We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

This week we are looking at the Gardenroots program!

“In partnership with community members, Gardenroots aims to: Evaluate environmental quality and the potential exposure to contaminants of concern (COC) near active or legacy resource extraction and hazardous waste sites; Successfully communicate the study results to all participating individuals and families; Disseminate the results broadly in order to appropriately influence community prevention practices and environmental decision-making.”

“So what’s the challenge?

Gardens have been shown to be vulnerable to external stressors. With pollution, drought, and climate change representing an ever-increasing problem, environmental impacts to gardens from air and water represent a widespread concern. Soils can be a repository for society’s waste; a collection point for surface runoff and airborne deposition. Community revitalization and public health efforts could be diminished if gardens are unknowingly cultivated in environmentally compromised spaces.

Living in Environmentally Compromised Spaces, the truth hurts

One in four Americans lives within three miles of a hazardous waste site,¹ of which there are roughly 355,000 in the U.S.² Furthermore, the U.S. is home to more than 450,000 brownfieldssites, or former industrial properties deemed unsuitable for active use without reclamation and cleanup efforts.⁴ As if these numbers weren’t bleak enough, the U.S. is also home to approximately 550,000 abandoned mining sites, with more than 80,000 abandoned mines⁴ in Arizona alone. U.S. mining sites are linked to the generation of 45 billion tons of waste and are often encountered in arid and semiarid regions, such as Arizona. The dry and arid conditions of the Southwest drive dust emissions and can result in the long-range transport of metal-contaminated aerosols unearthed by historical mining operations, such as arsenic, cadmium, and lead.^{5, 6}

Let us put two and two together

When the U.S. has community gardens plus hazardous waste and legacy mining sites, what do we get? A potential comingling of the two where some communities may be gardening in brownfield sites and near environmentally comprised areas.^8,9,10 Hence, efforts are needed to investigate and evaluate the potential risks associated with growing food within the impact zone of resource extraction sites, as well as to balance the health benefits associated with eating affordable, available, locally grown food.

Citizen Science and Community Engaged Research

These types of environmental health issues are intricate and require capacity building, culturally sensitive strategies, and a trained population of scientists working at the local level. Representation is required for underserved communities if the decision-making process and lasting solutions are to be adequately shaped and developed. This type of local representation can be accomplished through a citizen science approach to research. Citizen Science is also recognized as an active conduit to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education (STEM) and is spurring the next generation of STEM leaders. President Obama’s call to action to create a “Nation of Makers” reflects these observations. In June 2015, the White House celebrated a “Week of Making” recognizing individuals who are using new tools and techniques to launch businesses, learning vital skills in STEM, and leading grassroots Do-It-Yourself initiatives.”

What can you do to bring this project into your library?

• Bring out a display of books on plants, vegetables, flowers – anything that grows in a garden
• Let students draw or paint some plants and flowers
• Plan out a garden for the library or for your own backyard. Do you have flowers, vegetables, herbs? What plants will go well together? Annuals or perennials?
• Look the EPA website to find out about hazardous waste sites in your area. What kinds of chemicals are in the ground near your library?
• Pull up a map of your state, or the area where you live. Where are the mines located? What types of mines are in your state? Are there mines that are operating as mines? Any operating as tourist attractions?
• Bring in some containers and dirt and seeds. Let students plant some seeds to make their own indoor container gardens.
• Get some soil testing kits, and test the soil near the library. Would it be safe to plant and eat vegetables from that soil?

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

This week we are looking at landslides. It is a project from NASA! “Landslides affect nearly all countries, but we still don’t have a clear worldwide picture on where and when landslides occur. Citizen scientists like you can help NASA scientists to build the largest open global landslide catalog, the Cooperative Open Online Landslide Repository (COOLR), using our web application Landslide Reporter.

Our goal is to open access to and quantity of landslide data on a global scale to save lives and property. Your reports are key towards guiding awareness of landslide hazards for improving scientific modeling and emergency response.”

From NASA’s website:

“Collect Landslides and Advance NASA Science

Landslides cause billions of dollars in infrastructural damage and thousands of deaths every year worldwide. Data on past landslide events guides future disaster prevention, but to date we do not have a global picture of exactly when and where landslides occur. NASA is building the biggest open global landslide inventory to address this problem, and the only way we can do this is with the help of citizen scientists like you!

