HR: 0800h
AN: ED11C-0629    [Abstracts]
TI: Project BudBurst: Citizen Science for All Seasons
AU: * Henderson, S
EM: sandrah@ucar.edu
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307, United States
AU: Brewer, C
EM: brewerc@mso.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, College of Arts and Sciences, LA 136, Missoula, MT 59812, United States
AU: Havens, K
EM: kayhavens@chicagobotanic.org
AF: Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, IL 60022, United States
AU: Meymaris, K
EM: kirstenm@ucar.edu
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307, United States
AB: Project BudBurst is a national citizen science initiative designed to engage the public in observations of phenological (plant life cycle) events that raise awareness of climate change, and create a cadre of informed citizen scientists. Citizen science programs such as Project BudBurst provide the opportunity for students and interested laypersons to actively participate in scientific research. Such programs are important not only from an educational perspective, but because they also enable scientists to broaden the geographic and temporal scale of their observations. Project BudBurst launched a pilot program in the Spring of 2007. The goals of Project BudBurst were to 1) increase awareness of phenology as an area of scientific study; 2) Increase awareness of the impacts of changing climates on plants; and 3) increase science literacy by engaging participants in the scientific process. From April through mid-June 2007, this on-line educational and data-entry program, engaged participants of all ages and walks of life in recording the timing of the leafing and flowering of ~60 easily identifiable, broadly distributed wild and cultivated species found across the continent. We will report on the results of the pilot project and discuss plans to expand Project BudBurst as it becomes a year round event beginning in 2008. A broad consortium of collaborators, representing the Chicago Botanic Garden, Plant Conservation Alliance, ESRI, the USA-National Phenology Network, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, University of Arizona, University of Montana, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, came together to design and implement Project BudBurst with seed funding from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the National Phenology Network (through a RCN grant from the NSF), and the Plant Conservation Alliance.
DE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315)
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 1851 Plant ecology (0476)
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting