Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
Meeting with Our Partners: Human Activities Monitoring in Natural Spaces
In March of this year, Ryan and Jadda traveled to Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties to meet with community partners whose work focuses on monitoring human activities in natural spaces but in different geographical contexts.
M.V. Eitzel appointed Associate Professional Researcher at UC Davis Feminist Research Institute
We are pleased and proud to announce that Dr. Melissa (M.V.) Eitzel has been appointed as an Associate Professional Researcher at the UC Davis Feminist Research Institute. This career step is a fitting reflection of Eitzel’s high quality academic scholarship, as well as her deep commitment to collaboration. Eitzel first joined the Center for Community and Citizen Science as a postdoctoral researcher, and has since worked with us on a variety of projects, including MPA Watch data analysis, and dam removal and watershed restoration.
Modeler’s Manifesto Mapping Exercises Expanding
As the academic year races to a close at UC Davis, we pause to reflect on some significant new developments in a new thread of research at the Center: participatory data science. Responding to the increasing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning – among other data-oriented technologies – that impact people often without their knowledge, MV Eitzel and Ryan Meyer have been applying their complementary backgrounds on Science and Technology Studies and computer modeling/data science to questions of how
Feature: Essential Tips for Collaborative Grant-Writing with Community Partners
Ryan Meyer, UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science, shares on Public Scholarship and Engagement to convey his advice and guidance on the particular challenges and struggles when writing grant proposals with partners outside of the university.
Learning about coyotes in San Francisco from their scat
Read about research from Citizen Science in Conservation Fellow, Tali Caspi.
In recent decades, humans and animals have increasingly co-occurred in high densities in urban areas. Although declines in biodiversity are associated with urbanization, numerous species have adjusted to and thrive in cities. The success of urban animals is largely attributed to the expansion of their diet to include human-provided food, resulting in frequent conflicts with people.
New Report: CCS in Oregon Marine Reserves
Community and citizen science (CCS) has played a role in marine reserve monitoring throughout the State of Oregon for more than a decade.
#iluvbugs City Nature Challenge BioBlitz
Saturday, April 27, 2024
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
UCD Arboretum Wyatt Deck
Register here
Feature: Spinning Salmon in California WaterBlog
Peggy Harte, UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science, and Abigail Ward, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, team up in California WaterBlog to share about the collaboration between scientists and schools in the Spinning Salmon in the Classroom project.
Project Update: Training Presents Drafted Environmental Education to Support Clear Lake Stewardship
Inspiration and next steps
In March, the UC Davis Center for
Community and Citizen Science and Center for Regional
Change facilitated a two-day training in Lakeport
with educators and partners from across the region as
part of the Caring for
Clear Lake project. The training is a milestone for the
two-year project, approved by Blue Ribbon Committee for the
Rehabilitation of Clear Lake and funded by the California Natural
Resources Agency.
Grant from CALFIRE for participatory modeling and mapping to plan for fire resilience in Tuolumne County
April 2024 will mark the start of a four-year CALFIRE grant to the Center, on science synthesis and decision support for community fire resilience. MV Eitzel (Center Researcher) will lead the effort, with Ryan Meyer (Center Executive Director), Emily Schlickman (UC Davis Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Design), and Craig Konklin (Tuolumne County Fire Safe Council).
Welcome Postdoctoral Scholar, Caroline Spurgin!
We’re excited to welcome Caroline Spurgin to the Center. Caroline is helping with data analysis for the Our Forests project. Read more from Caroline.
Fresh Faces
Welcoming Our New Interns
As we enter winter quarter, we are delighted to welcome both familiar faces and newcomers alike to the Center for Community and Citizen Science. This season always brings a buzz of excitement and anticipation and with the arrival of our new undergraduate interns, Elly Dai and Kelsey Farhit, we’re diving headfirst into another exciting chapter of collaboration and growth!
Spring Staff Sightings
Follow the Center's trainings, webinars, and presentations
Catch us if you can! Find our faculty, staff, and students at these events this spring.
Project Update: Connecting Classroom Content in Spinning Salmon Field Trips
“Bye, Spaghetti!” waved one high
schooler as a tiny Chinkook salmon, so named Spaghetti, swam out
of a plastic cup and into the murky Sacramento River.
Across the boat ramp at Riverbend Park in Oroville, students
said their farewells to the alevin in their own cups. This
was the last chance for students to get an up close of the fish
they spent raising in their classroom over the last 6 weeks.
FREE Training: Environmental Education for Clear Lake educators
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Saturday, March 30, 2024
8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Lake County Office of Education (Kesey Room), 1152 S Main St,
Lakeport
Register here
OPTIONAL March 29, 2024 (field day)
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Rodman Preserve
FREE Workshop: Using Community Science Apps to Study and Support Nature Near You
February 24, 2024
Conservation in Your Pocket: Using
Community Science Apps to Study and Support Nature Near You
Saturday, February 24, 2024
10:00 AM – 11:45 AM
Effie Yeaw Nature Center
Register here
Learn how to use apps to support Citizen Science in Conservation Fellow, Sage Madden, and UC Davis graduate students studying a local songbird!
ECL290: A Course On Community And Citizen Science In Conservation
This 2-unit course will involve weekly discussion and exploration of community and citizen science (CCS) approaches and applications in conservation and related environmental topics. With an emphasis on practice, each session will focus on a different theme such as equity and justice, project design and implementation, participant and conservation benefits. Other topics will be identified and explored based on student interest, and students will also have an opportunity to develop ideas for CCS projects within their own research.
Collabinar: UC Berkeley Foodscape Mapping Project
March 7, 2024
Campus Foodscape Mapping as
Justice-Oriented Critical Pedagogy, Activist Research, and
Organizational Change
March 7, 2024
10:30 – 11:30 AM PST
Watch Recording
Project Update: Elementary Students Connected to Forest Managers through Data
After 4+ years of collaboration and
intensive project work, the Our Forests Project is entering a
phase of analysis, product development, and sharing with a wide
range of audiences. Our Forests is an NSF DRK-12-funded
Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science (YCCS) collaborative
project between our center and our community partner – Sierra
Streams Institute.
Farewell to Todd Harwell
Thank you and best wishes!
This fall we said goodbye to
postdoctoral scholar, Todd Harwell, as he moved into his new role
as Life Scientist at the US EPA. Todd joined our team two years
ago, jumping into our ongoing work on the role of community and
citizen science (CCS) in marine protected areas. Under Todd’s
leadership, this project has had direct impacts on California
policies that will guide monitoring of marine protected areas in
the coming decade, and generated a trove of data that is helping
us understand CCS in conservation in new ways.
