SciStarter and Arizona State University, with support from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), are engaging the public to help speed up research on human and environmental health in April.

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizen Science Month, observed annually in April, is a celebration of all things citizen and community science and engages people from all walks of life in real research anytime, anywhere, on topics from astronomy to zoology. 

This year, libraries, museums, schools, community based organizations, media partners and many others are invited to organize and host special events and programs that help connect people to citizen and community science including any of the thousands of projects featured on SciStarter.org.

Everyone planning an event or program is encouraged to add their events to SciStarter.org/add-event to leverage the free promotional power of SciStarter and partners.

Building on a new, national program to circulate citizen science kits through libraries and ongoing programming efforts related to citizen science in libraries, participation in Citizen Science Month supports the mission of libraries to strengthen communities and transform lives through education and lifelong learning. Last year, in Citizen Science Month 2021, more than 250 virtual events took place reaching thousands of people.  Participants reported in evaluation surveys feeling more motivated to engage in citizen science and most agreed that the events helped them feel more connected to others.

"The power of citizen science is the massive impact that is made by everyday people, individually and collectively," said Darlene Cavalier, Founder of SciStarter and a Professor of Practice at SFIS at Arizona State University. "Online and virtual events during Citizen Science Month will help introduce thousands of people to citizen science and help them find ways to act upon issues they are curious or concerned about, individually or as a community."

SciStarter, NNLM, and the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program have collaborated with libraries and community-based organizations to introduce communities across the United States to All of Us and other featured citizen science efforts focused on health and environmental research, leveraging strategic partnerships with trusted community leaders like public libraries and local community-based organizations. All of Us is featured prominently in keynote events, where speakers connect citizen science projects to All of Us engagement priority areas and explain how members of the public can get involved in All of Us by signing up via https://joinallofus.org/nlm.

Getting Started with Citizen Science Month:

Find all the necessary tools and resources to participate at CitizenScienceMonth.org.

• Learn what it means to be a citizen and community scientist through the Introduction to Citizen Science tutorial available in English or Spanish at the top of theSciStarter.org/NLM page.
• Sign up to be part of theCitizen Science Network, and receive updates on the latest resources.
• Download customizable fliers, bookmarks, signage, graphics, images, social media toolkits and more at CitizenScienceMonth.org/Resources.
• Review theLibrary and Community Guide to Citizen Science for programming ideas and a planning guide, as well as learning about and usingSciStarter.org.
• Explore specially curated health related citizen science projects and webinar recordings with project scientists atSciStarter.org/NLM.
• Bring citizen science kits atSciStarter.org/library andSciStarter.org/library-resources to your community, and then provide the tools and directions to contribute to scientific research.

Be sure to add your event to SciStarter.org/add-event  to maximize the local, regional, national and global promotional power of SciStarter and partners.

About Citizen Science Month Partners

SciStarter.org is the place to find, join, and contribute to science by providing people access to more than 3,000 searchable formal and informal citizen science research projects, events, and tools. More than 125,000 global citizen scientists are registered members of the SciStarter community. The SciStarter team includes educators, faculty, librarians, programmers, instructional designers, communicators, and scientists, all focused on improving the citizen science experience for everyone.

Arizona State University School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS) is a transdisciplinary unit at the vanguard of ASU's commitment to linking innovation to public value. By examining the ways we translate imagination into innovation — and how we blend technical and social concerns along the way — SFIS aims to build a future for everyone.

The All of Us Research Program is supported and overseen by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and aims to accelerate health research and medical breakthroughs, enabling individualized prevention, treatment, and care for all of us. To do that, the program is asking one million or more people to share health information to build one of the most diverse health databases in history and help researchers learn how lifestyle, biology, and environment affect health. SciStarter and the All of Us Research Program partnered to host citizen science Summer Reading events in Summer 2020.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) support the All of Us Research Program by providing innovative and engaging activities to public libraries and community organizations. NLM and NNLM aim to improve the public's access to health information and provide awareness about the All of Us Research Program to communities that are underrepresented in biomedical research by partnering with libraries across the United States.

SOURCE SciStarter