The Cooperative Open Online Landslide Repository, or COOLR, is an open platform where scientists and citizen scientists can share landslide reports. See all landslide data from COOLR with other scientific data using the Landslide Viewer application. Want to contribute? Add to COOLR using our citizen science application, Landslide Reporter.

With more hands and your help, we can complete the global picture of landslides to prepare for and protect against future disasters.”

“Why are citizen scientists needed?

Our team at NASA has been collecting landslides around the world since 2007 in the Global Landslide Catalog (GLC). The GLC provides new insight into landslide hazards around the world, but it has been a manual and very time consuming process that is hard to maintain. In fact, if we sum up all the hours it has taken over the past 10 years to compile this inventory it would total over 140 days, 84 work weeks, or 1.6 years of straight landslide cataloging! The inventory is also challenged by biases affecting where and when landslide information is available (for more details please see the Publications).

We are appealing to the global citizen science community to help advance our knowledge of where and when landslides are happening around the world by adding reports to fill in the gaps in our data, creating the Cooperative Open Online Landslide Repository (COOLR). Citizen scientists are people like you who can use their knowledge to advance scientific research and grow our collective understanding of this pervasive hazard. Citizen science can help:

1. Find information from many different sources, and with as little bias as possible, including local first-hand accounts, reports in other languages, and points from other inventories for a robust landslide repository
2. Collect recent landslides and keep the repository up-to-date
3. Create more awareness and education about landslides as a natural process and natural/man-made hazard

With the help of citizen scientists like you, we can improve both the quantity and quality of open landslide data to provide a clearer picture of how landslides are shaping our world.”

This would be interesting to bring into your library, and share with your school. Working on a project with NASA could help to spur the interest of kids in all sorts of STEM work!

What could you do to build interest from your library? We have a few ideas to help you get started:

• Set up a display of natural science books, or other books with geology, rocks, mountains, or similar topics
• Have students look up the risk factors for landslides. If one happens near you, what should you do? Spend some time talking about safety and first aid skills.
• Are there landslides in your area? Where are the closest landslides to you? Give students the materials to make maps of landslides.
• What kinds of materials are often found in landslides? Bring some materials on geology, so people can work on identifying different kinds of rocks and other materials.
• Use cameras to take pictures of different rocks, or other things in nature (plants, insects, etc.), or use colored pencils or other materials to draw rocks and other natural materials students can find outside.
• Look at the online maps created in this project. What other online maps can you find, with different kinds of information? How can you evaluate whether or not an online map is providing the best information on a subject?

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

Check out this cool project with Crayfish – just the thing for a state as filled with water as ours! Share with your patrons, and try it out for yourself.

We have a few ideas you can use to connect this STEM project to the library, and programs you can use to build some STEM fun for patrons!

• Set up a display of different kinds of water resources, and animals living in water. Think about setting up a salt water section and a fresh water section.
• Help students think about taking the best pictures of small animals. Work on thinking about framing images, getting clear shots, taking pictures underwater, and other issues.
• Look up the differences in different types and sizes of crustaceans. What makes different creatures adapted to different types of water?
• Find some crustacean recipes and maybe videos of different cooking styles.
• Have students write a paper about invasive species. What invasive species are found in your area?
• Draw pictures of crayfish after looking at them online or in books.
• Write a story about finding a crayfish in a lake. What happens next?

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just cool, not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some cool science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

This week we admire the MPCA Citizen Water Monitoring Program. (Just the right project for a state with as many lakes as ours!)

Check out the material from the SciStarter website:

Whether this program is one you do in your library, or just use it as a starting point for doing some other programs, it could be a lot of fun!

Looking for some ideas to try in your library? Here are a few places to start:

• Make a map of the lakes, ponds, and other water sources near you
• Collect photos of local water sources, either taking pictures or finding them online to share
• Contact the local water agencies to find out about water safety in your community
• Collect test kits, and do some testing of the water found outside the library – either in puddles, collected water basins, or in nearby ponds, rivers, or lakes. What kinds of information could you find?
• Set up a display of books and materials on boats, ships, and other water-floating devices
• Make models of boats – any kind of boats. If you have access to water, maybe a contest to see which can float the longest or travel the farthest.
• Write a story about a boat, and the adventures it has. Is it on water? In space? Solving mysteries? Searching for lost treasure?