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Citizen Science

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Volunteer Spotlight: Sarah Grady, Explorer of Past & Future Landscapes

Thursday, April 4th, 2019

by Sara Richmond

Sarah Grady standing by large seive

Sarah Grady and other archaeology volunteers use this large wooden sieve to sift through soil in search of artifacts. (Photo: Sara Richmond)

In 2012, Sarah Grady was waiting tables at the Old Stein Inn and deciding what to do with her new anthropology degree when a restaurant customer told her about the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s Archaeology Lab, located just a few miles from the restaurant. Soon after she became the lab’s second volunteer, working with volunteer lab director Jim Gibb to excavate plots and crunch data. Six and a half years later, Sarah is the lab’s assistant director. The year-round program has grown from just her and Jim to a group of roughly a dozen citizen scientist volunteers who gather every Wednesday to dig and learn about each other’s projects.

The Archaeology Lab is the only all-volunteer lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). Currently the lab hosts 16 ongoing projects, all of which citizen science volunteers have undertaken on their own.

“We guide them,” says Sarah, “but most of them have taken the research into their own hands and are even making appointments with other scientists to discuss.” Click to continue »

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Finding America’s Most Secretive Owls

Friday, December 21st, 2018

by Kristen Minogue

Small saw-whet owl in someone's hand, with its eyes closed

Northern saw-whet owls are the smallest owls in eastern North America. Because of their secretive natures, for a long time scientists didn’t even know they migrated. Project Owlnet is changing that. (Credit: Carl Benson)

Melissa Acuti is a chronic gambler. But the wagers she makes don’t involve casinos, poker chips, slot machines or even money. Instead, she’s willing to sacrifice hours of sleep checking nearly invisible mist nets in the forest. The prize: A tiny saw-whet owl, the smallest (and arguably cutest) owl in eastern North America.

“Everybody has that—playing the lottery, Bingo, that little, ‘I might win,'” Acuti said one frigid November evening in 2017. “This is my ‘I might win,’ when I catch an owl.”

By day, Acuti works for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. But for four to six weeks in October and November, when saw-whet owls begin their migrations, she stays up until midnight or later to band them. It’s part of a continent-wide effort called Project Owlnet, in which scientists attach tiny bracelets to the owls’ feet to track their journeys. For the last two years, Acuti has run a Project Owlnet station at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Md., and convinced dozens of citizen scientists to join her.

“Just the anticipation of what you might find is very exciting,” said Lenore Naranjo, who joined Acuti for six nights this year with her husband, Ralph. “And the camaraderie of everybody waiting and tromping out together to look and check.” Click to continue »

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Posted in Citizen Science, Ecology, Programs, SERC Sites and Scenes, Volunteers | 1 Response »

Student Spotlight: Not Your Average High School Science Experiment

Monday, October 29th, 2018

by Anika Mittu, student contributor

Girl giving two thumbs up in front of an orchid poster.

High school sophomore Nia Zagami and her classmates collected data on conserving threatened pink pink orchids, which brought her in front of an audience of scientists at the Native Orchid Conference this year. (Credit: Tony Zagami)

While preparing two students to speak at the 2018 Native Orchid Conference held at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center this summer, citizen science coordinator Alison Cawood assured them that their presentation on pine pink orchids would be low stress.

Sitting in the back of the conference room and smoothing over their dresses, the students felt otherwise.

“I feared that I would not be smart enough to share the data, and that I would mess up or look clueless,” said Nia Zagami, a sophomore at Sherwood High School and presenter at the conference. “Knowing that I was just a high schooler who was expected to speak in front of scientists and orchid enthusiasts really made me nervous.”

The nerves didn’t fade until Zagami, joined by fellow Sherwood sophomore and presentation collaborator Sudha Sudhaker, walked to the front of the conference room and adjusted her microphone multiple times. And then, the pair eased into their normal student voices to explain their own data and what citizen science means to them. An audience of blank stares began grinning.

