16 Oct 2025
By Sadie Coffin
Four Highlights from the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series

Four Highlights from the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series

Fellowships, ,
Over my 12 month fellowship, I had the opportunity to watch all 35 hours of event recordings on the NASA Cit Sci Leaders series. For my final post as AAPS fellow, I want to share four highlights from the series that shaped how I approach my own project, to inspire you to explore the series and see what resonates most with you and your project.  Highlight 1: Equity isn’t an outcome, it’s part of project design Watch ????: Keynote, Raj Pandya Keynote: Discovery, Learning, Equity and Action: Unleashing the Power of Citizen Science Of all the great things Dr. Raj…
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16 Oct 2025
By Sadie Coffin
3 Questions that Changed How I think About Volunteers/Audience

3 Questions that Changed How I think About Volunteers/Audience

Fellowships, ,
https://youtu.be/4t_hrjinR3w In my time as the NASA Cit Sci Leaders series fellow, I’ve come across advice, lessons, and tools that have already helped improve the quality of our science and my understanding of our audience. In this video, I’m sharing a review of one of the tools I’ve found most useful as a researcher and project leader: the Anticipated Volunteers Reflection Tool.  This resource helps project leaders think intentionally about who they’re trying to engage, where to find them, what they need, and what motivates them. Understanding and connecting with your audience is about more than just sharing information, it’s…
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24 Jul 2025
By Sadie Coffin
???? Rethinking Data: Building Collaborative Relationships in Citizen Science

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

Fellowships, Uncategorized,
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:…
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03 Jul 2025
By Sarah Kirn
Sharing and Reflecting on CAPS 2025 with the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series

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

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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…
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20 May 2025
By Sarah Kirn
Resources Explained: Navigating US federal funding for participatory sciences with the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series

Resources Explained: Navigating US federal funding for participatory sciences with the NASA Cit Sci Leaders Series

Resources, ,
Note: 2025 has brought unprecedented changes to the US federal funding landscape for scientific research, including participatory sciences. While the information below was accurate at the time, funding to support the named programs is uncertain. Seeking grant funding for participatory science work presents both challenges and opportunities. Some challenges stem from misunderstanding or underestimation of how rigorous citizen science research methods can be. Opportunities arise from the fact that citizen science rarely delivers just one set of outcomes; successful projects invariably deliver positive outcomes for participants as well as scientific results. Our series has featured several talks over the years…
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24 Apr 2025
By Reanna Putnam
Lessons from Projects that have Cultivated Advanced Participation

Lessons from Projects that have Cultivated Advanced Participation

Fellowships, ,
What makes volunteers feel empowered and motivated to bring their own ideas and expertise to the table? How do project leaders support and nurture extraordinary efforts, contributions, interests, or collaborations from volunteers? One of the most exciting aspects of citizen science is how often volunteers go far beyond what’s expected of them, making unique contributions that significantly impact the project and contribute to scientific discovery in creative ways. Through the NASA Citizen Science Leaders series, I’ve been learning how project leaders intentionally create the conditions that empower these extraordinary contributions. This post shares strategies and reflections from these conversations. My…
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20 Mar 2025
By Sarah Kirn
Resources Explained: Design Thinking Tools

Resources Explained: Design Thinking Tools

Resources, , ,
Back in 2021, we produced a series of events for NASA citizen science project leaders focused on citizen science project design, and more specifically, website design. NASA, by formal policy, uses citizen science as a research method and holds citizen science projects to the same standards as any other research (SPD-33). Project teams are funded to produce scientific results, which as any seasoned participatory science professional will tell you, requires a high quality volunteer experience. The purpose of our series was to provide support to teams of scientists to help them be efficient and successful at these challenges.  In addition…
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28 Feb 2025
By Sadie Coffin
Building community in a citizen science project: fostering social interaction for meaningful engagement 

Building community in a citizen science project: fostering social interaction for meaningful engagement 

Fellowships, , ,
When we first launched Redshift Wrangler, I focused on making the science understandable and engaging, but what I hadn’t anticipated was how important social interactions would be in keeping volunteers engaged. What kept people coming back was a sense of community, and one of the most important ways I’ve learned to foster community on our project is by making communication a two-way street. I started to realize this when I saw that volunteers who posted on our Talk boards or joined our office hours were more likely to stick with the project longer. When I responded to questions quickly and…
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20 Feb 2025
By Sadie Coffin
Designing for social interaction: reflections from a citizen science project leader

Designing for social interaction: reflections from a citizen science project leader

Fellowships, , , ,
If I could go back to the beginning of Redshift Wrangler, I would tell myself to follow Jennifer Shirk’s advice from the CitSci2020: Dive Into Project Design series webinar: keep your goals front and center, and don’t assume what will or won’t be valuable to someone else. When we first launched the project, I was focused on making the light from distant galaxies easier to explore and interpret for a broad audience, and I thought our biggest challenge would be convincing anyone to look at our data. I quickly realized that interest in our science wasn’t an issue, what influenced…
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