet Thomas, thom_2, Michael Thorpe, timchem, torres, Trixie64, Ramon van der Hilst, Marcel Veillette, Rob H.B. Velthuis, John Venables, Michael Viguet, vkhtmhfigou, Aileen Waite, David Walland, wbybjbpv, weezerd, Mark Westover, Julia Wilkinson, Nat T. Winston III, Windsmurf, wpubphx, xuhtjhc, xzxupfqjd, and Mairi Yates. We also thank the referee, who caught a mistake in calculating light-delay times and helped make the discussion more comprehensive. Jean Tate helped to untangle some issues of participant discovery order.
I'm fairly sure that to be included in this list, the zooites needed to give explicit permission to use either their real names or their handles (how well, and comprehensively, this is done for every such paper I do not know). If any of these zooites were juveniles at the time, is it OK that only they gave such permission? Should the Zooniverse, and the authors of such papers, go the extra mile to ensure that juveniles also have the permission of their parents/guardians? This may be important, legally, in some countries, but I think the more general ethical principle is more important.
Some years ago there was an excellent series of GZ blog posts under the heading "She's an Astronomer" (link). If anything similar were to be kicked off, for any Zooinverse project (or the Zooniverse in general), should the coordinator/editor include juveniles? exclude them? On the one hand, offering encouragement in such a high-profile way would surely be good, right? On the other hand, what ethical aspects should be considered? An example: here in the US there are a great many high schools where students are subjected to intense peer-pressure to not 'act white' or 'act Asian', and one such behavior is to excel academically. Suppose a student at such a high school - in South Side Chicago say, or Baltimore - were to become deeply involved in a Zooinverse project, and be considered for write-up in something like a "She's an Astronomer" blog post. The student herself may be strongly motivated to agree to being written-up, but should the editor first engage with her parents? The school's teachers and principal?
What do you think?
21 Participants
111 Comments
Hello you bastards, i'm a haxor1337 aka Anonimus. Jk but for real, this website is so slow and have a lot of vulnerabilities. Doesn't matters if it's not security forum or whatever, there's a lot of personal information from Innocent people here. If a black hat hacker visits this website, he will immediately turn it into botnet and all of it's users... Who am i how do i know? I'm just a misereable teen from Macedonia (17) who spends all of his free time on Computer Science, not gaming. I also love to make people happy
Hello you bastards, i'm a haxor1337 aka Anonimus. Jk but for real, this website is so slow and have a lot of vulnerabilities. Doesn't matters if it's not security forum or whatever, there's a lot of personal information from Innocent people here. If a black hat hacker visits this website, he will immediately turn it into botnet and all of it's users... Who am i how do i know? I'm just a misereable teen from Macedonia (17) who spends all of his free time on Computer Science, not gaming. I also love to make people happy
2 Participants
2 Comments
Hello! I am JacksonDaniel. I am 13 years old. Are there any research projects that are available for teen volunteers? Thanks!
Hello! I am JacksonDaniel. I am 13 years old. Are there any research projects that are available for teen volunteers? Thanks!
2 Participants
2 Comments
Hi JacksonDaniel,
I would say that every project here on the Zooniverse is available for teen volunteers !
Just browse around and see what you like best !
Just have fun !
Hi JacksonDaniel,
I would say that every project here on the Zooniverse is available for teen volunteers !
Just browse around and see what you like best !
Just have fun !
2 Participants
2 Comments
This is a great thread!
I have a somewhat related question, or set of questions; I hope Pmason and trouille can provide at least pointer to answers.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum to the teens and young adults who are planning their academic careers/degree paths are the 'mature age' folk (yes, I am one). Many are (long) retired from their working careers; most are very enthusiastic; many have (long unused) BScs, MScs, even PhDs; and some, unfortunately, are essentially home-bound. Zooniverse projects are a real boon for them, particularly if they are in areas of fascination (yes, that's me; extragalactic astronomy!)
But when it comes to going beyond merely clicking/classifying/transcribing/etc, well, obstacles abound. What university would give even a second's thought to a mature age someone with a chronic health condition, whose BSc was awarded 40+ years' ago? How realistic is Summer Work for such a someone? Independent research? Paywalls! Even the Zooniverse created Letters ('amateur papers') has now been taken offline!
Thoughts?
This is a great thread!
I have a somewhat related question, or set of questions; I hope Pmason and trouille can provide at least pointer to answers.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum to the teens and young adults who are planning their academic careers/degree paths are the 'mature age' folk (yes, I am one). Many are (long) retired from their working careers; most are very enthusiastic; many have (long unused) BScs, MScs, even PhDs; and some, unfortunately, are essentially home-bound. Zooniverse projects are a real boon for them, particularly if they are in areas of fascination (yes, that's me; extragalactic astronomy!)
But when it comes to going beyond merely clicking/classifying/transcribing/etc, well, obstacles abound. What university would give even a second's thought to a mature age someone with a chronic health condition, whose BSc was awarded 40+ years' ago? How realistic is Summer Work for such a someone? Independent research? Paywalls! Even the Zooniverse created Letters ('amateur papers') has now been taken offline!
Thoughts?
5 Participants
14 Comments
@shanza, for high school students, you might take a look at th "Curated list of Zooniverse projects for teens and adults". It was posted a while ago, so it's possible a few of the projects are temporarily out of data, and it's likely that there are additional, newer projects that might be of interest. This link (and another list for 5-12 year olds) can be found in the oft-referenced Fulfilling Service Hour Requirements through Zooniverse post on the Zooniverse blog. Do explore the Zooniverse Projects page. Most weeks there's a new project (sometimes more than one), and very frequently projects that are "paused" (temporarily out of data) have new data added and move into "active" status.
@shanza, for high school students, you might take a look at th "Curated list of Zooniverse projects for teens and adults". It was posted a while ago, so it's possible a few of the projects are temporarily out of data, and it's likely that there are additional, newer projects that might be of interest. This link (and another list for 5-12 year olds) can be found in the oft-referenced Fulfilling Service Hour Requirements through Zooniverse post on the Zooniverse blog. Do explore the Zooniverse Projects page. Most weeks there's a new project (sometimes more than one), and very frequently projects that are "paused" (temporarily out of data) have new data added and move into "active" status.
10 Participants
16 Comments
Hi All!
I'm Julie and I'm also an educator within the Adler Zooniteam. I'm supervising our awesome teen interns this summer (See Taylor and Sara above). I can't wait to see what ZooniTeen ideas they come up with!
Hi All!
I'm Julie and I'm also an educator within the Adler Zooniteam. I'm supervising our awesome teen interns this summer (See Taylor and Sara above). I can't wait to see what ZooniTeen ideas they come up with!
137 Participants
214 Comments
I am 17 years old teen and I am really interested about this research.. How can I become a part of it
I am 17 years old teen and I am really interested about this research.. How can I become a part of it
3 Participants
8 Comments