Are you curious about environmental protection and public health? Do you want to increase public awareness, support scientific studies, or gather data that can inform policymaking? In citizen science or community science projects, participants can address real world problems and be part of the scientific process. Science wants and needs citizen scientists. You might work alongside professional scientists or other experts to monitor the quality of our water, air, soil or habitat changes. The US Environmental Protection Agency has resources and templates to help citizen science groups create successful monitoring programs. Explore resources for citizen scientists on our website and make your data count.
When you volunteer to address real world environmental and public health problems by participating in the scientific process, we know you want your work to be valued. You want to be confident in your abilities and in the knowledge that your contributions can be used to improve the environment and public health.
Dr. Nora Conlon, a quality assurance chemist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, shares some key steps to improve your citizen science project’s data quality using the EPA Citizen Science Quality Assurance Handbook.
If you've never done it before, starting an environmental or public health project and developing the quality assurance project plan or project plan can feel overwhelming.
However, we know you can successfully collect good data to help address pressing environmental and public health problems. Dr. Nora Conlon, a quality assurance chemist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, discusses six key questions to consider when creating your project plan.
Uncertainty about the quality of citizen science data has been one of the key issues influencing reluctance of decision makers to use it. Developing a sound quality assurance project plan can help alleviate that uncertainty.
Dr. Nora Conlon, a quality assurance chemist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, shares how to identify the roles and responsibilities of the team members, and invest in the training of your team to make your data count.
Every piece of information you collect during your project is data. How you manage and document that data is a key step in making your data count. Dr. Nora Conlon, a quality assurance chemist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, gives tips for how to properly document your data.
