To do science on the most basic, fundamental level is to observe some phenomenon of nature, and record what you see. Keep this up for long enough and the chances are surprisingly good that you will discover something, perhaps even an original discovery. In this world of massive funding poured into gigantic research labs and university grants, that seems hopelessly optimistic, even naive. But I assure you it can happen. I’ve seen it myself.

A few years ago I proposed a program for helping kids get involved in science at this most basic level. I ran my idea past my very dear friend and science educator extraordinaire Dr. Shawn Carlson, who is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Society for Amateur Scientists, as well as a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Award. Shawn and I decided that the time was not quite right, as he was working on an outstanding science education program of his own called LabRats.

My program, the Citizen Scientist Observatory Registry, is based on introducing kids to science by encouraging them to look at some aspect of nature over time, and record what they see. Kids who join this program will become part of a list of “Observatories” who contribute their observations and data to a collective database via the Internet. So if someone is keeping a count of how many cedar waxwings they see in their yard, they can go online and see not only their observations, but those of anyone else to is keeping tabs on this species. As the database grows, we will provide tools for compiling and processing data so you can generate range maps, histograms, track data over time, etc. This is real science, information that will be used by real scientists to make real discoveries.

And yes, we will have trained professional scientists overseeing different projects that kids can work on. Eventually, member Observatories will be able to develop their own projects and invite others to join in. Members will be able to network with each other and with professionals and dedicated hobbyists and learn more about doing science. Oh, and by the way, you don’t have to be a kid to sign up. We’re happy to take adults (broadly defined) who enjoy paying attention to the world around us.
Currently we are working on a prototype of the basic web site functionalities. This will include tools for setting up and editing specific projects, adding information, and so forth. I hope that this prototype will be available for a select group of testers later this month.

If you want to learn more about the Citizen Scientist Observatory Registry, you can read a revised version of the original white paper here on the SAS web site. People interested in working as testers or who would like to donate to the program’s development can contact me directly.