Citizen Science in the Classroom

Citizen science is a rewardingly inclusive way to provide meaningful, hands-on, minds-on research experiences for students. One such program is Globe at Night, an international campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by having people measure night-sky brightness and submit observations from a computer or smartphone. In a Sunday-afternoon workshop put on by Connie Walker (National Optical Astronomy Observatory), Doug Welch (McMaster University), and Kelly Beatty (Dexter-Southfield Schools), high-school teachers and college instructors learned about tools and techniques for getting their classes involved in Globe at Night.