Citizen Science: Forms of Engagement

The phrase “citizen science” has been growing in popularity, showing a trend to include others outside of the scientific community in collecting data, analyzing data, and even conducting research. These types of engagements take one of three forms: • crowdsourcing – collecting anonymous observations from a broad spectrum of participants; • participant observation – recruiting and training individual observers to take repeated observations; • research engagement – inviting participants to participate in analysis of data collections, model output, and even structure the research agenda itself. The 9th Symposium on Policy and Socio-Economic Research included a selection of presentations related to these topics. This presentation will highlight these projects from the previous year and present a framework of common elements, lessons learned, and additional needs related to citizen science.