Center for Community & Citizen Science Blog
MEET OUR 2024 CCSIC Fellows
We would like to congratulate and
welcome our 2024 Community and Citizen Science in
Conservation Fellows! Our fellows are passionate and dedicated in
community and citizen science, and we are excited to see how
their projects develop and grow. Learn more about the CCSiC
fellowship program here, and be sure to stay
updated with our fellows’ progress throughout the year.
Participatory Data Science Update
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science – these terms and technologies are proliferating wildly throughout our day-to-day lives, lately. And in many cases, these tools can harm people who are already at a disadvantage. What better time, then, for Community and Citizen Science to intervene, open up these black boxes, and put the tools in the hands of the people who would be most impacted by them?
Celebrating California’s 2024 Biodiversity Day
As part of California’s 30×30
initiative—a state-wide effort to conserve 30% of our land and
coastal waters by 2030—Biodiversity Day has become a weeklong
celebration where both professional and budding
naturalists from across the state come together to document
as much biodiversity as they can by contributing to community
science.
Shifting Tides: Piloting the MPA Watch Intercept Survey in Southern California
Here’s one inescapable reality of community and citizen science: there are many things that you simply cannot learn until you’ve been on the ground with people, doing work side by side in the field. No matter how much you plan and prepare, no matter how many logistical and technical realities you try to anticipate, things will come up once you get out in the world and start testing out your ideas. Adjustments will be needed.
Conference: North American Association for Environmental Education
November 5-9, 2024
The 2024 North American Association for Environmental Education Annual Conference and Research Symposium will be held in person in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this November 5 through 9. The Center for Community and Citizen Science will represent our research and projects at both the research symposium and regular conference.
CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: #iluvbugs! observing backyard biodiversity after dark
Providing a framework for citizen scientists to collect their own data, on their own time, through demonstration and gradual release of responsibility
Backyard biodiversity represents an opportunity for exposure to nature
Scan your eyes through your backyard
or a city garden and you’ll get a snapshot of a biological
community in time. At first glance, your eyes may alight on a
cluster of colorful flowers or a bumble bee busily moving from
bloom to bloom. With luck, you may see a bird or two snacking on
the unseen arthropods or tiny seeds ferried about by wind or
animal. Much of the biodiversity in your backyard is actively
hiding from you—or your vertebrate peers—through miraculous
camouflage.
2024 Summer Institutes
History Social Science Project
As part of our ongoing collaboration
with the Sacramento Area Science Project, this summer our Youth
Education Program Manager, Peggy Harte, helped co-facilitate two
week-long summer institutes in collaboration with the California
History Social Science Project. Both institutes focused on
intertwining the stories of people and the land, deepening our
understanding of the history of place.
Center for Community and Citizen Science 2024 Impact Report
Sharing over a decade of the Center’s innovative CCS research and programming
The Center for Community and
Citizen Science is thrilled to announce the release of our
2024 Impact Report, a comprehensive look at the strides made over
the past decade toward achieving our mission. This report is both
a reflection of our efforts and accomplishments, and a testament
to the collective power of our community, partners, and
supporters.
Collabinar: California Biodiversity Day
August 28, 2024
Engaging the Public in
Conservation Through California Biodiversity Day
August 28, 2024
1:00 – 2:00 PM PST
Watch recording
CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: Reflections on Project Phoebe
Collaborating with community scientists to understand impacts of urbanization on a songbird species
Community scientists play an
essential eole in studying urban wildlife. As our world
becomes increasingly urbanized—over half the world’s human
population currently lives in cities, with that percentage
expected to grow to 68% by 2050— cities are often home to
fewer animal species than natural areas. The species that do live
in cities face a variety of challenges that may limit their
survival and reproduction, including
Project Update: Caring for Clear Lake project closing reflections
Looking back at the last two years
With the Caring for Clear Lake
project coming to an end this July, the UC Davis team reflects on
collaborating with Tribes and the community in
co-developing environmental education materials that integrate
local participatory science projects. We share how the
community engagement process evolved
and guided the frameworks used for structuring the
materials.
Environmental Superheroes of the ELA Classroom Podcast Series
The Environmental Superheroes
of the ELA Classroom podcast collection highlights
stories of California TK-12 educators who teach reading, writing,
listening, and speaking through the lens of environmental
literacy and justice, giving a glimpse into what this type of
work might look like in TK-12 classrooms.
The Center’s Peggy Harte co-developed these podcasts and snapshots with other CAELI members, Tara Kajtaniak and Cheney Munson.
Dispatch from Heidi Ballard
Where in the world is Heidi Ballard,
you might wonder? I’ve been extra privileged to be spending my
several months of sabbatical this spring learning and sharing
about how community and citizen science is institutionalized,
designed, implemented, and evaluated all over Europe…especially
in the United Kingdom, Austria, and Denmark where I’ve been based
for a few weeks or months each.
Project Update: 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.
Feature: Essential Tips for Collaborative Grant-Writing with Community Partners
Ryan Meyer, UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science, shares advice and guidance on the particular challenges and struggles when writing grant proposals with partners outside of the university.
CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: Learning about coyotes in San Francisco from their scat
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. These conflicts have
wide-ranging financial, health, and ecosystem-level consequences,
necessitating a deeper understanding of organismal adaptation to
human resources.
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.
City Nature Challenge 2024 Recap
Another
City Nature Challenge is in the books! We love to see the
iNaturalist participation across the Sacramento Region and share
in the excitement of discovery. This year’s official results are:
7,218 observations
1,602 species
686 observers
CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: Cultivating Youth and Community Resiliency
A Community Science Approach to Land Stewardship for Wildfire Mitigation in Maui, Hawaiʻi
Project overview
In August of last year, I submitted
a proposal to the Citizen Science in Conservation Fellowship
program. This collaborative project is titled “Cultivating Youth
and Community Resiliency: A Community Science Approach to Land
Stewardship for Wildfire Mitigation in Maui, Hawaiʻi”. Through
this project, we seek to address a global environmental and
social issue -wildfire- through a place-based, culturally
responsive, and culturally sustaining, curriculum.