Zagami and Sudhaker had recently finished their second semester of Honors Biology under teacher Laura Dinerman. Although Honors Biology is a common science course for underclassmen at Sherwood, Dinerman’s 60 students taking the course during spring 2018 did something decidedly less common: a professional conservation experiment. Dinerman’s class measured the growth of the pine pink orchid (Bletia purpurea). Though common in the tropics, in the continental U.S. the pine pink orchid grows only in Florida, where it’s threatened. The students grew the orchids under different soil nutrient conditions (fungi, fertilizer or unchanged soil) in their classroom, as part of a citizen science project led by the Smithsonian.

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New Invasive Bryozoan Arrives in Alaskan Waters

Thursday, September 27th, 2018

By Philip Kiefer

Alaska has a near-pristine marine ecosystem: There are fewer invasive species in its waters than almost any other state in the U.S. But that could be changing. With help from local volunteers, biologists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and Temple University have reported a new invasive species in the Ketchikan region, the invertebrate filter-feeder Bugula neritina, and documented the continuing spread of three other non-native species.

A branching animal, shaped like a bunch of pine needles.

The newly discovered invasive bryozoan, Bugula neritina. (Melissa Frey/Royal BC Museum)

Ketchikan, a town of about 8,000 people on the southern tip of Alaska, is a gateway to more remote Alaskan waters in the north. It sits fewer than 100 nautical miles from British Columbia, so invasive species travelling from southern ports are likely to appear in Ketchikan first. But detecting marine invasive species is a constant challenge, even in a single harbor. By collaborating with citizen scientists from Ketchikan, Smithsonian researchers were able to document these new invasive species hopefully as soon as they arrived.

Crab covered in orange tunicate

The invasive tunicate Botrylloides violaecus has nearly completely covered this crab’s shell. (Gary Freitag/University of Alaska Fairbanks)

“It’s really important to know when new non-native species show up. They may be tiny invertebrates, but they can create big problems,” said lead author Laura Jurgens, who was a SERC postdoc at the time of the study. “Early detection means you have a better chance of controlling them before the populations get established. In other places, like California, Oregon and Washington, these organisms have displaced local marine animals or had economic impacts by fouling boats, fishing or aquaculture gear.”

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“Orchids In Classrooms” Turns Sixth-Graders Into Citizen Scientists

Monday, July 9th, 2018

By Hannah-Marie Garcia, science writing intern

Think back to your early childhood science classes. Was there
ever a time you had to watch a plant grow? Your first natural sciences teacher may have used plant growth to explain basic concepts of plant biology. The process is a rewarding learning experience for students to observe their hard work pay off as those first few leaves sprout from the soil.

Walker Mill Middle School sixth-grade students and their orchid experiments.
(Credit: Hannah-Marie Garcia/SERC)

Now, imagine the work you did was part of a larger scientific project, with real-world applications. That is exactly what four sixth-grade classes are doing this year at Walker Mill Middle School. Located in a Capitol Heights neighborhood of the Prince George’s County school system, Walker Mill is one of seven schools in the Maryland area working with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) on a project called “Orchids in Classrooms.”

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Invader ID: Help Spot Invaders With Your Smart Phone

Wednesday, March 21st, 2018

by Kristen Minogue

Woman on docks holding plate with marine life, similar to the plates seen on Invader ID

SERC marine biologist Brianna Tracy holds a plate with marine life pulled from a dock in San Francisco. (Photo: Kristen Minogue/SERC)

Strange things grow on the bottoms of docks: brightly colored sponges, mat-like tunicates, and wispy, flower-shaped anemones. Many of these mysterious life forms are invasive species. This spring, Smithsonian marine biologists launched Invader ID, an online citizen science project calling on anyone with an Internet connection to help detect them.

