Nancy Walters shares her family’s experience with Cornell University’s Citizen Science programs in her piece
Amateur Power: Citizen Science is Made for Beginners
When you tag a monarch butterfly, you have to take it slowly, work gently. My daughter moved in slow motion, completely focused, as she attached a tiny, adhesive circle to a monarch’s thin wing. During this moment she was participating in Monarch Watch, a citizen science program that aims to increase understanding of the monarch butterfly’s migration and habitat.
Citizen science projects are an ideal way for homeschoolers to learn about and take part in real science. Through these programs, individuals or families volunteer to monitor a specific occurrence or object – typically, one observes or measures a natural phenomenon. Participation requires no formal training, so it’s a perfect way for kids to do valuable, real scientific work.
To read more of a Citizen Science is Made for Beginners subscribe to the digital edition of Home Education Magazine. (Please note May-June/12 is available in digital edition only. Print will be back with the September-October/12 issue.)
