Citizen Science

The 2020 Soil Your Undies challenge was a huge success, with over 200 pairs of undies being buried around Australia. In case you missed the excitement last year, the Soil Your Undies Challenge is a collaboration between Dr Oliver Knox, CottonInfo, UNE SMART Farms and UNE Discovery with the goal to increase awareness and understanding of soil health. To do this, participants of the challenge buried a pair of cotton undies for 8 weeks to see how much they broke down. Cotton is made of type of sugar called cellulose which the decomposers living in soil love to eat, so by analysing how much the undies broke down soil scientists like Oliver are able to see how healthy the soil is! Undies were excavated in December and sent back to UNE for analysis, but what exactly do we do with all these soiled undies?...

12 February, 2021

Do you want to do more for our Great Barrier Reef but need a way to contribute from home? Check out this amazing citizen science project and be involved for the chance to win a GoPro!...

18 December, 2020

If you are situated anywhere in NSW right now, or perhaps any place where Summer has arrived, you would be familiar with the magnificent chorus of cicadas that are filling the summer airwaves. Some days, I can’t stand in my backyard for too long as the sound can be quite deafening. I have found at least four species of cicadas at our place, and have been keeping my eyes peeled for more....

15 December, 2020

What a bumper cicada season we've had! The loud calls of the males fill the air with the distinctive sounds of summer. But despite their unmistakable and familiar calling, not a lot is known about the ecological preferences and requirements that cicadas need to survive....

11 December, 2020

Are you a keen orchid enthusiast or bush-walker? Then Wild Orchid Watch (WOW) is the citizen science project for you! WOW is a project designed to collect, record and share scientific information about Australian native orchids....

04 December, 2020

Do you love Galaxies that are far, far away? If your answer is a big YES, then the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research needs your help!...

27 November, 2020

Wherever you are in Australia, if you have found some poor creatures caught up, reporting the instance can be helpful in minimising the suffering of the creature, maximising the chance of a successful rescue and minimising the risk to other creatures....

20 November, 2020

Have you had a chance to slow down, sit quietly and observe the living things around you - from the weeds growing through the concrete, to the ants working busily beneath you? If so, the Urban Field Naturalist Project would love to hear about your discoveries....

13 November, 2020

Join Australia's original pollinator citizen science project from 8-15 of November and help scientists from UNE count wild pollinators in your local environment and build a database on wild pollinator activity....

06 November, 2020

The Great Inland Glossy Count is calling for citizen scientists and bird enthusiasts to become cockatoo counters! Volunteers are needed to survey glossy black cockatoo populations at three key sites around inland NSW....

30 October, 2020

You may have seen a creatively named challenge making its way through the ether lately. So, what’s it all about? The 2020 Soil Your Undies Challenge is a collaboration between Dr Oliver Knox, CottonInfo, UNE SMART Farms and UNE Discovery. The original concept of ‘Soil Your Undies’ is a fun and engaging citizen science project, conceived and established by the University of New England (UNE)’s Dr Oliver Knox and CottonInfo. It aims to increase awareness and understanding of soil health, exploring soil health concepts in a novel and fun way, and encouraging participants to share their experiences....

18 October, 2020

There’s all this talk about our Soil Your Undies Challenge being a citizen science project, but how on earth can soiling undies be contributing valuable data to research? ...

18 September, 2020

How are we going to be able to predict the effect of Climate Change on Australia? When making any reliable predictions you need as much information as possible. Here's a chance for you to be involved in making those predictions possible....

11 September, 2020

If you get excited by spotting different birds in your garden, here’s a great program to get involved in....

14 August, 2020

The Brush-turkeys: Birds in Suburbia project aims to survey the distribution and abundance of Brush-turkeys, understand how they behave in different environments, and educate the community on the natural history and biology of this unique native species....

31 July, 2020

Your observations can help in monitoring the health of trees and ecosystems. Knowing where and when trees have died can help scientists to work out causes of death, those trees which are particularly vulnerable, and ways to protect them. ...

24 July, 2020

Become a ‘Wildlife Spotter’ citizen scientist and assist researchers by looking for animals in wilderness photos taken by automated cameras around Australia. Anyone can join and you can do it all online!!...

17 July, 2020

Want to discover more about clouds and contribute valuable data to scientific research? Check this out!...

10 July, 2020

Butterflies Australia is a citizen science project that launched in October 2019 to ask people to submit photos of butterflies from all over Australia....

03 July, 2020

The Fairywren Project is looking for citizen scientist partners across Australia to help collect observations of fairywrens and their various plumages (feathers)....

26 June, 2020

Have you spotted koalas or emus in the Clarence Valley? This citizen science project is for you!...

19 June, 2020

Our friends over at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory have an awesome citizen science project you can be involved in!...

29 May, 2020

Over 46,000,000 acres burnt in the 2019-2020 bushfire season in eastern Australia, including South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Understanding how the environment recovers from this unprecedented fire season is an important scientific goal....

25 May, 2020

Want to help accelerate Alzheimer’s Research by playing an online game? Check this out!...

08 May, 2020

We’re voyaging over to our friends at the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA) to explore April as Global CitSciMonth!...

20 April, 2020

Follow along with Andréa as she undertakes the Wild Pollinator Count in her backyard, and shows just how easy it is for you to do the same!...

15 April, 2020

You can join Australia's original pollinator citizen science project between 12-19 of April to help count wild pollinators in your local environment and help build the database on wild pollinator activity....

11 April, 2020

JOIN Australia's original pollinator citizen science project between 12-19 of April to help Dr Manu Saunders from UNE count wild pollinators in your local environment and help build a database on wild pollinator activity....

06 April, 2020

Today we’re voyaging over to our friends at the University of South Australia with another very cool national citizen science project – Mozzie Monitors!...

02 April, 2020

Have you heard some interesting sounds coming from your backyard that you think might be a frog? Today we’re voyaging over to our friends at the Australian Museum with a very cool national citizen science project - FrogID. Citizen science projects are activities through which volunteers and scientists work together to answer real-world questions and gather data. Using nothing but a smartphone, you can record frog calls around you that help scientists track Cane Toads and identify where frogs are thriving and where they aren’t!...

26 March, 2020
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