Rise of the citizen scientist: ACSA Chair featured in Sydney Morning Herald

Rise of the citizen scientist: ACSA Chair featured in Sydney Morning Herald

Communication & promotion
"With the growing need for scientific data and the barrier to entry lower than ever, researchers are increasingly turning to citizen science to help drive their projects" ACSA Chair Erin Roger featured in an excellent article by the Brisbane Times on August 19, about the rise of citizen science and the increasing movement toward using people power to drive research. The article was then picked up by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age! The message is spreading. You can read the full article here.
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How Cooloola Coastcare hatched Cooloola TurtleCare with a seed grant from the Australian Citizen Science Association

How Cooloola Coastcare hatched Cooloola TurtleCare with a seed grant from the Australian Citizen Science Association

Blogs, Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion
By Lindy Orwin, Cooloola Coastcare Worldwide, marine turtles are at risk. But on the Cooloola Coast in the Gympie region of Queensland, where several endangered, vulnerable and threatened species (including the green, loggerhead, hawksbill and flatback turtles) live, there are some extra challenges. This is an area of dynamic sand movement and many 4WD tourist vehicles use the beach daily, especially during school holidays, because the beach is a gazetted ‘road’. Young hatchlings whose nests survive the king tides and storm surge of the crazy Queensland storms, have to run the gauntlet to survive. The Cooloola Coast turtle breeding beaches urgently need monitoring and the community needs education about marine turtle behaviour if the turtles trying to nest in this area are to be successful. These beaches and those to…
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SA Science Excellence Awards – congratulations Philip!

SA Science Excellence Awards – congratulations Philip!

Communication & promotion, Meetings and Events
A huge congratulations to our former Chair, Dr. Philip Roetman, who on Friday 9 August was awarded the "Unsung Hero of Science Communication" at the South Australian Science Excellence Awards. Dr Roetman founded Discovery Circle, a major citizen science initiative based out of the University of South Australia, which delivered projects to understand certain animal species. He was one of the driving forces behind last years #CitSciOz18 Conference and continues to be an active and valuable member of our South Australian Chapter. Watch  Congratulations Philip on a well deserved award.
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Seed Grants 2019 – Call for applications!

Seed Grants 2019 – Call for applications!

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion
What’s in it for you? $1000 to seed your professional development or your project’s growth. Exposure for your project and/or organisation. Motivation to initiate something you have always wanted to do. Quick and easy application process (online application form). ACSA is excited to announce our second round of Seed Grants.  As a way of giving back and investing in our members we are offering grants of $1000 each to two ACSA members to seed their professional growth or their project’s growth. Last year, three ACSA members won ACSA Seed Grants: Jodi Salmond of Reef Check Australia – Life coaching to work more effectively with volunteers Geetha Ortac of Bellingen Riverwatch – Printing of training manuals Dr Lindy Orwin of Cooloola Turtlecare – Training of a certified carer Could you be…
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Engaging and Retaining those elusive volunteers…

Blogs, Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion, Education, Engaging citizens
By Jodi Salmond, Reef Check Australia Volunteer engagement and retention have long been an issue for the not for profit sector.  Organisations reliant on unpaid workers have substantial investments in time, training, and financial input, as well as an ongoing mentoring/upskilling programs to ensure volunteers feel both valued and supported, in addition to having the right skills to conduct the tasks required of them.  Despite this, some volunteers still cancel last minute, or cease to show up at all- leaving organisers stretched, frustrated, and unable to meet funding milestones. We all invest a lot in all our volunteers.  I believe that overall, we are great at supporting them; we train them, we guide them, we answer their questions, we thank them for, validate their efforts and make sure everyone feels…
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Queensland Citizen Science grant recipients

Queensland Citizen Science grant recipients

Communication & promotion, CS Project
The Australian Citizen Science Association congratulates the 21 recipients of the first ever Queensland Science Citizen Science Grants. The Queensland Citizen Science Grants opened to applicants earlier this year and were available to Queensland-based projects actively engaging citizen scientists and addressing one or more of the Queensland Citizen Science Strategy Goals. You can read the media release from the announcement and find out more about the Grant recipients here. We look forward to hearing how these projects progress.
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2019 Citizen Science Eureka Finalists

2019 Citizen Science Eureka Finalists

Communication & promotion, Meetings and Events
The Australian Citizen Science Association congratulations the three Finalists of the 2019 Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science. We look forward to seeing these worthy finalists on the red carpet at the Australian Museum during National Science Week for the presentation of awards at Australia’s "Science Oscars". The three finalists are: Frog ID (Australian Museum) FrogID is a national citizen science project aimed at understanding and conserving one of the most threatened groups of animals on the planet. Using a free smartphone app, participants record and submit information on calling frogs. In less than two years, FrogID has transformed the scientific community’s understanding of the distributions, breeding seasons and habitats of frogs. WATCH Virtual Reef Diver (Queensland University of Technology) By harnessing the…
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Invitation to interview re “expertise” in citizen science projects

Invitation to interview re “expertise” in citizen science projects

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion, Social research in CS
Researchers at the University of Waterloo, Canada, are looking for citizen scientists, and researchers running citizen science projects, to participate in a study concerning how “expertise” is defined and identified in citizen science projects. This research is part of a bigger project called “Networked Expertise in Multidisciplinary STEM Collaboration,” that is being conducted by Dr. Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher at the University of Waterloo. The goal of this research is to better understand the implicit and explicit assessment of expertise that researchers use in multidisciplinary STEM collaborations. Understanding these mechanisms has significance to training initiatives at local and national levels. Would you like to participate? All you need to do is join in a 30-minute interview (via Skype / FaceTime etc.) with Dr. Mehlenbacher or a member of her research team. Individuals…
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Social Media training – Facebook & Twitter

Social Media training – Facebook & Twitter

Communication & promotion
As an exclusive opportunity for ACSA members only, social media guru Michelle Neil is going to be running a series of online social media training sessions to help you get the most out of your citizen science project social media accounts. Facebook: Are you interested in making your Citizen Science Facebook page shine? Learn how to create a Facebook page, change your profile or cover photo, create a custom URL for your Facebook page, add a "Call to Action" button, use Facebook templates, hashtags, "@", schedule posts, activate analytics and more! Twitter: Want to know how to tweet about your citizen science project but don't know how? Learn how to create a Twitter account, change your profile or cover photo, use #hashtags chat to people privately, activate analytics and more. Hone…
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Mozzie Monitors and Urban Foresters with ACSA-SA

Mozzie Monitors and Urban Foresters with ACSA-SA

ACSA development, Communication & promotion
By Katie Irvine, ACSA-SA Chair The South Australian Chapter hosted a community meeting with citizen science presentations at Glenunga Hub on Thursday evening 13th June. Craig Williams from UniSA spoke about some citizen science projects that his group have started over the last year. These include Mozzie Monitors: A crowd-funded mosquito surveillance program throughout SA involving over 100 citizen scientists, and Activating Citizen Scientists: An initiative with SA Health’s Office for Ageing Well. Philip Roetman from the City of Burnside gave the first public talk about his new Urban Foresters Project. This project is enabling local residents to learn about and help monitor the urban forest, with a variety of activities to cater for different interests. [caption id="attachment_15465" align="alignleft" width="960"] Dr. Philip Roetman of the Burnside City Council talking about Urban…
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