The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology will bring the power of citizen science to the Internet at a scale never before possible, thanks to a three-year, $2.25 million grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The grant, awarded from NSF's Informal Science Education program, will allow the lab to combine its unique resources and expertise to create a state-of-the-art, web-based learning experience for bird enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds. These same users who the lab calls "citizen scientists" will be able to contribute their bird observations over the Internet on a grand scale, both for scientific use and for anyone in need of data relating to bird populations.
"This grant provides crucial support for our efforts to unlock the power of the Internet as a tool for understanding and protecting the natural world," said John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "In a few years, we expect people by the tens of thousands to be entering bird observations from all over the continent, while having an enriching educational experience at the same time."
The lab will create a new web portal that integrates a number of its pioneering citizen-science initiatives, including a new program to "inventory" birds all across North America throughout the year. Citizens will log their observations into a huge data archive, stored in state-of-the-art mass storage facilities at Rhodes Hall on campus. Researchers will be able to use this vast archive to track changes in bird numbers, movements and habitat relationships at a scale never before possible. Findings from this research will be posted quickly at the site and frequently updated. "We expect to produce a new generation of 'weather maps' that show bird numbers and movements instead of clouds," said Steve Kelling, who directs the lab's information technology program.
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology is internationally known for its success in engaging nonprofessional bird enthusiasts in the scientific process and already has begun converting these citizen-science projects to the Internet. Project FeederWatch, a popular winter-long survey of North American feeder birds, began in 1987 using paper data forms and instruction booklets. FeederWatch first leapt into cyberspace in 1997, and although it still provides paper materials, it has seen online data submission increase dramatically every year. The Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored jointly with the National Audubon Society, asks everyone across the continent to count the birds in their backyards, schoolyards, parks and other areas over a four-day weekend in late February. This online-only project has attracted over 100,000 participants since its inception in 1998. The lab's nest box-monitoring project, The Birdhouse Network, has backyard enthusiasts and bluebird-lovers contributing key information from birdhouses across the country using the web and supplies extraordinary, real-time images from inside these birdhouses through Nest Box Cam. The lab's citizen-science projects have yielded dozens of technical publications in ecology, conservation, disease dynamics, and science education.
"A major advantage of web-based data collection is that we can evaluate what's going on with bird populations at a continent-wide scale almost as soon as participants enter their observations," said Fitzpatrick. "It also allows us to quickly edit and display results, which makes it much more fun and educational for the participants."
The NSF support will allow the lab to speed up the process of bringing all of its citizen-science projects online, and to incorporate rapidly evolving web technology into projects that already use the Internet. Projects will feature user-friendly data entry pages and "smart forms" that can signal the user when a species or a number they're trying to enter may be in error.
The grant also will help the lab develop and supply web-based citizen-science online technology that can be used by partner organizations around the world for its own citizen-science projects.
"Prototypes of the flexible architecture we are developing will be intensively tested by the National Audubon Society's Important Bird Areas Program and by the Chicago Wilderness consortium," said Kelling. "We want to help all kinds of conservation organizations harness the power of their volunteers for monitoring nature, without having to do all their own web programming."
Educational aspects of the portal will include links to an online bird guide featuring illustrations and photos from the lab's vast collections, plus sound and video clips from its renowned Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds and Animal Behavior. Do-it-yourself queries will encourage participants to inspect data and view maps, charts and graphs. A library drawing upon the lab's newly revised "Home Study Course in Bird Behavior" will provide features about bird biology. Forecasts of bird migrations will be supplied using radar imagery. Conservation-related stories will emphasize those species for which participants are collecting data through the Citizen Science Online projects.
"All of the education features of the portal will make it easier for citizen scientists to become involved in real scientific research," said Rick Bonney, the lab's director of education and citizen science. "They will also provide us with important information about how people use the Internet to learn. We will be eager to take what we find out and apply it to our programs."
The NSF funding comes at a key time not only for the lab but also for the world at large. "We're at a pivotal time in human history," noted Fitzpatrick. "With the advent of the Internet, data are changing hands in a matter of microseconds. That fact, combined with surveys that show birding to be the fastest growing outdoor recreation, provides the lab with a unique opportunity. We have what bird enthusiasts need in order to learn more about their passion, and we need their observations. Thanks to this grant, we'll be able to create this amazing two-way interaction, all at the click of a mouse button."
For more information, visit the Lab of Ornithology's web site at http://birds.cornell.edu.
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