Case Study Overview Photovoltaics convert solar energy into direct current. You can understand the photovoltaic market in the United States by estimating the installed capacity (or maximum possible amount) of photovoltaic energy. It’s also important to understand how the prices of hardware and soft costs (including installation costs) related to photovoltaics change over time. The Open […]
Case Study Overview Birds are among the world’s best ecological indicators. eBird allows volunteers anywhere in the world to submit data about the birds they see at any time and in any location. The millions of observations recorded each month, logged into a central database at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, are building a global understanding of […]
Case Study Overview The human brain has roughly 80 billion neurons connected with millions of miles of axons and dendrites. So it’s no surprise that neuroscientists are only just starting to understand how the brain is wired. Neurons are miniscule, so researchers are utilizing a new imaging technique to map their connectivity. Even so, it […]
Case Study Overview In 1997, following an evening of intense rainfall in parts of Fort Collins, Colorado, an ankle-deep creek running through Colorado State University became a raging river of mud and debris. The Spring Creek Flood left five people dead and city-wide damages of more than $200 million — all for lack of warning. […]
Case Study Overview Everyone knows that many flowers come out in spring and most leaves turn color in autumn. Even small children take delight in the seasonal cycles of plants. But the timing of seasonal cycles is changing. Scientists have observed earlier blooming and later leaf fall in many plant species due to global warming. […]
Case Study Overview Clouds are beautiful and familiar sights, but closer observation can yield many surprises due to their constantly changing forms. Clouds are of abiding interest to scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration because they are so important in shaping the Earth’s climate. Citizens have long contributed to scientific studies of clouds. Since 1994, […]
Case Study Overview The Smithsonian Institution has 138 million objects and specimens as well as 2 million library volumes. Altogether, the Smithsonian has over 157,000 cubic feet of archival material in its various collections. Less than 1 percent are on display in its 19 museums, libraries, galleries, archives and research centers. What might we learn if […]
Case Study Overview Over the past two decades, the U.S. Geological Survey has sponsored various kinds of crowdsourcing projects for collecting map data. Volunteers in the Earth Science Corps, for example, annotated paper topographic maps; in another project, participants collected data points using handheld GPS devices; and in 2006, volunteers used Web-based technology to input […]
Case Study Overview Not so long ago, the first thing that most people did after feeling an earthquake was to turn on their radio for information. That practice is changing. After the 2003 San Simeon earthquake in central California, many peopled logged on to the Internet to get information and to share their own experiences. […]
Case Study Overview For hundreds of years, amateur naturalists — the citizen scientists of their day — recorded seasonal events such as flowering in spring or bird migrations in fall. In the late 1950s, for example, volunteers across the country mailed their observations about lilacs and honeysuckles to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2007, […]