The project centers on San Francisco Bay. With over 200 non-native species, it’s the most invaded estuary in North America. “The majority of the species that we identify in the San Francisco Bay are invasive,” said Brianna Tracy, a biologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Click to continue »

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Volunteer Spotlight: Steve Myers

Tuesday, October 24th, 2017
Man sitting on bench on beach

SERC volunteer Steve Myers sits at the SERC seining beach, where students from all over the Chesapeake wade into the water to search for fish. (Credit: Sara Richmond)

by Sara Richmond

After Steve Myers retired from a nearly 40-year career in information technology, he decided to try something different. Over the last two years, that “something different” has included teaching students how to use seining nets and paddle canoes, measuring trees at a stream restoration site, banding ospreys, and monitoring mangroves as a citizen science and education volunteer at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC).

With SERC’s education program, Steve leads field trips with visiting students. “One of my favorite parts of volunteering is seeing the reaction on the kids’ faces when they experience something they’ve never done before, especially kids who have grown up in the city,” he says. “Seeing them hold a fish or a crab for a first time—that’s kind of neat.” Occasionally, the students also spot water snakes passing by the seining beach. Steve says some of the kids are tentative about being in the water when snakes are around, but they quickly learn that the snakes won’t bother them. Last year, students named one of the frequently visiting snakes “Bob.” Click to continue »

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Volunteer Spotlight: Dave Norman

Tuesday, April 11th, 2017

by Sara Richmond

SERC citizen scientist Dave Norman stands beside a collection of samples from the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. (Sara Richmond)

SERC citizen scientist Dave Norman stands beside a collection of sediment samples from the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. (Sara Richmond)

Dave Norman’s first visit to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) wasn’t to help with a field trip or assist researchers in the crab lab, as he has done for the past two years. In fact, he knew very little about SERC, but was competing in a triathlon on its campus. The experience stuck with him, and when he retired a year later, he contacted SERC to ask how he could get involved as a volunteer.

The volunteer program offered a mix of science and education opportunities that turned out to be a perfect fit for Dave. He says he was part of the “Jacques Cousteau generation,” who grew up with the explorer’s books and movies, and eventually started college with plans to become a marine biologist. Those plans changed—he would practice law for 30 years before becoming a seventh-grade math teacher—but when he retired, his love of the water brought him back to the field.  Click to continue »

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Posted in Citizen Science, Education, Fisheries, SERC Sites and Scenes | 1 Response »

Time Lords and Ladies of History’s Trash

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

by Emily Li

Digging through soil plot

Citizen scientist Linda Perkins helps excavate a soil plot in front of the Contee mansion ruins. (Photo: SERC)

People don’t usually think of archaeologists as dumpster divers. Then again, sifting through trash for hidden treasures is exactly what the volunteer citizen scientists of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) Archaeology Lab do every Wednesday. But they don’t scavenge anything for themselves. (The market for millenia-old oyster shells is very unpredictable, and any food they find is always up to three centuries past its expiration date.) Instead, they take away new skills and a chance to put together a historical puzzle larger than themselves.

“We look back thousands of years,” said Jim Gibb, the lead volunteer and coordinator of the lab. “I always tell people—we’re the time lords.”  Click to continue »

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Citizen Science: How to Hunt for Crabs (And Their Parasites)

Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

by Maria Sharova
SERC citizen science program assistant

Two SERC staff on docks

Maria Sharova (right) sifts through oyster shells in search of tiny mud crabs with intern  Caroline Kanaskie. (Monaca Noble/SERC)

I started working at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) one year ago this month. It had only been two weeks since I graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. Like any recent grad, I was excited and nervous to start my first real job—and, frankly, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

During my first week of work, I was involved with the Chesapeake Bay Parasite Project (a.k.a. the Mud Crab Project), a project that looks at the impact of an invasive, parasitic barnacle called Loxothylacus panopaei (“Loxo” for short) on native white-fingered mud crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. Like most of our volunteers, I’d never heard of either of these organisms, I had no idea why the project mattered, and I’d never been involved in any kind of ecology research before. I had no idea Loxo was able hijack a mud crab’s reproductive system, forcing them to nurse parasite larvae instead of crab larvae. Nor had I ever searched through crates of oyster shells looking for mud crabs the size of a quarter or smaller, as our volunteers were about to do. But in no time at all, I’d become an experienced mud crab finder!

Maria’s Pro Tips for Citizen Scientists

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