Collabinar: Place-Based Citizen Science in Lake Tahoe

The Center hosted another CCS Collabinar event from 9:00-11:00 AM on Wednesday, December 5th. The presentation focused on place-based citizen science in Lake Tahoe, and integrating multiple projects in a single framework.

UC Davis TERC, Desert Research Institute, and League to Save Lake Tahoe have all collaborated on a mobile app, Citizen Science Tahoe. Their goal is to encourage the communities around Lake Tahoe to engage with their surroundings and collect data on environmental conditions such as algae, water quality, and litter. The data will be used alongside real-time sensors to improve scientists’ understanding of the lake’s health.

The following people presented more information about this effort at the Collabinar:

• Heather Segale, Education and Outreach Director, UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center
• Zach Lyon, Zach Lyon Creative
• Meghan Collins, Assistant Research Scientist Environmental Science, Desert Research Institute

The first half of the event was a discussion focused on the presentation, and the second hour was dedicated to workshopping and sharing. Some topics discussed include:

• How the project can be most effective, given the variety of science activities it offers
• Feedback on the app
• Outreach to community members in Lake Tahoe
• Best practices for handling data and communicating it back to scientists

The CCS Collabinar invites our partners from across the globe to bring us their most exciting challenges and opportunities in community and citizen science. Each event supports mutual learning, and advances projects and partnerships.To stay informed about upcoming collabinars, please sign up here.