What Have We Learned About Our Citizen Scientists?
Citizen scientist recording a measurement
It would require more time and money than we had available, but we thought it would probably work very well as a citizen science project. Citizen science is the process of involving the public in scientific research, and we believed that the people who live and work near our study lakes would be perfect partners in this process.
Several members of the LLMP team have participated in citizen science projects in the past, both as citizen scientists and by coordinating citizen science projects. We drew on these experiences, but also sought out advice from the experts at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and the Wisconsin Citizen Lake Monitoring Network. With their help, and the help of partners across eastern NC, we were able to establish the Lake Level Monitoring Project as a citizen science project.
We realize that the success of our project depends on the work of our citizen scientist volunteers, and that we need to better understand our citizen scientists if we plan to expand our study to other lakes in the United States, Europe, and Asia. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, we have found that our citizen scientists are very accurate when reporting lake levels, but we also want to be sure that we are making it convenient and easy for them to report lake level measurements. And understanding what motivates volunteers to be involved in our project will help us make sure that we are serving them better.
So we set out to learn from our volunteers to help shape the project moving forward. We have learned a lot about them, including:
- Citizen scientists participate in our program to “contribute to scientific research” and to “learn more about the lake”.
- A combination of one-time volunteers and dedicated, regular volunteers are necessary for LLMP’s success.
- It’s important that we offer a variety of methods for citizen scientists to report data.
To answer the questions we had about our citizen scientists, we surveyed people who have submitted lake level measurements and also looked for trends in the lake level data that is being submitted. We have found that at least 99 different citizen scientists have submitted a total of 1015 lake height measurements as of May 21, 2018. When asked why they chose to participate in the Lake Level Monitoring Project, the two most popular answers that citizen scientists gave were “to contribute to scientific research” and “to learn more about the lake” (Fig. 1).
Why Do Citizen Scientists Participate in LLMP?
Figure 1. When asked why they chose to participate in the Lake Level Monitoring Project, the two most popular answers that citizen scientists gave were "to contribute to scientific Research" and "to learn more about the lake".
We have found that the levels of engagement of citizen scientists varies greatly. For instance, 77.8% of citizen scientists have submitted a lake measurement for a single location, while 22.2% of citizen scientists have submitted measurements for two or more locations. We also found that a majority of citizen scientists, 56%, have only submitted a single lake height measurement (Fig. 2). At the other end of the spectrum, 15% of our citizen scientists have submitted more than 11 lake height measurements (Fig. 2). The Lake Level Monitoring Project has been successful because we engage a range of volunteers, from one-time volunteers to dedicated, regular volunteers.
How Many Measurements Does Each Citizen Scientist Report?
Figure 2. 56% of citizen scientists have only submitted a single lake level measurement, while 15% of of the citizen scientists have submitted more than 11 measurements.
We have also explored the ways in which citizen scientists prefer to report lake height measurements, and what other methods they would use if available. We found that 74% of all lake height measurements were submitted through text message (Fig. 3). However, 24% of measurements were submitted through the website or by using a paper data sheet (Fig. 3). When surveyed, 78% of our citizen scientists said that they would use a mobile app to submit measurements if one were available. So for the Lake Level Monitoring Project to be successful, it is important that we offer a variety of methods for citizen scientists to report lake level data.
How Are Citizen Scientists Reporting Data?
Figure 3. Citizen Scientists submit lake height measurements via text message 72% of the time, but the website and data sheet are methods that are used a significant amount as well.
In our first year on this project, we have learned a lot about the volunteer citizen scientists we work with. We hope to continue to understand what motivates them to be involved in the project and the levels at which they are involved. We hope to use this knowledge to recruit new volunteer citizen scientists and to be sure that this partnership is benefitting both the volunteers and the LLMP team.
LOCSS News
We share stories about the lakes in our study, our partners and volunteer citizen scientists, as well as interesting results from our research.
