Citizen science occurs when every day people participate in ongoing scientific research. There are 100s of research projects being conducted by professional scientists which have simple tasks that have been made available for us weekend scientists.
A significant portion of these projects can be done online and are often set up like a game. With 10-20 minutes of training you can be well on your way to helping astronomers classify galaxies or helping neurologists map the neurons of the brain. Other projects make use of your mobile device and ask you download an app or submit pictures accompanied with locational data whereever you happen to be. Additional projects simply ask you to be observant of your surroundings and report sightings of a rare animals, plants or fungi. For instance one asks you to report whereever you are when you see a redwood tree.
This site organizes citizen science projects by different categories to help you find the project(s) which suit your needs. Some are self explanatory like identifying the scientific discipline that interests you or a type of location that you able to work in. When filtering by location, anywhere is for projects that aren't concerned with where the project is done, while the rest do have a specific location. Outside projects take you beyond your backyard and into the community or to a specific location.
Some of the different activity types build upon one another. Some projects only ask that you report objects that you see in images, like the shape and location of a galaxy. Other projects ask citizens to just report things they see, while others ask that you collect specimens and samples, or visit their laboratory, all of these automatically will include the need to also report general observations along with items that you may collect, including locational data.
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