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09 Sep 2025

AAPS Fall Meeting and Community Conversation

Events

Join us for a community conversation about project resilience amidst funding uncertainty. As part of the AAPS official fall meeting, this 1.5 hour online session opens with the Association’s annual report and highlights commitments to confronting challenges and fostering a bright future for this field. The headline event–a fishbowl discussion–aims to explore the hidden synergies and untapped resources that can help projects stay afloat during lean funding cycles. At AAPS, we know that we do science better together, and through this event we strive to identify ways we as a community can support one another and continue to grow as a…

08 Sep 2025

By Reanna Putnam

2025 Lunch and Learn Series

Eventsevents

Drop in this fall for “lunchtime” chats with AAPS leaders and members. This new series offers members the chance to engage directly with experts and leaders around timely topics. Designed to launch conversation and collaboration, sessions open with a brief overview from the host and speaker, and shift quickly to audience-driven discussions. Each session’s free registration also invites your questions in advance, to help prime conversations around details of interest to you. This fall’s sessions will address these questions: Can states ban use of community monitoring data? September 30th, 1pm ET With: Jay Benforado (EPA, retired and AAPS Board Chair),…

27 Aug 2025

By Reanna Putnam

New Tools Support Career Excellence in Informal Learning

ResourcesInformal Learning, professional development

We think you’ll likely agree that what we do in our field is exciting and rewarding—informal learning via participatory sciences opens up so many diverse opportunities for people to explore our world. This means it also opens up just as many diverse opportunities to support that exploration through career paths, from volunteer coordinator to university researcher. Yet this flexible and wide range of potential professions means it can sometimes be challenging to identify career goals and the right learning to help you meet those goals. Our friends at the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), alongside COSI’s Center for…

21 Aug 2025

By J_Shirk

Help safeguard Federal resources

AAPS News

Word reached AAPS recently that a wealth of insights and resources for this field–all housed at citizenscience.gov–was replaced by a single page listing volunteer opportunities at various agencies. We backed it up, but that's just step one (see more below). It is important to note that the new page links to many excellent resources, opportunities, and examples of citizen science, such as those from NASA, the Forest Service, EPA, and others. However, the overwriting of the original website (which contained a toolkit, case studies, a searchable project list, and more) reinforces concern about the future of those resources as well.…

21 Aug 2025

By Reanna Putnam

Call for Abstracts Impact Assessment and Evaluation

Journalspecial collection

CITIZEN SCIENCE: THEORY AND PRACTICE Special Collection: Impact Assessment and Evaluation CITIZEN SCIENCE: THEORY AND PRACTICE Call for Abstracts Issue editors: Stephen Parkinson1,2, Luigi Ceccaroni1, Maina Muniafu3, James Sprinks1, Uta Wehn4,5 Earthwatch Europe, Oxford, UK University of Nottingham, UK USIU-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Netherlands CWTS Leiden University, Netherlands Citizen Science: Theory and Practice is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal providing a central space for cross-disciplinary, scholarly exchanges aimed at advancing the field of citizen science by providing a venue for citizen science researchers and practitioners to share best practices in conceiving, developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining…

07 Aug 2025

By Reanna Putnam

Online Workshops

Eventsevents

We are pleased to offer a selection of workshops from CAPS 2025 in an online format this September 9-10. These engaging sessions will equip you with practical tools to enhance your projects and programs. Explore research-based best practices for collaborating with K–12 teachers, or dive into a unique model for nocturnal wildlife monitoring—all from the comfort of your own space. These online workshops, scheduled for September 9th and 10th, are open to all, with discounts available to both CAPS 2025 registrants and AAPS members. Please use the links provided via email to access applicable workshop discounts. Register Here OWK.01: Developing High-quality Teacher Support Materials for…

24 Jul 2025

By Sadie Coffin

???? Rethinking Data: Building Collaborative Relationships in Citizen Science

Fellowships, UncategorizedNASA Cit Sci Leaders Series, stories

https://youtu.be/k9FJlnxo5cQ In this video, I share three big ideas from the NASA Citizen Science Leaders Series about how thoughtful data practices can support stronger, more inclusive, and more impactful science. These takeaways emphasize that it’s not just about collecting good data, it’s about making that data usable, sharable, and meaningful beyond your immediate project. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; there are already great tools and examples out there to help project leaders set their data and participants up for success. Below are the talks and resources I referenced in the video: Keynote by Andrea Grover, ”Citizen Science Data:…

22 Jul 2025

By Reanna Putnam

2025 AAPS award for Lifetime Contributions to the Participatory Sciences

Uncategorizedawards, lifetime contributions, people

Dixon Butler with GLOBE colleagues Jen Bourgeault, Lin Chambers, Becky Boger, and Elena Sparrow at a CAPS 2025 reception. Photo courtesy of Lin Chambers. For his vision in growing and sustaining the GLOBE Program, his ongoing work to champion and support the use of science by youth and youth educators, and his role as a mentor and wise counsel for many in the emerging field of participatory sciences, AAPS is pleased to recognize Dr. Dixon Butler with the first ever AAPS award for Lifetime Contributions to the Participatory Sciences. This honor was presented as part of the 2025 Conference for…

22 Jul 2025

By Reanna Putnam

2025 AAPS Career Forum

Events, Uncategorizedearly career, professional development

Join us for an AAPS Career Forum on August 8th at 12pm ET. Our curated networking format involves pairing students and early career individuals with field leaders form a variety of sectors for one-on-one and small group conversations. Join a museum researcher, environmental justice data scientist, Master Naturalist program director, state agency leader, evaluators, and hear their advice on the skills and experience needed to build careers in the participatory sciences. Register Here for the event, and let us know in the form what kinds of careers and topics you are interested in exploring. Registering early helps us make sure that…

03 Jul 2025

By Sarah Kirn

Sharing and Reflecting on CAPS 2025 with the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series

UncategorizedNASA Cit Sci Leaders Series

On June 24, nearly forty people gathered on a video call as part of the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series to share what they learned at Conference for Advancing Participatory Sciences (CAPS) and hear about what they missed. We had a lively discussion focused on themes addressed by the conference presenters. Ideas shared covered new topics like artificial intelligence and machine learning, and new ideas about old challenges such as engaging and training volunteers. Here are some of the things that our conversation covered: Strategies for engaging new communities and participants in projects that center these new groups, and tips…