Project Noah and Citizen Science Projects

We admit it… we have an addiction. It’s called Project Noah and it’s a citizen science project that we seem to spend all our free time contributing to these days.


Citizen Science:
First – what is “citizen science”? The Encyclopedia of Life defines it as "projects in which volunteers, such as students, the general public and nature enthusiasts partner with scientists to collect information and answer real-world questions”. These projects are basically a chance for anyone who’s interested to help scientists gather data on things like bird nesting, migration, weather spotting, and a whole lot more. Check out ScienceforCitizens.net to find projects that appeal to you.

Project Noah:
Project Noah is a citizen science project dedicated to using mobile technology to document Earth’s organisms wherever and whenever they’re found. Project Noah is designed to take advantage of the plethora of smart phones out there, but you can easily participate using your computer as well.

Once you sign up, start by browsing other sightings from around the world, seeing wildflowers from Asia and monkeys from India, birds from California and butterflies from Maine. See what people are submitting, and mark some as your favorites.

Then it’s time to take things a step further and check out the listings that “Need ID”. Perhaps someone has posted a picture of a Giant Swallowtail caterpillar, but didn’t know what it was. Click the “Suggest ID” button and make your suggestion, including links to any relevant websites. The original submitter can review your suggestion and see if it makes sense to them, and others can agree with your ID or offer comments of their own. In this way, the community works together to ID sightings from across the globe. (We admit, we just love this part, helping to solve puzzles from around the world. Kristen frequently helps ID butterflies in places like Germany, while Jill found the ID for a very unusual caterpillar from South Africa the other day.)

Finally, be sure to participate in the most important way – uploading your own sightings. The Project Noah app allows you to upload pictures and descriptions right from your smartphone. You can also upload pictures from your computer. If you know what your spotting is, be sure to provide that information. If you’re not sure what you’ve seen, just mark your post “Help me ID this spotting”, and others will give you suggestions. People are always on the site viewing and responding to new postings, and you could have an answer in just a few minutes – how cool is that?

You’ll find both of us on Project Noah – Kristen is KristenGilpin and Jill is Florida33Girl. Drop by and see what we’ve been spotting and identifying, and then make some contributions of your own!